code orange - underneath

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.

code orange - forever

sometime last year i bought meself a ticket for gojira playing a gig in hamburg set for march 2017. at the time no support bands had been announced. over the months i forgot to check on this matter and only one day before the show, i remembered to take a look for the supporting acts. the first was car bomb from new york, a band i didn't know but was quite good after all and the second was code orange. also from the states.

of course still my main interest was to see gojira but with the chance to see another band i liked, i was pretty excited for the show. also this incident brought code orange back into my focus. i knew that the guys had a new record out. when the release was announced at the beginning of the year i didn't jump on the pre-order immediately and when i actually wanted to order, the limited coloured run was gone at the roadrunner uk store. so i more or less forgot about it.

with the opportunity to check the merch table of the band i hoped for some coloured tour vinyl. when i arrived at the venue i headed directly over to the merch but unfortunately the friendly guy at the table wasn't able to hand me over what i requested. he said they had some clear vinyl copies at the beginning of the tour but they sold pretty quickly. a shame. gojira's set was a blast this night but code orange were almost equally as breathtaking. the band delivered unfiltered and raw energy all the way through - amazing.

back home i searched for some opprtunities to get a coloured copy nevertheless. out of a gut feeling i checked the roadrunner store again and strangely they had some red copies back in stock. don't know if they got re-stock or if i just confused things a few months back. anyway, know i own a lovely copy of "forever" and what a beauty it is. love the embossed cover and the spot gloss print all throughout the sleeve. musically this one's a beast. not as surprising as "i am king" was but still as disturbing, heavy and melodic. a worthy successor for sure. code orange is a force to be reckoned with. roadrunner records. 2017.

code orange (kids) - love is love // return to dust

code orange, formerly known as code orange kids, came into my life completely out of a clear sky. the band's name and the album cover of 'i am king' was all about the net at the end of 2014. at first i didn't gave a damn but after quite some time with no sign of the hype dying down, i gave them a try. it was well worth it. the record was a cracker. still is.

so i said to myself to get previous stuff too. 'love is love...' wasn't high priority, though, because a re-press after the success of 'i am king' was floating around. i assumed deathwish pressing a shit load of them and so i wasn't in a hurry. again it was on one of my regular visits at burnout store, hamburg where this beauty and i crossed paths.

'love is love...' needed some more time to unfold its full glory. while 'i am king' was an initial hit, code orange's first full length is a grower. the record is pretty demanding but it pays off after several spins. nevertheless it won't outgun its successor but better this way than the other. check out 'nothing (the rat)' and 'liars//trudge'. clear orange with a nice black smudge. don't know how many were made. deathwish inc. 2012.

code orange - i am king

man, this one right here caught me by surprise. sure, i heard the name code orange (kids) thrown around several times in the past, i knew they were on deathwish and all but i never bothered to check them out. why should i? there never was the slightest indication that their shit could be remotely good.

when 'i am king' dropped i wasn't interested. i was in the know of the release because i recieve the deathwish newletter, but still no sign that made me check them out further. even more, as i saw a picture of the band members i let myself be drawn to the false thought that their look would have have something to do with the musical style they were playing. shame on me!

after the release my fellow blogger colleagues were posting about this gem, praising it as something odd but very good. well, my interest still wasn't on fire but i made a mental note to check it out whenever the time was right. when i was record shopping in hamburg before new year's eve, i came across a copy at burnout store. i dragged it to a turntable and dropped the needle on it.

boy, what was that? it hit me like a sledge hammer. they play a brand of that chaotic converge hardcore with pretty heavy breakdowns. and it rips! check out the title song and 'alone in a room' and annihilate something. and wei, yepp there's a scott vogel guest appearance on it. crazy 6380 copies made of this lovely opaque green marble vinyl. deathwish inc. 2014.