inferi - of sunless realms

another brilliant e.p. released by the artisan era. this time from blackened tech death stalwarts inferi. i'm happy i got this copy right from the states because the first press copies sold out in no time. this is the "plague" variant limited to 100 copies and released in 2020.

inferi - the path of apotheosis

the last of three inferi vinyl releases which was definitely the most elusive but not the most expensive. it was one of the artisan era records vinyl releases that were unavailable here in good ol' europe due to scarce distribution. i still struggle to get copies of the spawn of possession re-issues which artisan produced. just like the zenith passage record, i bought this in a lot from the same seller from latvia.

the records arrived here in fantastic condition. love these mailers with corner protection. musically this is another slab of fast, technical and melodic death metal that ticks all the right boxes with me. of course, there is a strong black dahlia murder resemblence, but i don't care if it is executed that damn well. re-mastered version sounds really good and the über lovely colour pattern makes this release a scorcher. hope i can catch them live in december. 125 copies made on "tyrant" vinyl. the artisan era. 2018.

inferi - the end of an era | rebirth

next post, next artisan era record. well, this is the last one for now. yet another record from the label that was difficult to get my greedy hands on. a shame that the artisan era has such a poor distribution over here. anyway, i spotted this record for a considerable price tag on amazon but after a careful consideration, i came to the conclusion that i would not get this easier and/or cheaper elsewhere. after only two days of waiting, the record showed up.

when i opened the box i was quite disappointed to find the record with a corner bump on the gatefold sleeve. usually amazon packs their vinyl in a special vinyl mailer and put this into a bigger box. in this case someone forgot to use the vinyl mailer first and put the record without any further protection in the box. the record didn't survive the delivery unharmed because of the loose situation inside the box. after some e-mailing i got twenty five percent off the price because amazon couldn't send a replacement. that is alright because the ding isn't too big and now the price feels reasonable.

musically this is the shit, right here! this is actually inferi's second album and was released in 2009. because of its ten year anniversary the band decided to record the whole material anew with a few improvements here and there. that new recording is awesome all around, again not one stinker on the record. technical, symphonic and melodic death metal in its most complete form. the artwork got revised as well, looks very martial but cool in a way. the vinyl colour is super sharp. purple and light blue merge with white and blue splatter limited to 100 copies. the artisan era released this in a gatefold sleeve and with an etching on the d-side. 2019.

inferi - revenant

it was at some point in 2017 when i was fully immersed in the realms of technical death metal. i bought stuff from fallujah, rings of saturn or decrepit birth like crazy and as of late i feel a bit set back into that time. all i am interested in lately is tech death. it started with the re-press of decrepit birth's opus "polarity" and the good shit keeps rolling in. a label that helped starting that new kick is the artisan era.

i got to know them via inanimate existence. this fine technical death metal band released their fourth record "underneath a melting sky" on this label and because i really liked the packaging, i checked what else they had to offer. there was a lot of very intriguing releases in their back catalogue, especially one band and its imagery was fascinating. inferi is the band's name and i needed a few listens before it clicked, but now the fire is raging.

it was difficult to get my hands on some vinyl but a commercial seller which i know from ebay seems to be more present on the amazon market place these days. they had vinyl in stock but without any info on the colour-way. fortunately the artisan era didn't press any black vinyl and so i ended up with some lovely clear blue with light blue splatter. musically this is the perfect mixture of the black dahlia murder madness with orchestration and a black metal edge to it. a-w-e-s-o-m-e! 250 copies pressed. the artisan era. 2018.