irist - order of the mind

when this was on pre-order at nuclear blast, i was toying with the idea of getting it. the description said something like mastodon and gojira and as i love both bands, i thought it would prove worthwhile to check irist out. didn't come around to it for the longest time but when i finally listened to "severed", i knew i had to get this.

i think the comparisons made are quite accurate and sometimes they are even lacking a bit of a sound that is their own but the record is just so good. somewhere between death metal, proggy parts and a feeling for melody, "order of the mind" is a cracker all throughout its duration. lovely black/orange merge vinyl out of 1.500 copies. nuclear blast. 2020.

decapitated - anticult

i discovered decapitated last year when back on black re-issued "carnival is forever" and "blood mantra". so i was pretty late to the party (like so many times before). thankfully it is not much of a problem to get the band's nuclear blast titles on vinyl, only problem was that i wanted an u.s. pressing of "anticult".

this bone with blood red splatter looked just too good to deny. i found an ebay seller from canada, who sold it for a good price. "anticult" is a great record, their style of progressive death metal really appeals to me. btw, decapitated were the last band i saw live before the lockdown. miss those times. nuclear blast. 2017.

queens of the stone age - songs for the deaf

an outstanding record! i love that album all the way through and it's the only queens album i enjoy front to back. it has a certain aura to it, not only the songs itself but also the spoken parts/radio vj's are part of the perfection.

i had a bootleg pressing for years which i bought at wacken open air. the quality wasn't that good and it contained the spanish version of "gonna leave you" but not the original. so i am really happy with this new official edition. interscope records. 2019.

nightmarer - chasm

this was my first encounter with the post-war from a harlots mouth band of their former guitarist simon hawemann and former drummer paul seidel. that wasn't too long ago. when i participated in a vinyl challenge on instagram hosted by simon last december, i stumbled upon someone posting it.

somehow their stuff eluded me completely even though their first full length was released by season of mist records which has a wide distro over here. anyway, those two songs are wild dissonant trip which pick up right where wfahm left off. i think this 10" is a re-press and limited to 350 copies. moment of collapse records. 2016.

une misère - sermon

a hardcore band from iceland. indeed, reading the band name that was my first guess as well. anyway, i never heard anything from a band from iceland so i was really excited what the record would sound like as a whole. i came to the conclusion that people from iceland know how to play modern hardcore, too.

une misère dark tinged brand of groovy hardcore is right up my alley and reminds me heaps of grieved (anyone remenbers them?). must be the scandinavian connection. the presentation is lovely. nice gatefold sleeve and even nicer black and bone merge vinyl configuration limited to 500 copies. nuclear blast. 2019.