emmure - goodbye to the gallows

way back when i was buying between the buried and me's 'alaska', 'the silent circus' and 'the great misdirect' directly from the victory shop in november 2013, i added some more records. on the one hand because it was black friday sale at the shop and on the other because i really, really wanted them. emmure is a guilty pleasure of mine and victory released all their stuff on vinyl, except two. at the time they finally corrected that wrong with giving 'goodbye to the gallows' and 'speaker of the dead' the treatment they deserved.

i'll start with emmure's debut full length. finally vinyl and then those lovely colours on top. victory uses those putty colours, a.k.a. marble vinyl, for a lot of their releases and i am definitely a fan. musically this album is a rager from start to finish. next to 'felony' it's my favourite output of the band. you can check this half an hour long punch in your face by following this link. love those weird song titles in particular. 'the key to keeping the show fresh is... i'm dead' takes the prize.

bought the cd when it was released. can't believe this eight years ago already. the packaging is simple but solid all around. sturdy cardboard sleeve with insert and download code. i really dig the artwork on 'goodbye to the gallows'. love this comic style and its gloomy atmosphere. there are two colour vinyl versions for this baby. 117 copies on clear with black smoke and 435 on copies my delicious blue putty vinyl. some black vinyl also floating around. victory records. 2007/2013.

valley of the sun - sayings of the seers

another addition to my ever growing stoner/psych/doom metal section. valley of the sun is the band and 'sayings of the seers' the album. apart from that i knew next to nothing about this band when i saw the cover at kozmik artifactz mailorder. kozmik/bilocation releases are of lovely quality as i learned from the space god ritual lp i bought from the store. valley of the sun was such an release and so, simply out of curiosity, i checked them out.

i hit the link to the song 'riding the dunes', which was provided at the site and was a little split as to what to think of it. did i like it or not? i wasn't sure but somewhere in the back of mind i saved the band's name as something i should give further inspections. so a couple of weeks later i checked more songs via the tube and then i was sold. valley of the sun was right there to serve my stoner/psych mood that elder had risen.

check out the full record and be taken into higher spheres. great stuff! after some research i found out that the band comes from ohio, united states. discogs says that they released two e.p.'s and 'sayings of the seers' being one of them. they also released a full length in 2013 called 'electric talons of the thunderhawk'. pretty weird name. nevertheless it got a vinyl pressings and i am now looking out for a copy.

'sayings of the seers' was actually released four years ago. back then the band did a d.i.y. vinyl release of 250 copies on white with blue haze. as they were long gone, kozmik decided to re-press it on heavy duty wax and new artwork, which ties in well with the original. i got a copy of the rarest colour-way. 166 copies on blue with white marble and looking real sharp. get this sucker! kozmik artifactz/bilocation records. 2015.

born from pain - reclaiming the crown

oh yes, here i am in 2015 and a wish of mine has just been fulfilled. since i was able to track down all of the iconic born from pain releases, which are 'sands of time', 'in love with the end' and 'war', i was praying for a re-release of 'reclaiming the crown'. it was the bfp's debut full length from 2000 and i had the re-issue cd with blue instead of red cover and re-mastered sound by tue madsen since 2004 in my collection. it ranks on second in my personal list of favourite bfp records.

therefore i always wished for a vinyl pressing to listen to this piece of my personal hardcore history on the best format there is. fifteen years after its initial release, gsr music did me the favour and i was all over it when pre-order started in summer this year. the delivery got a bit delayed but that's seems to be almost inevitable with pre-orders these days and i am not complaining. the result is pretty ace anyway.

gsr went for a whole new artwork which is definitely in touch with the original one. the new front and back cover shows some imagery from the inner cd-booklet of the original, so the link is there. for my part, i would have liked the same cover from the cd release better but you can't have it all. sound-wise gsr pressed the re-mastered version of 'reclaiming the crown' from 2003 onto the plastic plates. i like both versions, so that's all good.

click here to experience the whole excitement that is bfp's first album. gsr pressed 500 copies of this first press of 'reclaiming the crown', 200 on black vinyl and 300 on white with red splatter vinyl. of course i did go for the colour vinyl. seeing the actual result, i have to admit that i am not the biggest fan of this heavy splatter. i must have been among the first twenty orders because i got a first press copy of the cd on top. cool! gsr music. 2000/2015. 

ays - wreck my soul

ays, or against your society in full, is a hardcore band from düsseldorf, germany. they are around for quite some time now. around since 2005 at least, this band flew across my radar a couple of times. was it via some magazine interviews/reviews or via a copy of 'eroded by the breeze' sitting at burnout record store for something like two years. i don't really know what held me from getting some recorded material but it actually never happened. when i was in cologne this august things changed.

i was flicking through the racks at underdog store and came across a copy of ays' sophomore full length and first 12" release called 'wreck my soul'. i checked if it was on colour vinyl and as soon as this was confirmed, i knew it was finally the right time for ays and me. boy, must have been there for seven years waiting for me. could that be? whatever, to me this sucker is the freshest sounding hardcore record of the year, only that it was unleashed already seven years ago.

i mean, they don't re-invent the hardcore wheel but it's simply better than most recent nyhc-tinged releases. fast, crisp, angry and the right dosage of melody. check out 'cruel minds' and the title song and realise that ays rules. when i was home again from holidays i checked the pressing information for this bad boy and was pleasantly surprised to find that i have a copy limited to 100 only. discogs says that there are 25 copies of the violet splatter version coming with record release cover and the remaining 75 being hand numbered. however, mine isn't numbered as far as i can tell. well, for full info check discogs here. cobra records. 2008.

korn - life is peachy

the last piece of the puzzle. the last korn re-issue of the first six classic line-up albums on coloured vinyl. i was inconsequent when it came to obtain the last two releases of the music on vinyl re-presses. while i was on fire for the first four, the entusiasm died down a bit after the 'untouchables' release. probably that was the bad taste 'untouchables' left in mouth. anyway, now i fixed this situation and got my second korn album i ever listened to finally on coloured vinyl.

listening to it now there is a little paradox emerging. when i re-listened the record for the first time in probably something like ten years, it appeared to me that out of fourteen songs which are on the album, there are only a handful real good ones. most of them are average at best. 'good god', 'no place to hide', 'a.d.i.d.a.s.', 'ass itch' and above all 'kill you' are real crackers, but the rest? doesn't knock me off the edge of my seat musically. nevertheless when i am listening to the album, there is not only my point of view on music today but there is a strong emotional side.

back then, after my childhood buddy and me listened the shit out of 'follow the leader' we decided what album to get next. money was slim and so we made a deal. he would get the self-titled album and i would get 'life is peachy', so we could interchange the cd's. 'life is peachy' was my purchase and to hold something such as an original cd in hands meant the world to me. it was way cooler than the burned copy of the 'korn' album and got way more spins in my discman.

so the paradox is that despite the weaker musical side of 'life is peachy' it hits the top three of my personal korn list. I - follow the leader II - issues III - life is peachy IV - korn V- take a look in the mirror VI - untouchables. word. presentation wise mov let up a bit on this one. the sleeve and the vinyl are great quality as always. the insert however is a bit blurry and the typeface is pretty illegible. plus they dropped the nice black dust sleeve for a casual white one. 1500 copies on clear vinyl. music on vinyl. 2015.

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.