heaven shall burn - in battle...

finally the first ever vinyl pressing of heaven shall burn's self-released debut e.p. from 1998. they did a couple of marble pressings and this one was exclusive to emp mailorder and limited to 300 copies. classic!

heaven shall burn - veto

when "veto" was released in 2013, i had pretty much lost interest in heaven shall burn. but when i grabbed a copy of "invictus", i couldn't say no though. turned out to be a pretty solid record and i am happy to have it on such a nice colour-way. nesi media. 2013/2018.

heaven shall burn - invictus

had this one on cd for the longest time and just found out that nesi media from hong kong did a re-issue of that album already two years ago. finally added this piece of heaven shall burn history to the flock. 2010/2018.

heaven shall burn - deaf to our prayers

"antigone" was my first hsb record and really blew me away. i still love every tune of it, start to finish. through that album i also got into their pre-2004 stuff and (especially "whatever it may take") loved those too. so one can imagine how pumped i was when "deaf to our prayers" dropped in 2006.

the album wasn't such a banger like "antigone" to me. it felt like it fell a bit flat here and there. some amazing songs but some fillers also. i have to say it aged pretty well and i like it now better than then. therefore i am really happy to have this sick nesi media black splatter platter out of 300 copies. 2006/2018.

by the way, still have my original cd i bought upon release. comes with carborad slip case and additional dvd with a live set from the hell on earth tour 2005.

indie merch store: xforce of changex, whitechapel, hsb

xforce of changex - the bond we share 7"

this is the 7" that preceded their debut album on indecision records called "the fire still burns". the music on this could also be featured on the full length when it comes to quality (actually two of them are). i was out for this quite some time but my first attempt to buy it failed due to a last damaged copy in store :( 

i found it at indie merch by chance and was relieved :)

clear green vinyl. 200 made. 6131 records.

whitechapel - a new era of corruption
after the "somatic defilement" record from 2007 my favourite release of them. insane drum play! i love listening to it and guessing how the hell the drummer just made this combination happen without knotting his limbs. for an amateur like me always stunning! with this record they put a lot more atmosphere in their song structures. great modern death metal with guest appearances by vincent bennett of the acacia strain and deftones' chino moreno (how come?). i've just got their latest self titled effort at home but more of this in the near future.

didn't find any pressing numbers. but it comes in a nice gatefold sleeve. black vinyl. metal blade records.

heaven shall burn - whatever it may take
at the moment it's pretty hard to get even a glimpse of this record's original colour pressing. i check the bay regularly, searched the web extensively for some forgotten shop still having it in stock, looked out for it on discogs (it's there, oh yes but for 50 bucks plus shipping) and on some trade boards like dead format... nothing. at least not for a price i'm willed to pay (as yet). so as i took a look around at indie you may understand my excitement spotting it among their offerings. i clicked it for detailed information and it wasn't sold out yet (i fear hsb isn't such a big thing in the states :). i began to get sweaty hands as i recognized the price. lousy ten dollars. but then a little disappointment crept in. it was the black vinyl version.
but i took it anyway because it's the damn original pressing from 2002, hell yeah!

as the records finally arrived the shape of the sleeve was rather used. storage wear because it wasn't kept in a plastic sleeve which is quite stupid because to be avoided easily. but anyway the original sound is like an ode to my ears. much better than the polished sound on the re-press.
but i still want the coloured edition so i just wait until it shows up on ebay or i reconsider the discogs price. we'll see...

black vinyl + printed dust sleeve. 700 made. lifeforce records.

ebay: heaven shall burn

heaven shall burn - whatever it may take re-issue
whatever it may take was the second album i bought of this german five piece, which is to date one of my favourite bands. the music itself is awesome although the sound is a bit bumpy. but this is due to the time (2002) and the comparatively little money they had. and classics are recognized by the quality of music but not sound. the original vinyl pressing seems just impossible to get and if so just for a huge amount of cash :) so i thought to get the re-release which came out in 2007. as i'm five years late on this i imagined it to be a similar pricy quest. it was sold out at all e-shop's i know so i waited for it to show up at ebay. it did eventually and as figured before it got a bit pricy... but let's not talk about that... the record was polished up a bit sound wise and got a new artwork, which is quite compatible because the record was made in memory of sophie scholl. she was a resistance fighter in the times of third reich, got executed in 1943 and belonged to a resistance group called the "white rose".
they made a few changes with the original track list which are not very favourable in my eyes because it affects the original dynamic of the whole thing. but it's very nice to listen to the songs on vinyl.

(the original artwork)

on the flip side of the cover sleeve the pressing info is noted.

as you can see i have clear red copy. there are different possibilities of explanation. either it's a writing mistake and one of the colours mentioned do not exist, 100 clear means 100 clear red, or i have a super-duper limited colour, which i doubt, frankly :)
marbled clear red vinyl. lifeforce records.

hellion record store: heaven shall burn

in this small but fine metal record store, near the infamous wacken open air area, i found this beauty :)

heaven shall burn - antigone
another mile stone in my personal musical development. just like "cataract - with triumph comes loss" it's one of the first records that really got me into hardcore and opened doors to other bands. it's really an outstanding album to me, songs like "voice for the voiceless" opened my eyes to industrial animal breeding and hsb made me aware of an straight edge life style. so as i saw this record for a nice price it was already mine :)
printed dust sleeve + solid gold vinyl. century media records.