the veterans of hardcore are back with a new slab of greatness. it took hatebreed four years to release "weight of the false self" but after a few spins, I can confirm that it was worth the wait. will see if it stands the test of time. this is an euro pressing on nuclear blast nd exclusively sold through emp mailorder. limited to 300 copies and looking sharp.
boy, what a goddamn good melodic death metal album. riff for days, melodies for months and music for years or so... flys a bit under the radar it seems but if you have the chance to get your hands on this, i recommend to pick up astralborne's beautiful debut full length "at eternity's end" right away.
ok, i didn't see that coming. i didn't know end before all the pre-order hype went down at some point earlier this year. i checked them and secured me a copy but it wasn't until it finally arrived and i gave it proper spins, where i realised the greatness of this angry as fuck metallic hardcore babe. go check it out, is my only advice. closed casket activities. 2020.
boy, this tech/prog death metal band from new york left me craving for more with their latest album "four dimensional flesh". thus i needed the debut and predecessor as well. it wasn't too difficult to get a hand on a copy of "the time traveler's dilemma" for a decent price. musically this is on par with "four dimensional...", if not better. unique leader records.
the second installment by back on black in this little cro-mags re-issue series. "near death experience" was the follow-up to "alpha and omega" and was released in 1993 via century media. i just love the cover artwork and musically it is one of my favourite cro-mags record as well. back on black. 2020.
the cro-mags have a new album out this year and i completely missed the boat. at least i have been right on spot for these re-presses of "near death experience" and this one here, "alpha and omega". gatefold sleeve and grey vinyl by back on black. 2020 (originally released by century media in 1992).
got this one as a present and probably wouldn't have bought this by myself. i was pretty out of touch with deftones after their self-titled fourth full length. i think "gore" is quite good and i enjoy it all the way through. nice bone white double vinyl release. reprise records. 2016.
always wanted a re-press copy with the last track "apocalyptic terror" on it. i had a first press copy on clear gold for years and for whatever reasons it's missing on this pressing. found one at grindpromotion records from italy on this lovely starburst colour-way. victory records. 1998/2019.
when "veto" was released in 2013, i had pretty much lost interest in heaven shall burn. but when i grabbed a copy of "invictus", i couldn't say no though. turned out to be a pretty solid record and i am happy to have it on such a nice colour-way. nesi media. 2013/2018.
had this one on cd for the longest time and just found out that nesi media from hong kong did a re-issue of that album already two years ago. finally added this piece of heaven shall burn history to the flock. 2010/2018.
pretty slick death metal with a slight black metal edge from scandinavia. love the play between artwork and music which is the prefect match here. great release by testimony records from hamburg, germany. nice neon prurple splatter vinyl out of 100 copies. 2020.
i really fell in love with krypts bleak yet majestic, chilling yet heavy tunes from "remnants of expansion". so of course, when there was the opportunity to get a colour vinyl re-press of the latest full length "cadaver circulation" together with the aforementioned, i didn't think twice.
i probably like "remnants..." a bit more but "cadaver..." is basically a flawless and fantastic album start to finish. the guys really hit the spot with those two records. can't stop listening to them. the colour-way is not my favourite but looks cool in its own right. dark descent records. 2019/2020.
death doom is a metal subgenre which is fairly new to me. it started with mortiferum and i enjoyed the hell out of their album "disgorged from psychotic depths" and thus was very delighted when i found out about this finnish band called krypts. so of course this is not an up-and-coming new band, i just missed out on them for too long. as usual.
they released "remnants of expansion" already four years ago in 2016 on dark descent records. this lovely grey and black merge vinyl, one can see here, is part of the 2020 re-press and i snagged a copy from the band's e-store. that cover artwork resembles the music perfectly. dark, ominous and otherworldly. dark descent records. 2016/2020.
these guys from switzerland absolutely rip! "convalescence" is already their third full length but to me this is the first encounter with promethee. i stumbled upon them while i was browsing through the lifeforce records store and thought the cover looked cool. checked them out and had to have a vinyl copy right away!
they play a very modern branch of groove laden progressive metal. reminds me a bit of a way better version of periphery. so if you're into those modern metal sumerian records bands, this is for you! the vinyl looks pretty nice too! clear with subtle purple marble is a good match for the great cover artwork. more of this! lifeforce records. 2018.
these dudes really evolving more and more into an artsy-fartsy yet devastating entity with every new album released. "underneath" is a hell of an intense industrial metal ride and stands in line with the greatness of the predecessors "i am king" and "forever".
this vinyl version is the common european press which i got as a present. looks pretty neat with its two inserts and big poster. the vinyl colour-way is cool when held against the light but looks black otherwise. i don't really get the point of such pressings. i mean, colour vinyl is supposed to look colourful, right? anyway, great album! roadrunner records. 2020.