first part of my order at kozmik artifactz mailorder. it is arguably the best stoner/doom/psych mailorder in germany and their supply is always perfectly up-to-date and exclusive in many cases. no difference this time. i start with the band mother crone from the united states and their debut "awakening". i stumbled upon this band via another fellow vinyl collector and his blog. the blog is called vinyl diaries and here i heard the first time of dhu records from the netherlands. it's a small d.i.y. label specialised on stoner, doom and sludge metal stuff. i searched thorugh their selection and came across mother crone.
i found the artwork cool and just because of that i listened to some songs of their album via their bandcamp. i liked what i heard and as i wanted to avoid the higher shipping from the netherlands, i ordered at kozmik artifactz instead. therfore i couldn't get my greedy hands on the most limited version but i think this "revelation edition" looks nice anyway. what does "awakening" sound like? it's a mixture of doom and stoner metal, mostly played in midtempo. a crusher. here and there the three guys venture into some progressive areas which really helps to add some freshness. a rock solid debut here.
the dark hedonistic union (dhu records) really put some effort into the presentation of "awakening". sturdy gatefold sleeve with thick spine. black poly-lined dust sleeve and really nice bone white with sea blue and oxblood splatter vinyl out of 100 copies. although the splatter was a bit more prominent in the mock-ups. anyway, all three colour-ways (including the more limited "black sea" edition) are still available at the label's bigcartel store. will keep my eyes peeled in the future for both, dhu and mother crone. dhu records. 2017.
