oh yes, another long-time want of mine finally in my hands. despised icon were one of the first technical more demanding metal bands i listened to, or better their crowning work "the ills of modern man" was the first more complex record i really enjoyed. i am very happy that i was able to snag a first press colour copy of said album and still regard it as their best. "the healing process" was album number two of them in my collection. back then it didn't really click with me, the overall feeling was more raw and not as sophisticated as its successor. when i started collecting vinyl i wanted a colour copy badly, anyway.
it started with the lemmy's post of his copy on the now defunct the emerging addiction blog. it was just a line of text and one photo but it set my hunger for this platter ablaze. so it took me at least five years to cross it off the list eventually. i got a mail from discogs with a seller from china with a reasonable priced copy. after two weeks of waiting i got my copy in a cardboard mailer that was wrapped in a big bubble envelope. oh man, i once got a record packed in the same manner and i feared the worst. i believe those envelopes suggest a rather flexible content and thus are not handled with as much care.
i opened it and was relieved to see it was not broken (record was outside of sleeve as requested) but the cover sleeve was heavily bent. i tried my best to fix it but one can clearly see the damage in the lower left corner of the sleeve. ah man, that sucks but i don't think i'll chase another copy for replacement. fortunately the vinyl plays great and the album aged quite good. it is still a raw heavy fucking piece of tech death and hardcore and a real good one. check it out here. 100 copies made on clear orange vinyl. liscensed by century media. goodfellow records. 2005.
