when the pre-orders for the new pressing of the obituary self-titled record went live, relapse also offered another bit of obituary vinyl. in 2016 the band released an e.p. with two new songs and a selection of live songs played throughout a north american tour. back then it was pressed to cd and to black vinyl only. now the label decided to give the release the colour vinyl treatment. usually i don't care for such e.p.'s but i got caught up in the excitement and ordered a copy of the most limited colour-way.
a few things went wrong from there on. first one wasn't my fault. after a few weeks i got an e-mail from relapse telling me that they had european warehouse problems and couldn't deliver me the most limited edition anymore. great! what's the use of being quick to the pre-order when the label fucks up your order? they offered me a copy of the lesser limited version and of course i said "yes". the release date came and no shipping notification. i waited a week or so and still no info. i fired off a mail and they answered with a new shipping date, which faced another uninformed delay. man, i don't have a problem with waiting, just keep me informed. that is all i ask for.
the last thing that went wrong was well my fault. i did not know that the two studio songs were not part of the vinyl edition but the live songs only. oh boy, after all this hassle with the colour-way fuck up and the shipping delay, i didn't even get the two studio songs i was actually interested in (ok, the title track is also on the self-titled record). i don't think i will play the record much and will most likely end up selling it at some point. all in all a dissatisfying order with relapse. not the first one. i will stick to my strategy of avoiding to order directly from them where possible. relapse records. 2016/2018.
