here is the next exception. a brand new re-issue of nile's mammoth release 'annihilation of the wicked'. it is my favourite album of these egyptian death metal fanatics. as you might know, i already have a first press copy on marbled grey vinyl but i was always a little bit dissatisfied with it. first: i don't think that marbled grey is the best match for the cover art.
second: my copy's glue, which holds the cover together, dried off on some ends. i can almost fold it out completely. i was always too worried to fix that, because i am scared to make it worse and probably glue it too tight so i cannot put the records inside the sleeve. anyway, grabbing an upgrade copy of a more limited first press copy seemed too expensive to really pursue it.
when i saw the whole package of this re-press at the relapse store, i couldn't help but get me a copy. fortunately high roller records from germany put up pre-orders for all four re-presses. i didn't hestitate and jumped at it. that spared me the agony of oversea shipping rates.
relapse went for a few changes to the original pressing. they changed the tracklisting of the three vinyl sides to add a bonus track. 'sss haa set yoth' was previously unreleased on vinyl. it got included on the japanese cd-version of 'anihilation...'. it was all new to me but sounds just as rad as the rest of this cracker.
furthermore they re-arranged the tracklist on the back cover, printed red instead of grey labels, gold foil logo print on the front and graced the d-side with a new etching. sorry for the bad pic of that. the colour is bad ass too. love how the gold changes with the light from gold to almost brown. i don't buy the re-pressings for 'amongst catacombs...' and 'black seeds...' because i think my original copies are superior to the new ones. but for the two i have, i can only say that relapse did a hell of a good job here. 1700 made. relapse records. 2005/2015.
