aborted - the archaic abattoir

hands down, my favourite aborted album right here. bought the slipcase cd upon release and got the black og pressing four years ago. that is why i actually didn't want to buy another pressing, especially with increasing shipping costs from france, if i had pulled the trigger on the splatter variant. a respectable shop credit and this nuclear blast exclusive green vinyl variant blew away all my worries, though. love the different artwork to the og pressing. limited to 190 copies. listenable records. 2005/2022.

aborted - goremageddon: the saw and the carnage done

one of my most wanted vinyl re-issues ever. had the slipcase cd for a long long time and always wanted a first press colour copy but second hand prices were ridiculously high. therefore this nice splatter variant limited to 200 copies was a great relief. ordered it directly from the label in france. listenable records. 2003/2022.

aborted - engineering the dead

sophomore album of these belgian grinders from 2001. since then it never had been re-pressed, so it was about damn time. listenable records from france did the job and they did a fantastic one. clear splatter vinyl with re-imagined artwork (this is one of the rare cases where I actually find the new art better than the original). 2022.

obituary - world demise

listenable records from france released quite a few pearls of osdm from back in the early nineties over the last couple of years. so they did with almost the first half of the obituary back catalogue. i was eyeing the fourth album of the band in particular. double white vinyl out of 500 copies. 2021.

obituary - frozen in time

the whole obituary back catalogue was re-pressed as of late and french label listenable records is responsible. i do have quite a few original pressings but already bought a re-issue of "back from the dead" at the end of last year. so now it is about "frozen in time" from 2005. this record marks the band's comeback from their seven year hiatus and it was pretty successful.

again obituary worked with roadrunner records to release their sixth studio album. i believe, that there was no initial vinyl pressing. cargo records from germany released a black vinyl edition in 2011 and this was steadily available since then. i was close to a purchase a few times but other things demanded more of my attention. so i am happy to not have to think about getting another copy and to grab me a nice colour vinyl version instead.

musically obituary did not fuck around. pummeling and no frills death metal is what you get and this is exactly what i want when i spin an obituary record. one of my favourite artworks the band ever had is featured on "frozen in time". super lovely blue marble vinyl as the perfect fit for the cover art. 200 copies made in a single pocket sleeve and an insert. i hope listenable got the rights for the two candlelight records releases of the band as well. we'll see. listenable records. 2019.

obituary - back from the dead

i am finally back with some obituary vinyl. i thought the title of the album was pretty apt for my little comeback here. we moved into the new house eventually and now i feel like i can lean back and dive headfirst into my vinyl collection again. in the meantime a few bits landed at my doorstep but this is one from the old batch. i recieved "back from the dead" with the self-titled devildriver record.

when i ordered the latest two vinyl re-issues from relapse, listenable records from france offered a few re-issues of old obituary classics theirselves. in a reliable regularity listenable cranks out those roadracer/roadrunner classics from the death metal heyday in the early nineties. suffocation, gorguts, malevolent creation and now obituary. they started with "the end complete", "dead" and "back from the dead". i opted for the latter one because i have an original of the first one and don't need another live record of obituary.

the album marks the last recording before the band went on a hiatus for six years. considering the dark times for death metal in the late nineties, i suppose the record wasn't commercially successful. musically it is a typical obituary piece of doomy death metal the way i like it. listenable did the album justice with its vinyl treatment. slip sleeve, heavy cardboard stock insert and semi-translucent red vinyl make for a sharp first vinyl pressing. 1000 copies made. roadrunner records. 1997. listenable records. 2018.

gorguts - the erosion of sanity

when listenable records from france re-issued "considered dead" first in 2016, they also did a re-issue of gorguts second effort "the erosion of sanity", originally released in 1993. strangely the album was never pressed to vinyl before. i have a few roadrunner releases on vinyl which came out in the same year or even later. it remains a mystery to me why the label refused the production of a vinyl version.

so the 2016 edition was technically speaking a first press and this makes my copy part of the second press. actually it is just a re-press of a re-issue. fuck all that anyway, what counts is listening to the music on vinyl. and musically gorguts delivers heaps of typical early nineties death metal with a strong american tinge. "the erosion of sanity" is more diverse than its predecessor and sometimes the beginning progressivity shines through.

although i have to say the record has its lengths. it is not always able to keep my attention up and at this point i prefer "considered dead" over this full length. the presentation by listenable is cool, though. great transfer of the cover art into the lp format, sturdy insert and slightly marbled orange vinyl to round out the package. funnily the hype sticker advertises it as splatter vinyl. come on, really cannot see this. 500 copies made. listenable records. 2018.

gorguts - considered dead

gorguts became one of my most respected bands since i have their masterpiece "obscura" in my collection. the works of the band are never easily digested but so rich in detail and sophisticated musicianship, that a gorguts record will always be a pleasure for the ears. i own all their post-"obscura" records and couldn't decide which one might be better. "from wisdom to hate", "colored sands" and "pleiades' dust" are proof of the uniqueness of this canadian prog death monster around band leader luc lemay.

but there is also a pre-"obscura" era. a period in the early nineties where gorguts were part of a flourishing scene which chose to call their music death metal. a time where bands like death, obituary, deicide or suffocation were releasing milestones of the genre. right into this time frame, maybe when the death metal hype peaked, gorguts released their debut "considered dead". they even got a record deal with roadrunner records, the label all the aforementioned bands released their stuff on.

i don't how the album was recieved back then but when i am listening to this re-issue now, i assume it was quite successful. it ticks all the right boxes for a death metal fan of the time. it is a solid effort which doesn't show any hints of the brilliancy to come, though. still, i really enjoy it. the presentation by listenable does the original justice. only the back of the sleeve got a work-over that ties in with original very well. i love the cover art by dan seagrave here. 500 copies on clear blue with black smoke vinyl. listenable records. 2018.

aborted - the archaic abattoir

aborted were one of the first extreme metal bands i got into outside my steady hardcore diet in the early 00's. i don't know anymore how i got aware of aborted but it was most likely via myspace which i frequented quite often back then. i was really attracted by the fast drumming and the groovy parts along to the gore lyrics. the latter i am not into anymore but back then i found topics like mass murdereres gruesomely fascinating and "the archaic abattoir" tied in perfectly.

i bought the slipcase cd version in 2005 with alternate artwork and still have that copy. when i started getting into vinyl and was buying a lot of records i had on cd previously, "the archaic abattoir" was high on the list of vacant vinyl albums. there were chances along the way but it never worked out. a few weeks back i finally came across an ebay auction with a reasonable starting bid. i won it with me being the only one placing a bid. good deal.

the cover sleeve has a bit wear on the edges but the vinyl looks damn neat. a shame listenable never came up with a colour vinyl version but the black vinyl suits me just fine. check out this ferocious bastard of an grind death record here. the presentation is basic. a slip sleeve with an two-sided insert and nothing more. the pressing is hand-numbered with a gold marker on the back. my copy is  number 347 out of 700 copies. listenable records. 2005.

gojira - from mars to sirius (cream/black merge)

did i really need this re-press of my favourite gojira record "from mars to sirius"? obviously i did not because i already own a nice clear with white and orange splatter variant from two years ago. but when i saw these nice new colour-ways go up for pre-order i couldn't resist.

the merge variant looked just too delicious. unlike the merge copy for "the way of all flesh" i ordered "from mars to sirius" from emp mailorder. they had serious delivery issues and so my record arrived way later than "the way of all flesh" which i ordered directly from listenable records.

so really not much to say about this one. musically this is easily my favourite of this french band. when the first tunes of "ocean planet" kick in, i am in another world. a perfect melange of progressivity, rhythm, melody and heaviness. check out the heaviest matter of gojira in its entirety.

listenable records printed this album for the sixth time by now. nothing special, you say, considering the album was released in 2005. remarkable is that the first listenable press is from 2011. every year a new pressing and they sell quick. speaks for the quality of "from mars to sirius". 700 copies made. listenable records. 2005/2017.

gojira - the way of all flesh (blue/black merge re-press)

after the mastodon record of the last post another band out of my top five is honouring this blog. gojira. this french institution is unbeaten in terms of atmosphere, intelligent song-writing and sophisticated, yet philosophical lyrics. gojira never released any half-baked records, their discography is flawless. as the greatness of this band didn't go unrecognised among music fans, their recorded material is object to high demand.

listenable records didn't even press some vinyl for the initial release in 2008. the liscence to do so went to prosthetic records, which pressed some colour copies for the north american market. those copies fetch crazy prices on second-hand market places nowadays. listenable produced their first press in 2013 and keeps the record in press pretty regularly. i bought a copy of the second listenable pressing on clear with black and blue splatter two years back.

a good friend of mine shares the excitement for gojira with me and as a present i couldn't think of a better way than to get him his favourite gojira record "the way of all flesh". i was toying with the idea to get a copy of the new merge colour re-press anyway and so i gave away my clear splatter copy and ordered a new record at nuclear blast along with the recent cradle of filth release. the release date got postponed week after week until nuclear blast told me, that they wouldn't get any copies from the wholesale and then gave me a refund.

i got a bit nervous because all the german distros didn't carry any copies anymore. finally i reached out for the mother label. in the end i paid about ten bucks more because of the high shipping rates from france but i got a lovely blue and black merge copy eventually. this colour-way compliments the cover art superbly. great edition. unfortunately my printed dust sleeves are split on the edges but at least my cover sleeve is in great condition. got a little discount on future orders at listenable in return. we'll see when there is the chance to use it anyway. 700 copies made. listenable records. 2008/2017.

suffocation - pierced from within orange vinyl

almost a year ago i bought a copy of suffocation's third album "pierced from within". back then i won an auction for an orange vinyl re-press by listenable records from france. after some hassle i finally recieved a copy, only it wasn't coloured but black vinyl. i then got a refund and the seller said that i could keep the black copy. in my according post i wrote that i wasn't planning to get the colour copy and stick to my black lp. yeah right, who was i fooling here?

when i decided to buy "pleiades' dust" by gorguts from supreme chaos records, i searched the store for an addition to my order. i came across a new orange vinyl copy for a pretty moderate price. the description said "slight corner ding" which probably was the reason for the good price. i thought "how bad can it be?", and added it to my cart. i am still searching for that corner ding and am very happy that i went for it.

the album was recorded in 1995 and actually released by roadrunner records. it was the first album where the band was satisfied with the sound production. on this album they started with the habbit of re-recording one song of the "breeding the spawn" record, which had a poor production due to some financial issues of roadrunner, on every new album. check out the whole record here. 500 copies pressed. listenable records. 2016.

suffocation - effigy of the forgotten

the last record of the haul which included the meshuggah and crowbar record of the last two posts. suffocation's debut full length in form of a fancy re-press by listenable records from france. as the interested reader might have noticed from my related posts, listenable re-pressed the three classic suffocation albums with "effigy of the forgotten" from 1991 being the most recent at the present time. there are a lot of roadrunner records re-issues in circulation in the moment and i am there to willingly open my wallet.

i missed the first run of coloured vinyl from the beginning of the year. so when i saw nuclear blast restocking the album, this time on green vinyl, i had no excuse anymore. musically the first album is pretty raw as far as technical death metal goes. the whole record feels like a coherent block. most of the times this an advantage because it leaves one completely destroyed, but at times it feels a bit hard to digest. nevertheless i think the album is essential for any suffocation collection and death metal collection in general.

as far as re-pressings are concerned, i am definitely a fan of original artwork and layout. listenable records did go for the original cover artwork but altered the layout of the back of the cover a bit and completely re-designed the insert, which was actually a printed dust sleeve at the original pressing. frank mullen is wearing a trump plaza shirt on the back pic, which is a now closed hotel in atlantic city basically owned by donald trump back in the day. i don't know if that means anything but it seems trump is everywhere these days, even in metal re-pressings. 500 copies made. listenable records. 2016.

gojira - terra incognita

after listenable records re-pressed "the link", "from mars to sirius" and "the way of all flesh" very sucessfully at the beginning of this year - the clear vinyl with matching colour splatter for each record sold out pretty quickly - and the band released their new album "magma" in summer, listenable saw the signs and decided to re-press gojira's debut from 2000 as well. technically it is even a first press because "terra incognita" didn't recieve the vinyl treatment before.

i heard about the re-issue of gojira's first album via the label's facebook page and waited for the pre-orders to go live at nuclear blast, because most listenable stuff is distributed through the german metal label. not so this time, at least no coloured versions. so i searched my way through german mailorders and finally made a find at high roller records. unfortunately they didn't sell the more limited orange vinyl but i was glad to find some colour vinyl without paying international shipping.

i got the white vinyl and think it looks pretty lovely. the musical part is again a typical gojira record. sophisticated metal that is unmistakably the french four-piece. they have a special idea of rhythm which is recognisable throughout their whole work but still gojira develops from record to record. even in this early stage they are better than most in today's progressive metal. every gojira record is a classic in its own right and "terra incognita" is no exception. listen to the complete album and be convinced.

the presentation is very well done. a lovely gatefold made of matte cardboard which has a nice haptic, black dust sleeves and heavy duty white double vinyl. it is the second to most limited version out of 600 copies. the re-issue is liscensed from silvera records. i believe this is the band's own label because "silvera" is a song and single from "magma". cool to see the band taking events into their own hands. get a coloured copy as long they last, listenable still has both in stock. listenable records. silvera records. 2016.

suffocation - breeding the spawn

i apologise for the lack of posts last week but their simply wasn't much to write about plus i was occupied with getting a ticket for the sold out wacken open air via ebay on sunday last week and then attending the festival which is only a twenty minutes drive away from where i live. i will tell you more about it in the upcoming post about my festival pick-up. but for now, let's move the attention to the record at hand. death metal at it's best with suffocation's sophomore release "breeding the spawn".

i had a lot of fun with their third record "pierced from within" and thought i might acquire more of the latest listenable re-issue series of the band's early titles. i wanted the clear yellow vinyl for "breeding the spawn" but unfortunately listenable sells their most limited colour-ways through their own shop exclusively and as the label is situated in france, it would increase shipping costs. so i searched discogs and came across an offering from a german seller.

in the end the price was the same as if ordered from france but i see no advantage in international shipping and so took the discogs option. to me "breeding the spawn" beats "pierced from within" to second place. the song writing is somewhat more compact. i really like the groovy parts and the charming nineties feel of the album. check it out here. the cover art is actually quite horrible but in a way which makes it almost cool again. well, almost. what does it show? an icey breeding ground for evil sculptures? anyway, 200 copies on "piss yellow". listenable records. 2016.

suffocation - pierced from within

when i bought the two iron maiden records from the eighties this month, i felt pretty comfortable with that retro feel and so i thought i might check out some death metal classics from the eighties and nineties just to see if i find something interesting. i searched the bay for some vinyl and came across a coloured copy for suffocation's third album "pierced from within". suffocation formed in 1990 in new york and were one of the first bands mixing hardcore and grindcore with death metal. i found that pretty exciting and placed my bid for this recent re-press.

in the end i won it for a decent price and joyfully awaited my copy to show up. only it didn't and so i asked the commercial seller where it might be. they said they sent it but it must have got lost in the mail and so said to send a replacement. the replacement finally arrived but had an ugly seam-split and above all wasn't coloured. eventually they offered me a refund and said i could keep the record. wow, this i call customer-friendly behaviour. even though the deal didn't work out, i think i'll buy from this seller again.

i don't think i will go for the coloured version of "pierced from within". i'm ok with my 180gr black copy for free. musically this is pretty good technical death with loads of groove and head-banging potential. will look out for more suffocation stuff. this 2016 re-press is, apart from a bootleg from 2013, the first vinyl pressing of this album from 1995, actually released on roadrunner records. listenable records from france did the job and it looks solid. sturdy cardboard sleeve and insert. nice! listenable. 2016.

gojira - the link

the third and the last gojira re-issue that listenable came up with. this time for the band's second full length 'the link' from 2003. just like my first copy of 'the way of all flesh', it came in pretty beaten. nasty seam-splits and a flawed cover. it wasn't glued together evenly and thus looked a bit deformed. the nice guys over at nuclear blast sent me a proper replacement though, so all is ok.

musically 'the link' is again some piece of outstanding good progressive death metal. this french four-piece comes from a small town called ondres in south-west france, and somehow i feel this record sounds like a windy, cloudy and cold day at the beach of the atlantic ocean. all songs played with so much variety and diversity. these guys know how to make interesting, complex and crazy structured songs, without sounding too demanding.

there's still a certain freshness in the mix, though. just check out pearls like 'remembrance' or 'embrace the world'. 'the link' wasn't initially released by listenable records. not until 2005 where they put out a remastered version. it took them seven years before the first vinyl edition of this album appeared. this clear with red and orange splatter version is from the thrid pressing, out of 500 copies and looking sharp. listenable records, 2016.

gojira - the way of all flesh

when listenable announced the re-pressings of the three gojira records in their back catalogue and after i re-assured myself that i really like this band, i was waiting eagerly for my pre-order from nuclear blast to arrive. when they finally did, it seemed like a bad joke to me. i get my packages sent to my work address, to make sure i don't have to pick up records at the post office because i wasn't home when they showed up. usually a collegue of mine accepts the parcels.

unfortunately a big tear at one edge of the parcel went unnoticed until i picked it up. on my way home i was picturing nasty seam-splits on my records, stuff that collector's nightmares are made of. when i arrived home, all my worries came true. apart from a creased corner, 'from mars to sirius' came in relatively unharmed but the other two were looking horrible. the records were sealed, which is usually enough to save covers from seam-splits but the fucking postman must have played rugby with the parcel, badly at that.

both, 'the way of all flesh' and 'the link', showed ugly seam-splits on cover and dust sleeves alike. damn it! fortunately nuclear blast is pretty cool with returning damaged goods and sending out new copies if still available. under these circumstances i was quite lucky that 'from mars to sirius' was ok, because it was the only one being already sold out at that point. thankfully nb sent me some lovely new copies and even opening the seals upon my request, to get the the vinyl delivered outside the cover. thanks guys!

musically this is very close to my favourite, 'from mars to sirius'. maybe a little darker all in all but brilliant all the way through. a little tech death here, a little groove there, some unusual guitar hooks and a little bit of experimenting with electronic music and ready is the master piece. sometimes the fragments seem so easy, almost banal but listening to it in whole you'll see the bigger picture. an exciting record at every second. lyrically it's about the bands vision of life and death. leaves plenty of room for interpretation. 500 copies on clear with blue and black splatter vinyl. listenable records. 2008/2016.

oh yeah, here is a glimpse on what my first copy of 'the way of all flesh' looked like when it arrived.

what a diabolical waste...

gojira - from mars to sirius

gojira. i take a deep breath and take in that name and what it stands for for a second. alright, now let's start this post off with the history of this band and me. for the first time i came across gojira was on lenny's blog the emeging addiction at some point in 2012. lenny stated that these four french guys were one of his favourite bands and as his and my taste in death metal bands are pretty much alike, i thought i should check them out. i did so but it wasn't grabbing me really and so i wrote them off.

i didn't care much for this band the following years until in december 2015 nuclear blast announced pre-orders for re-presses of three of four gojira full lengths. i saw them at one of my regular checks over at the nb new additions section. they were all coming on some nice colour vinyl and now, as they were available, something in the back of my head told me to re-visit them. that procedure is not unknown to me. when availability isn't an issue anymore because of fancy re-presses, i re-check bands to see if i probably miss something great. sometimes it works for me, sometimes not.

the first song i listened to after i decided to give gojira another try was 'ocean planet', the first song of 'from mars to sirius'. as soon as the first riff kicks in i was rivited by it. i stopped in the motion and like paralysed, i sat in awe for the 5:34 minutes the song lasts. i knew immediately that this wasn't your ordinary death metal and ordered straight away. gojira has a certain song writing that is forceful, slowly-melancholic and always sophisticated right down to the smallest detail. indeed, the lyrical concept of this album is outstanding and is in no way inferior to the musical side. if i get it right, the story is about a resurrection of a dead planet by inhabitants of the binary star sirius.

i did a bit of research but only came up with vague informations. sirians, entities of the star sirius, are part of an alien culture which assists the earth and all its creatures. they usually are strongly connected to doplphins and whales. through the singing of the whales they channel the energies of the earth. this link may explain the whale on the cover and other references. i really love this story of nature conservancy linked to these supernatural beings of higher consciousness. this album is flawless to me. the presentation is nice too. fancy matte cardboard for the cover with lovely artwork and sharp clear with orange and white splatter vinyl. 500 copies made. more of gojira soon. listenable records. 2016.