despised icon - the healing process (gold vinyl re-issue)

had an og pressing of this album for years. the purchase back then was, although i could cross a grail from the list, rather unpleasant (check the band tag below to get to the post). because i wanted a pristine copy without any cover damage, i snagged one of those lovely gold marble lp's. brilliant album. century media. 2005/2022.

despised icon - consumed by your poison

very nice re-issue of the band's debut album, originally released in 2002 on galy records. this is also the first time the album got the vinyl treatment and what a beauty it is. super slick yellow/blue marble vinyl out of 200 copies (i believe). century media. 2022.

despised icon - purgatory

this canadian deathcore institution is still going strong. they are pioneers of the deathcore genre and besides some hardcore parts here and there, they have a soft spot for some tech death assaults and i really love that.

they will probably never hit me the way they did on "the ills of modern man" but "purgatory" is no busted flush at all. a great record all the way through and at least on par with their comeback record "beast". 1.750 copies on grey with black splatter vinyl. nuclear blast. 2019.

despised icon - the healing process

oh yes, another long-time want of mine finally in my hands. despised icon were one of the first technical more demanding metal bands i listened to, or better their crowning work "the ills of modern man" was the first more complex record i really enjoyed. i am very happy that i was able to snag a first press colour copy of said album and still regard it as their best. "the healing process" was album number two of them in my collection. back then it didn't really click with me, the overall feeling was more raw and not as sophisticated as its successor. when i started collecting vinyl i wanted a colour copy badly, anyway.

it started with the lemmy's post of his copy on the now defunct the emerging addiction blog. it was just a line of text and one photo but it set my hunger for this platter ablaze. so it took me at least five years to cross it off the list eventually. i got a mail from discogs with a seller from china with a reasonable priced copy. after two weeks of waiting i got my copy in a cardboard mailer that was wrapped in a big bubble envelope. oh man, i once got a record packed in the same manner and i feared the worst. i believe those envelopes suggest a rather flexible content and thus are not handled with as much care.

i opened it and was relieved to see it was not broken (record was outside of sleeve as requested) but the cover sleeve was heavily bent. i tried my best to fix it but one can clearly see the damage in the lower left corner of the sleeve. ah man, that sucks but i don't think i'll chase another copy for replacement. fortunately the vinyl plays great and the album aged quite good. it is still a raw heavy fucking piece of tech death and hardcore and a real good one. check it out here. 100 copies made on clear orange vinyl. liscensed by century media. goodfellow records. 2005.

despised icon - beast

the icon is back from the dead. after the band called it a day in 2010. in 2015 rumours were floating around the guys consider a reunion. now, round about six years after despised icon disbanded, they are back with this new beast. prior to the release of course nuclear blast, their new label, gave us a first taste of what the record would sound like in form of a video to the song "beast". man, that song is great. there is a lot of this "ills of modern man" vibe going on, not least because of the revived pig squeals of vocalist steve marois. yes, i wanted it.

these days nuclear blast made it a habbit to offer a few coloured copies of u.s. pressings of their releases. the european edition comes on dark green vinyl and the u.s. edition on olive green vinyl. even though it is less limited, i thought the olive green looked way better. especially because of the green instead of black and white centre labels. so i pre-ordered that one. but now to the thing which actually counts - the music. "beast" is a great comeback record. i feel like it has the biggest hardcore share of all icon albums to date.

it won't beat "the ills...", if you ask me and there is definitely room for improvement, but man, it is a damn good listen and the proof that this band is still relevant. i saw them a few times in the past and remember that they were a pretty intense live band. with this new stuff up their sleeves, i am really looking forward to catch them at some point again. slip sleeve and printed dust sleeve. 1.000 copies pressed on this nice olive green vinyl. release date is actually at the end of july. i was quite surprised to recieve it last week. well, doesn't hurt actually. nuclear blast. 2016.

despised icon - day of mourning

continuing with my recent deathcore topic. despised icon from montreal, canada released one of the finest records of that genre in 2007. "the ills of modern man" is one rotten bastard of a great technical death metal album. the high speed, the slam parts, the hardcore elements here and there - outstanding! in celebration of the new despised icon re-union album "beast", century media came up with re-pressings of the aforementioned "the ills of modern man" and their 2009 album "day of mourning".

a few years ago i was lucky enough to snag a coloured first press copy of "the ills of modern man" at animate records shop, so i only ordered "day of mourning". back in 2009 when the album was actually released, money was short and i passed up on this one. a few years later, after the band split up in 2010, i bought the digipak cd version and couldn't really warm up with it. despite that fact i had to order the re-issue because this is what i do. listening to it now on vinyl, it feels like it is a way better record than it was on cd. probably because of the fact that everything sounds better on vinyl.

i think my main problem with "day of mourning" was that it just couldn't win against "the ills...". regarded seperately on its own, it's a damn solid despised icon output. two weaker songs ("all for nothing" and "eulogy") against eight killers is a not too bad outcome. check out the video to the title song and ignore the ridiculous acting guys and rather watch the hot chicks instead. first vinyl pressing on nice 180gr white vinyl and some bad artwork. 100 copies made. century media. 2009/2016.

animate records order: aborted, despised icon, suicide silence

here i made myself a christmas gift in 2011! animate records is a german extreme metal label which releases classic albums on real high quality vinyl versions (e.g. kataklysm, unleashed or lock up). i was just checking their shop and found some real rare records!

first one is "aborted - slaughter and apparatus" on hollow man records. very nice clear red with black marble vinyl and great gatefold sleeve! there is also a black and a gold one around. but none of them were to be found so i was quite happy to get it for a reasonable price, especially the red vinyl!

next one is "despised icon - the ills of modern man". i couldn't help my jaw from falling down! this album is my absolute favourite by this montreal extreme metal outfit. i read that the vinyl version had been sold out shortly after it came out and that it's hard to get on ebay (just for mean prices).
it's hand numbered and the cover has the same gold foil print as the first press of the cd version (which i also call my own).
gatefold cover + green splatter vinyl on deep send records!

third rare record is "suicide silence - the cleansing"
a really good death core record and my favourite of them. century media records. clear vinyl.

i found them all on christmas eve after the family dinner. so thanks to santa :)