artificial brain - labyrinth constellation

looooong awaited re-issue of this progressive technical death metal masterpiece. profound lore. 2014/2024.

nocturnus a.d. - unicursal

this band is still going strong after all those years. 'cosmic bleed' edition out of 250 copies. profound lore. 2024.

mortiferum - preserved in torment

after i couldn't get my hands on a vinyl copy upon release and then went for a tape copy, i can finally cross that one off the list. discogs came to my rescue with this lovely piece of plastic. profound lore. 2021.

artificial brain - s/t

another masterpiece in a line full of masterpieces. this band is special, an oddity and without a doubt the underground's best kept secret. don't know if they will ever step outside of their very own proggy death metal niche but maybe they shouldn't... blue colour mix with green splatter vinyl. profound lore records. 2022.

of feather and bone - bestial hymns of perversion

finally a re-press of this heavy slab of osdm by u.s. fiends of feather and bone. in comparison with the latest album 'sulphuric disintegration', i think i like this one a bit better. prosthetic records. 2018/2022.

artificial brain - infrared horizon (silver splatter pressing)

finally i have this beautiful album on colour vinyl. already have a black vinyl version but was never content with it. bought this through discogs from a slovakian seller. nice dude packed it super well and so it looks pristine. listen to this album, it's simply so good. profound lore records. 2017.

of feather and bone - sulfuric disintegration

missed out on the initial vinyl pressing of this sucker and thought it was about time to accompany my tape edition with a proper vinyl release. not the most exciting colour-ways for this re-press (clear yellow, clear red and clear blue) but beggars can't be choosers, right?!

artificial brain - infrared horizon

man, i love this album. i criminally overlooked this band and just got into them around the end of the last year. perfect technical, avantgarde death metal. sometmes they remind me of a tech death version of converge with guttural vocals. check them out! i cross my fingers for colour re-issues of their records! released on profound lore records in 2017.

mortiferum - disgorged from psychotic depths

mortiferum didn't click with me instantly. i saw the announcement of the album by the label profound lore via social network and thought that the cover art looked kind of weird. i moved on and saw the first press go in no time.

fast forward a few weeks and profound announced a second press. i listened to a song on the tube and was blown away by the slow heaviness that is "disgorged from psychotic depths". hence i ordered the coolest colour-way and since listen to this beauty like a maniac. one of the best albums in 2019. profound lore records.

nocturnus a.d. - paradox

somehow i slept on the release of this gem right here. nocturnus were part of the massive earache records roster in the early nineties, where this fine u.k. label gathered the slickest bands from europe and across the pond. bolt thrower, morbid angel, entombed or godflesh just to name drop a few. and among them there was a band called nocturnus and their debut record called "the key".

a mixture of oldschool (back then not so oldschool actually) death metal, progressive death metal and sci-fi lyrics. something new and very well executed. mike browning, the mastermind of nocturnus reformed the band in 2013 as nocturnus ad with the plan to pick up where nocturnus left off with "the key". well, almost thirty years after the debut's release the new album "paradox" finally saw the light of day - and i missed it. when i got news all the colour vinyl was already gone. i am pretty well networked when it comes to new vinyl releases, but that one slipped through my fingers.

so i waited for a re-press which came sooner than i anticipated. i am a bit bummed that this clear green/black mix vinyl is one of those that look almost black when not held against a light source which is quite lame. well, beggars can't be choosers and musically "paradox" is at least as strong as "the key" in my humble opinion. not pure gold (which "the key" wasn't as well by the way) but a damn strong return to form. 100 copies made. profound lore records. 2019.

pallbearer - heartless

my expectations for the new pallbearer album were pretty high. the guys put out two absolute flawless full length records and another two nice demo/e.p. releases, so they had no other chance but to come up with another milestone of doom metal. i waited eagerly for pre-orders to go live and was ready to put some extra cash towards a nice u.s. edition from their north american label profound lore. when i stepped into the game the pre-orders went live for about two hours.

in that time frame all the sweet colour editions were fucking gone. two starburst colour-ways were among them and i screamed to the heavens for being too slow. the band signed a european record deal with nuclear blast and so i settled with a european version. i opted for the white vinyl. not really satisfying when i knew that there were much cooler stuff around but still better than the gold version (the second colour-way from nuclear blast) and much cheaper indeed, considering shipping rates.

when my copy arrived together with the emmure record and i opened the seal, i was surprised and quite puzzled as to what was staring back at me. through the centre holes of the dust sleeves i could see a somewhat off-white colour peeking through. i pulled the record from the sleeve and a very light blue marble version saw the light of day. wow, this looked amazing. the pictures doesn't really do the real look justice but believe me, it's pretty cool. when i saw a picture of the u.s. editions via the profound lore instagram page the other day, suddenly i felt like i had one of the coolest versions because they don't really look quite as cool as their descriptions implied.

so enough of all this colour gibberish talk. what does the actual album sound like? - you might ask. well, it's a damn good album from these american doomsters. the only thing which halts me from going through the roof with praise, is the first side of the double lp set. two of three songs are a bit of lame, not particularly bad but not really gripping. we'll see, maybe they will grow on me. the rest is pure doom gold. pallbearer knows how to combine epic metal melodies with lovely leads and crushing, slow heaviness. stunning artwork on top. lovely! 300 copies made. nuclear blast. 2017.

pallbearer - fear and fury e.p.

pallbearer released two fantastic full length records so far. "sorrow and extinction" from 2012 and "foundations of burden" from two years later are doom metal masterpieces. the band delivers a complete package. outstanding music, ominous lyrics, masterful artwork, lovely vinyl presentations - the real deal. as i am not the only one being aware of the quality that is a pallbearer record, it is very likely that a new release of theirs would sell out at pre-order stage. so when the "fear and fury" e.p. was announced, it was about to act quickly.

fortunately i check the lambgoat upcoming releases page quite regularly. this is how the word reached me. the next thing that was to my advantage was that profound lore records, pallbearers label at the moment, has now one of those lovely european stores, which makes it way more reasonable to order stuff because of lower shipping costs. when i hit the store, the gold vinyl out of 100 copies were already gone, which wasn't that much of a problem because the colour-ways out of 200 copies each were looking way more attractive.

there was a yellow/blue merge and a red/orange merge vinyl version. the decision was easy as the yellow/blue one was already sold out as well. so the red/orange was added to my cart and i checked it out without further hesitation. the pre-order process took one and a half month or so and i almost forgot about it until it showed up last week safe and sound. it was extremely well packed, the record inside an addtional pvc dust sleeve outside cover and printed dust sleeve, so none of the sleeves could suffer from any seam-splits. thumbs up!

musically there isn't much to tell. i knew the song "fear and fury" from the decibel flexi disc i got with my order of the "foundations of burden" record last year, and the remaining two songs are cover songs. there is a bit boring version of sabbath's "over and over" and an ok version of one of type o's greatest - "love you to death". the presentation on the other hand is a scorcher. lovely die-cut sleeve with beautiful art on the dust sleeve, an etched b-side and a hot vinyl colour pattern. still, give me a full length, pallbearer! profound lore records. 2016.

pallbearer - foundations of burden

around the end of the last year, i discovered a new band for me. pallbearer. i ordered a re-press of their first record called 'sorrow and extinction' and fell in love. i fell in love with their massive wall of sound and their mix of modern doom and classical heavy metal. so naturally i wanted more. i checked their discography and their latest album was 'foundations of burden' released by canada's profound lore records.

my problem was that the record's coloured vinyl pressing was already gone. all 500 units of a black with red merge colour configuration sold. as didn't want to pay the high prices over at discogs, i was forced to play the waiting game. as 'sorrow and extinction' was already re-pressed and the demo pressed to vinyl for the first time, i was pretty sure that the current popularity of the band and the generally high re-press rate at the moment would inevitably lead to a re-issue.

my clairvoyant abilities didn't disappoint. on one of my usual visits at pallbearer's internet page i stumbled upon news of a new coloured pressing of their sophomore album. i headed over to the label's page and ordered a copy straight away. after one and a half week this baby, plus a canadian spider in the mailer which is now living on my balcony, landed at my door.

musically they sound somewhat different to 'sorrow and extinction'. the sound is more nuanced and complex. still epic and crushing but more vigorous. check out the first two songs, 'worlds apart' and 'foundations' and be doomed. the look of this new pressing is uniform to the first, except the vinyl of course. lovely red gatefold sleeve with glossy print and fantastic inside art. blue with red merge vinyl out of 500 copies. profound lore. 2014/2015.

as a little bonus, profound lore threw a copy of the pallbearer 'fear and fury' flexi from the decibel magazine flexi series into the package. nice treat!