arkangel - hope you die by overdose

the last missing piece in my arkangel vinyl collection. a re-press of the band's second full length from 2004. gsr music from the netherlands did a pretty good job with these version using artwork originally used for asian cd editions. 400 copies pressed on this silver/grey vinyl and released in 2020.

arkangel - prayers upon deaf ears re-issue

arkangel was one of those great belgian bands from the late nineties that played such a distintive brand of death metal paired with hardcore ethics. congress will always be my favourite of the time but arkangel comes pretty close. therefore i always found it to be torturing that original vinyl pressings were so hard to come by.

gsr music from the netherlands did re-issue some gems of the goodlife recordings heyday (giving the cue length of time) and now they finally give "prayers upon deaf ears" a worthy re-issue (although it was not actually released on goodlife recordings). back then in 1998 it came on cd via released power productions and a year later lifeforce records from germany produced a 10" vinyl version. those suckers, especially the red version, is a pain to get a hold on.

gsr proved some sense and made it a 12" edition and i snagged a die hard version. i actually think that the original cover art looks cooler but i didn't want to pay for two copies and so just took the special edition. it comes with a screen printed cover, an insert and clear vinyl with a stamped centre label. i like the three post cards included, it is a little take on that goodlife habit from back in the day. #71/136. gsr music. 2019.

arkangel is your enemy

arkangel is, next to congress my favourite edge metal band from belgium. considering this, my arkangel vinyl collection is what one would call insufficient. i only have 'dead man walking' to call my own. so of course i needed more. as 'hope you die by overdose' and especially 'prayers upon deaf ears' are pretty hard to come by on coloured vinyl, i was happy as gsr music announced to finally press 'arkangel is your enemy' to vinyl.

of course i pre-ordered this thing as soon as it was up. fortunately gsr ships from germany also (they're a label from the netherlands actually) so i didn't even have to pay higher shipping costs. when it came around i was pretty stoked on the packaging. foremost i prefer the cover artwork of the vinyl over the cd artwork.

you can see the cd cover in picture #3, gsr included the cd booklet instead of an proper insert. can't say i'm a big fan of that but that's pretty much the only downer here. the record comes in a gatefold sleeve with great simplistic layout on the inside. furthermore you get nice 180gr clear green vinyl and a black dust sleeve. solid all around.

another nice gimmick is that you have to hold the sleeve vertically to worship all the beauty of the cover art. a friggin' guillotine seems to be a suitable declaration of war by arkangel. musically i really like this album. it has everything you can ask for as an arkangel fan. this typical mixture of death metal and hardcore ethics that made them great in the first place. this is 2008 and still sounds as late nineties as it gets. thumbs up! check 'slow but heavy' and buy this record! don't know how many were made, 500 maybe? gsr music. 2008/2013.

discogs: arkangel - dead man walking

arkangel - dead man walking

i loosely collect goodlife releases. i love alot nineties and early 00's edge metal stuff and most of it, above all the european bands, were on goodlife. so this time around it's about arkangel. it's a belgian band from brussels. i'm not one hundert percent sure if they broke up by now but i think so. correct me if i'm wrong with that. anyway, 'dead man walking' was always high on my wantlist. of course the coloured version. i tried the label itself but it was gone at their shop. as it didn’t appear at any other distro i know i waited for the ebay chance.

but then, one day, i had an e-mail in my account from discogs. one of those telling me that there were new items from my wantlist available. usually it’s always the same crap. i wonder how many copies of cradle of filth’s ‘godspeed on the devil’s thunder’ people put up on discogs every second day. but this time there was only one record from the list. arkangel’s ‘dead man walking’. i got a bit excited and was scared at the same time. excited on the one hand, because the price seemed to be really good. 22 bucks looked pretty damn reaonable. but scared on the other hand, because before that i had a mail like this for two other records being high on my wantlist also. i checked these mails too late and some other fortunate dudes scored these records before me. so i feared that could happen again.

i hit the link in the e-mail without a moment’s hestitation and was relieved to find it was still there. a little hysterically i checked out and was happy that seller was a german country man, so shipping rate was moderate. when i received the well packaged record i was surprised at the vinyl not just being on white but being on marbled white. just like two other goodlife records – angel crew’s ‘anotherday living in hatred’ and congress’ ‘stake through the heart’ being on the very same colour. i don’t need to lose myself in praise for this record. it’s a masterpiece of political hardcore metal crossover and it still stands the test of time for me.

goodlife pressed 500 copies on this nice marbled white vinyl. at least that is what, i believe i read somewhere. it was their first full length. two more followed of which the latest, 'arkangel is your enemy', will be released by gsr music next month on vinyl for the first time. already have my pre-order in. don't miss out!

goodlife recordings. 1999.