deathrite - revelation of chaos

two years ago deathrite released their first full length 'into extinction' via per koro records. it was a real heavy piece of music with few hardcore elements, some grindcore shots and a big chunk of death metal. after a year the album gained quite some praise in the underground and per koro teamed up with halo of flies records from the states to do a re-press for north america.

you know there is something going on when a european band gets a u.s.-pressing. it's not very often this way around and therefore deathrite flew on the radar of some u.s. labels. in the end prosthetic records signed the band from dresden and two months ago pre-orders for 'revelation of chaos' was launched. prosthetic has an u.k. store and thus shipping costs were acceptable.

after a little delay the record came in safe and sound and although i have only listened a couple of times to the record, it's safe to say that deathrite still knows which side their bread is buttered on. on this album they favoured their death metal elements a bit more and sound sometimes like good old obituary and this in the best sense possible. the lyrics are quite cliche but hey, it's fucking death metal, right?!

check out 'toxic hammer' and 'circle of destruction' and hail to the chaos. prosthetic pressed the u.s. version on white vinyl. the european edition comes on clear red but i think white vinyl matches the cover asthetics way better. my copy has some other colour traces inside the vinyl. love things like this, unfortunately it was hard to capture with the cam. the pic doesn't really do it justice. limited to 300 copies. prosthetic records. 2015.  

space god ritual - eldritch tales

the third and last record of my first kozmik artifactz order is this baby here. alongside bongripper and glowsun these guys from portland, oregon called space god ritual caught my attention when i was looking through the kozmik shop. it was the damn cool cover of 'eldritch tales' that aroused my curiosity. so i listened to 'the weeping' which was embedded on the web page.

this was the kind of doom metal i like. weird, fuzzy, dramatic and all this with occult lovecraftian lyrics. i know quite some lovecraft stories and therefore it's always a nice touch to read conceptional lyrics i actually understand and where i don't have to do some research. 'eldritch tales' is their sophomore record. their latest record 'from void to ocean' was only released on cd. don't know why kozmik chose this album to be pressed to vinyl this year.

anyway, it definitely deserves to be pressed to our beloved format after two years of its initial release. maybe kozmik decides to do the same to 'from void to ocean'. besides, as i read on the space god ritual internet page the band is in the process of writing a new album. many material for future vinyl releases.

kozmik artifactz with their imprint bilocation records did an awesome job with this vinyl edition. the record comes in gatefold sleeve with a matte finish and looking sharp. love the artwork, the image and those cool colour transitions - gives you a real seventies feel. the vinyl itself comes on 180gr clear purple marble vinyl out of 166 copies. get yours here. kozmik artifactz/bilocation. 2015.

black breath - razor to oblivion

no need to introduce black breath anymore. their two southern lord releases blew up a lot of dust. quite rightly because 'heavy breathing' and 'sentenced to life' are two crackers to say the least. but before black breath teamed up with southern lord, they released a mini album via hot mass records. this baby was entitled 'razor to oblivion' and saw the light of day in 2008.

black breath plays a style of metal that to me is best described as death 'n' roll. while 'heavy breathing' and 'sentenced...' leaned more to the death metal side of their sound, 'razor to oblivion' is pure party music. fast and fierce metal to drink (water, of course), bawl out and bang heads with your friends. in my humble opinion the two southern lord releases are better but i can hang with the razor from time to time. check the title song here.

as i said before 'razor to oblivion' was actually released seven years ago. back then it came on black, clear and clear red vinyl. five years later, in 2013, hot mass decided to re-press this e.p. on clear gold and black vinyl. southern lord still had some copies among their distributed titles and i pulled the trigger when i ordered the new xibalba record at the beginning of the year. by the way, black breath is about to release a new record at the end of october. got to keep my eyes peeled! hot mass records. 2008/2013. 

bitter end - illusions of dominance

when i was on vacation the last two weeks of august, my girlfriend and me were visiting family. luckily the relatives are living in the ruhr and rhine region of western germany. so all quite close to each other. of course when we were visiting cities like dortmund, cologne and düsseldorf i checked the local stores and tried to secretly include them on the trips. of course my girl smelled the rat all along.

when we would stay in front of a store i planned to say something like: "what? is that a record store with lovely vinyl i might want to spend money on right in front of us? man, what a coincidence! i mean, i love records and this is a record store. probably i should take a look inside." fortunately my girl and family knows me quite good and so my sophisticated deceit wasn't necessary.

i scored a nice lot of records and will deal with them in no particular order across the next months. the first one to start off with is the latest bitter end record 'illusions of dominance'. i actually wanted to order this when it came out from per koro. my problem was that i badly wanted the second to rarest colour way, a merge pattern, badly and as the most common colour is clear vinyl, it was very likely for me to get this version when ordering from a distro.

therefore i was very happy to pull a copy of my desired colour from the racks of cologne's underdog store. it took bitter end five years to come up with a new record, just like all out war this year. and just like all out war, bitter end delivers! the predecessor 'guilty as charged', which i also obtained at underdog two years ago, was a scorcher and 'illusions...' is just as good. if not a bit better. pummeling hardcore mixed with some harsh thrash metal and their very own feeling for melodies and solos. check the album at their bandcamp and get this bad boy! 733 copies made. deathwish inc. 2015.

glowsun - beyond the wall of time

when i ordered my last bongripper record from newly discovered kozmik artifactz mailorder, i was adding some more stuff indeed. in order to do so i roamed around the shop and came across an interesting item that looked quite familiar. it was a record by glowsun. i actually didn't know any song of them but something like two years ago glowsun and me crossed paths.

i ordered their second record 'eternal season' for a friend via discogs. he hadn't have an account and so i helped out. at the time i wasn't into any stoner metal and so it never came to my mind to check them out, even though i always admired the lovely looks of the record when i was at my friends place. now two years later, with a brand new view on stoner stuff, i got curious and hit the net for some music.

i found the official video for 'behind the moon' and was blown away. glowsun plays some sophisticated psych/doom/stoner metal, not unlike elder but not that dreamy, more ominous. great music anyhow! although this album is almost completely instrumental, i love how they work with the theme of time through sound samples and song-titles. the ticking clock at the beginning of the first song 'arrow of time' somehow gives me the creeps and is therefore so good.

this third album was released via napalm records from austria. there must be some friendly connection between napalm rec and kozmik artifactz, because it is not the first time kozmik got a mailorder exclusive of a napalm release. for 'beyond the wall of time' kozmik offered a pressing on 180gr neon orange vinyl out of 100 copies. kozmik sold out on their copies but napalm got you covered with a blue version. napalm records. 2015.

integrity - the blackest curse

another integrity record that sits on my shelf for quite some time now. it's another newish release of them, the 2010 output called 'the blackest curse'. i got this record from per koro distro simply because i already had 'suicide black snake' in my collection and wanted more stuff of integ. when i read somewhere that the record is a conceptional album based on a book written by vocalist dwid, this was where they really got me interested.

maybe my research wasn't thoroughly enough but unfortunately i couldn't find any information about this book. i read a forum entry in which dwid was quoted with: 'the album is a concept album based on a book i have written and it follows that story-line premise.' does anyone know anything about this book? does it even exist? apart from these questions, the record itself is pretty good.

it's that typical harsh, unpolished mix between metal and hardcore. not that trendy and all too smooth metalcore of more recent hardcore history, but that snotty punk and slayer worship mix integrity is known and loved for among confidants. check out 'through the shadows of forever' and 'before the vvorld vvas young', where those blusier elements, which the band picked up again for 'suicide black snake' later on, can be heard.

the band released their album through deathwish inc. records. after 'to die for' for the second and the last time since. i got a copy of the second press. it comes on grey vinyl and is issued with a giant poster. sadly the flip-side of the poster didn't come with any printed lyrics. i know, i could use the internet but i am old-fashioned like that. an insert would have been real nice. the latest re-press has a lp-sized booklet coming with it. well, i doubt i'll get a copy. whatever, 1100 copies made. deathwish inc. 2010. 

all out war - dying gods

five years of waiting. finally after five years all out war comes up with a new release. somewhere along the way i wasn't sure anymore if the band still exists, but here we are with 'dying gods'. it's not a real full length unfortunately, rather an e.p. but i am not really complaining here. i am fine with a handful of songs as long as they can answer the expectations. and damn, they can!

my uncle already listened to the songs and was really enthusiastic about them, therefore i was even more excited to get it. unfortunately i wasn't involved in the pre-order process, because organized crime records is an u.s. label and i didn't want to pay the outrageous shipping costs. and so i waited for a european distributor to have it in stock.

i set high hopes in the record dealer of my trust, per koro records, and markus did not disappoint. as usual. as i didn't order from organized crime directly it was inevitable to get a copy of the least limited colour way. the solid tan would have looked nicer, but i am really okay with this clear blood red version. it matches the cover art with the red all out war lettering quite good.

all out war delivers hard on this one. you liked their previous albums? you will love 'dying gods'. nothing innovative here but hell, who wanted that anyway? check out the whole e.p. here. really love the presentation on this one. matte card sleeve with awesome art work, folded insert with all lyrics and some more great art and this nice shade of clear red for the vinyl. let the full length come! unknown quantity. organized crime records. 2015.

cattle decapitation - the anthropocene extinction

cattle decapitation is exceptional in today's extreme metal scene. they play their very own mix of technical death metal, chaotic interludes and melancholic melodies accompanied by most extreme vocals. even though i liked them for quite some time my vinyl shelf was lacking any cattle records until metal blade came to my rescue. except of the first record of cattle decap, which is quite shite in my eyes, all their albums had been released on metal blade but only some on vinyl and a shitty picture disc among them.

in celebration of ten years of collaboration, the label re-issued their whole cattle decap back catalogue on vinyl in the course of the last year. it was real fun to get my hands on all those records and be able to recap the development of the cattle throughout their releases. so when metal blade announced the new cattle decapitation record called 'the anthropocene extinction', it was a no brainer to me to jump at the pre-order.

like all metal blade orders here in europe, the pre-order was handled by emp mailorder. they had a azure/black marble version limited to 300 copies and a clear sparkle version limited to 200 on offer. i was a little split because i think the azure/black marble one looks superior to the clear sparkle, but just like with the latest between the buried and me record the collector in me won over.

the musical content is again outstanding. if you liked 'monolith of inhumanity' already, you can snag a copy without worries. the cattle directly picked up where they left off on their last album from 2012. it's everything you want from these californian vegan deathers, brutal yet sophisticated. as the title indicates (anthropocene is the time span in which man became the greatest factor of influence on earth) the lyrics deal with the man made destruction of his very own habitat, and therefore the destruction of his very self.

the presentation is pretty good too. gatefold sleeve with awesome artwork. i love how the band always includes themselves into the art, as seen on the inner gatefold. if you look closely you can see the monolith of inhumanity included on the back of the sleeve. nice touch! for the first time metal blade came around with a custom dust sleeve with the label's logo all over it. in the end the clear sparkle vinyl looks cooler than i thought. lovely all together! metal blade. 2015.

elder - lore

i am back from vacation and of course i picked up some records, but i'll need some days to listen my way through the new shit. for today i am going to deal with a record that is in my possession quite recently too. not long ago i was writing about three elder records i obtained in one fell swoop. at the time 'lore' was already released but on black vinyl only. i couldn't believe that for such a great psych/doom/stoner band there wasn't any request for some nice coloured vinyl.

i said to myself to wait something like a year for a second press. there is so much good music floating around that i could stand a year of waiting and if there still was no colour vinyl i still could get the black version instead. so i checked the label's facebook page constantly waiting for good news. they came earlier than i anticipated. a month or so ago stickman records announced to press a tour edition of 'lore' on clear vinyl. yes! the only thing that could have gotten in the way was that it sold out on tour.

as you can see it didn't. as soon as stickman put it up on their web-page i snagged a copy. looks and sounds real nice on clear vinyl. 'lore' is another masterpiece and every bit as good as 'dead roots stirring'. go get it! meanwhile check out 'compendium' and 'legend'. the record is issued on double heavy weight vinyl, printed dust sleeves and a die-cut cover sleeve. so you can choose your favourite piece of art from the dust sleeves to show through. comes with cd of the album. 500 copies made. stickman records. 2015.

black veins - the cycle will cease to end

so this is my last speedowax release post of the bunch. last but definitely not least. on the contrary, so to speak. black veins' 'the cycle will cease to end' is my personal favourite of the lot. the band comes from birmingham, england, or better they came. while doing some research for this post i came across the band's facebook page. the last entry from march this year stated the split up of black veins. a shame.

reading the previous entries the band posted to have a full length in the works. we will probably never see this material unearthed from the black veins vaults. another shame. but back to what the band left for the world on physical format. 'the cycle will cease to end' is a chaotic journey into punk, crust, metal and hardcore. will most likely appeal to fans of trap them or early converge. as for my part i really like it.

you can check the whole e.p. at their bandcamp page and download it for the price you are willing to name, a.k.a. for free. for the physical format speedowax pressed 100 copies on black and 200 copies on grey vinyl. the speedowax pressing info page states that there are 100 grey sleeves, 100 green sleeves, 10 blue sleeves for 10 test press copies and 80 red sleeves. if i can count, there are 20 sleeves missing. anyone a clue? speedowax records. 2013.