conan - violence dimension

the new conan crushes as usual. i have yet to decide where i rank this one in the now quite vast discography of the band, but it's a banger for sure. 150 copies made of this tri-colour merge vinyl. heavy psych sounds. 2025.

cradle of filth - the screaming of the valkyries

rock solid offering by uk's finest. not every song here is pure gold but epics like 'malignant perfection' or 'to live deliciously' really stand out. enjoy this one a lot. lovely presentation, too. 500 copies pressed. napalm records. 2025.

obscura - a sonication

it's may and this new obscura is just the 2nd 2025 album i bought so far. but quantity doesn't necessarily refer to quality and in that case, there is loads of quality. on 'a sonication' band leader steffen kummerer has yet again changed the complete personnel, surely not to the album's disadvantage. fantastic piece that easily stands in line with the rest of obscura's discography. gold vinyl out of 1.000 copies. nuclear blast. 2025.

kataklysm - in the arms of devastation

how i love re-issues of long out-of-press records i am still missing in the collection. strong mid-phase kataklysm stuff on display here. nuclear blast. 2006/2024.

xedenisgonex - pain

these somewhat mysterious band (never saw them touring let alone any pictures on the net) comes around the corner yet with another masterpiece of 'blackened metalcore'. although the production is a bit too lo-fi for my liking, musically this is outstanding. go check them! great vinyl edition by bound by modern age records. 2025.

blotted science - the machinations of dementia

re-issue of this mathy, proggy, jazzy instrumental metal masterpiece from 2007. an, to me, unknown spanish label called alone records is responsible for the deed and they did a splendid job here. 2024

upon a burning body - the world is ours

a release i bought solely out of nostalgia reasons. uabb probably wouldn't appeal to me nowadays but back in 2010 i got the cd because sumerian couldn't do no wrong at the time and i loved the al pacino theme to the lyrics. a fun deathcore album and great for what it is. 350 copies made of this crazy colour-way. sumerian records. 2010/2023.

darkest hour - s/t

around since the mid nineties and still here. there are not many bands as consistent as darkest hour. this is the latest re-issue of their 2014 self-titled release. fantastic metalcore with that special swedish melo-death touch. sumerian records. 2014/2023.

foundation - turncoat

missed out on the initial pressing back in 2016 and now the re-issue gods finally heard my prayers. evil greed mailorder came to my rescue with this slick green/violet merge with silver splatter variant out of 500 copies. closed casket activities. 2025.

undertow - at both ends

hardcore classic from 1993 in this beautiful re-issue edition by indecision records. 'seattle' splatter out of 500 copies. 2024.

misery signals - of malice and the magnum heart

finally an available vinyl pressing for this genre classic. no fancy vinyl colours for us european customers but anyway, i love the overall simple presentation. i had to cash out a considerable chunk of money but i had to have it. jpc.de came to my rescue. originally released in 2004 via ferret records. re-issue by real gone music. 2024.

knocked loose - pop culture

Looked through my posts and recognised that i never did an according post for this e.p., so here it is. released in 2014, this is a 2018 re-press out of 2.000 copies. pure noise records.

biohazard - mata leão (black friday rsd)

this was my only wish for last year's bf rsd and ironically again i bought it online at coretex. it had a huge price tag on it but i just couldn't pass on this gem in biohazard's discography. their 2nd and last major label release is one beast of an up-tempo hc album. superb. first out on warner music in 1996, re-released by real gone music. 2024.

meshuggah - chaosphere

i really do love those original artwork re-issues for meshuggah albums that atomic fire records does recently. of course i had to get 'chaosphere' on this neat marble edition.

2024 wrap up

2024 saw only 50 posts on this blog. By far the fewest in a year since I started in 2012. The reason for this was not my laziness, there simply wasn't more to write about. Prices for new vinyl are on an all-time high and thus pressing quantities decline. This won't change anytime soon, so we'll see how many posts I conjure up this year. So, feel free to drop by in 2025.