sadus - a vision of misery

recent mov re-issue of this 90's thrash metal classic. 750 copies on gold vinyl. originally released by roadrunner records in 1992. music on vinyl. 2024.

vision of disorder - imprint

my wife and me been to potsdam, germany two weeks back for a little vacation without the kids. of course, i looked for the local vinyl store - silverspeed records. a little cramped and stuffed but i came up with two nice finds. first was this music on vinyl pressing of vod landmark album 'imprint'. quite a steal for under twenty bucks. roadrunner records/mov. 1998/2018.

silverchair - neon ballroom

a little walk down memory lane. when this one came out in 1999 it still took me another four years or so before i ventured out of my new metal phase into heavier spheres. but that year saw me knee deep in new metal and all the contemporary mtv heaviness. among them was silverchair. i knew them from their "freak" video of their breakthrough record "freak show".

that song left such an positive impression on me that i went out to buy the follow-up "neon ballroom" on cd. i already heard the "anthem for the year 2000" single and really liked it, so anticipation was high. i remember that the whole record could not live up to my expectations but i still listened to it quite often back then. nevertheless i ended up selling the cd at some point along the way.

when i saw the mov version coming on a new colour edition, i couldn't resist. my collegues at work asked me what to give to me for birthday and i thought it might be a good idea to point them towards this record. i really enjoy re-visiting this album. especially "emotion sickness" is so full of drama and gives a little glimpse on how inwardly disintegrated singer daniel johns was. 20th anniversary pressing on clear blue vinyl out of 3.000 copies. music on vinyl. 2019.

biohazard - state of the world address

one of my long time wants got a re-press and of course i am there to gladly add a reasonable priced record to the collection. biohazard's "state of the world address" from 1994 was one of the hardcore records that reached my ears in an early stage of my musical socialisation. therefore i still hold this record close to my heart and forgive the little flaws generously. again, the problem why i didn't purchase an original copy earlier was the goddamn price.

i simply did not want to cash out the fifty bucks plus for a copy in good condition. thus i settled for the cd and later on for the tape version. as music on vinyl always does nice re-issues being close to the original edition, i had no hard feelings with getting this baby. only i was concerned a bit about the choice of the vinyl colour. silver vinyl seemed like a good idea looking at the black and white cover picture but i really hoped for orange.

orange? if you know original cd and tape copies of the album, you know that warner bros. music issued those editions in clear orange plastic cases with a black biohazard sign on the front. i really would have loved mov picked up on that theme; clear orange vinyl or a transparent orange protection sleeve or something. ah, what a missed opportunity. whatever the music still sounds lovely from vinyl. check out the album here. 1.000 copies made. music on vinyl. 2019.

madball - look my way

so here is my first vinyl record i got for christmas. most probably my mother-in-law got a good source of informtion on this one here, otherwise i am highly impressed by her good taste in hardcore punk music. i am really happy that i got the music on vinyl re-issue of this record. there was another one around made by german label backbite records. they had cooler colours of vinyl but mov was closer to the original pressing made by roadrunner records in 1998.

actually both pressings were not too far from the original but backbite chose different centre labels and the new roadrunner records logo on the back of the sleeve. for the sake of the details, i think the music on vinyl pressing looks better, although they changed the printed dust sleeve of the original press into a fold out insert with a band pic on the flipside.

anyway, aside with the nerd stuff. musically i have to say that this is probably the weakest madball effort in my humble opinion. not really memorable and pretty basic. we'll see if this opinion can be changed over time. it was important to have alone to complete the madball full length collection. 180g silver vinyl and numbered out of 1.500 copies. i have #500 which is pretty cool. music on vinyl. 2018.

happy new year and many vinyl records to you all in 2019!

type o negative - bloody kisses

a re-issue that many people were waiting for. as i really just started getting into type o, this one came in quite handy. "bloody kisses" was one of the most commercial succesful full length releases of the band and gained a cult status throughout the years. therefore original copies from 1993 don't sell for under two hundred bucks at the moment and even re-issues from the late 00's can fetch up to one hundred euros. way too much for me, so i can just say thanks to music on vinyl for this slick pressing right here.

musically this is an awesome piece of goth tinged metal. or is it even metal? i don't know. what i know is that this record makes heavy and dark music feel light and easy, and in this lies its sheer brilliancy. "christian woman" is such a fantastic opener and in its full length way better than the edit version, i know from "the least worst of" comp i bought earlier this year. the rest are no stinkers as well, by far not. from the laid back "summer breeze", over the ironic "we hate everyone" to the beatles homage "can't lose you", this record is perfection.

this music on vinyl edition does the album justice. the records are housed in a wonderful reverse board gatefold with a lovely haptic and is made as a replique of the original, which is just my taste. even the old roadrunner logo was used. instead of printed dust sleeves, mov came up with a lovely booklet with some extended artwork. as an extra they threw in an art print of the cover picture. sharp presentation all around. heavy duty silver double vinyl, numbered and out of 6.666 copies. music on vinyl. 2018.

fear factory - obsolete

"there is a fear factory in this division". finally, someone proved sense over at music on vinyl and brought this sucker to its long deserved vinyl treatment. while nu metal ruled my playlist, "obsolete" was one of the few metal albums that found their way into my collection in the late nineties. i bought a cd copy on a whim in an appliance store's media section because i liked the cover art. when i brought it home i listened to it over and over again and i still know every second of the album. i always loved the dense atmosphere and its beautiful melody lines.

"obsolete" from 1998 is a scorcher on all accounts and therefore i did not waste a single second of thinking whether to get the recent vinyl pressing or not. i bought my copy on ebay. the seller was media markt and as they have stores all over germany, it was no problem to get it sent to my local store, save on shipping and pick it up. man, that record aged pretty good. back in the day i always thought of "hi-tech hate" and "freedom or fire" as inferior songs but now, especially the latter one slowly becomes my favourite of the record. the lyrical concept of a dystopian police state and its underground resistance is brilliant too.

of course the idea isn't really new. books like fahrenheit 451, 1984, comic books like v for vendetta or movies like blade runner go in a similar direction and it feels like burton c. bell took the best of them all. nevertheless the short story "conception 5" is so well written and the lyrics so fantastically tied in, it gives me the goosebumps every time i read along. the presentation is pretty cool. the artwork works well in vinyl format and the gold vinyl itself is a pretty good match. hopefully the rest of fear factory's roadrunner back catalogue will also be re-issued on vinyl by mov. 2000 copies made. music on vinyl. 2018.

post scriptum: "obsolete" is, i think, the only album of which i own a copy on all common formats. that speaks for itself. which one i might take for a listen today?

machine head - the burning red

machine head was never of much interest to me. i saw them a couple of times play live at festivals, which were always good shows, but i never really sat down to listen to their records - with one exception. in the late nineties i was listening to a lot of nu metal stuff, korn and the like. at the time machine head was also influenced by this musical movement and they wrote an album that in parts also appealed to nu metal fans.

actually it were just two verses of the whole album where flynn incorporated some rap vocals into the sound and that was it. nevertheless the band got a lot of hate for "the burning red" from 1999 and it is maybe the most controversial album of the band. anyway, back in the day i saw the video for "from this day" on music television and i liked the song. so when i saw a cd copy sitting at a record store in the neighbour town, i grabbed it.

i remember that i liked three quarter of "the burning red" and thus i never listened overly often to the cd. when music on vinyl announced a re-issue i still was interested and so i ordered a copy. listening to the record now is pretty much a reassurement of my impression from almost twenty years ago. a solid album that doesn't go beyond. still entertaining, though. good work of mov here. great restoring of the original artwork and layout plus lovely red/black marble vinyl. 3000 copies made. music on vinyl.  2018.

life of agony - ugly

let us come to my little batch of christmas gifts. i wrote a little wishlist for my relatives to make the search for gifts easier for them. yeah, i am that nice kind of a person. in the end i got nine records for the season of which i will put up seven here (the other two are not hardcore or metal related). the first one is the latest re-press of life of agony's second full length "ugly". since vocalist mina communicated her new self to the world, i saw the band play live twice but didn't come around to even listen to one song of the new album.

i will have to right that wrong soon. but as of late i was more interested in their old stuff. i mean, "river runs red" is definitely one of the best nyhc records out there and the guys never reached those highs again but i really can enjoy "soul searching sun" and thus was excited for "ugly". on this record one can strongly feel the departure from the hardcore background to a more alternative driven sound. still, "ugly" is great for what it is and to hear caputo sing is always a pleasure. a voice as one in a million.

music on vinyl did the job and as always they did a splendid one. "ugly" has been released in 1995 and got the vinyl treatment via roadrunner records back then. twelve years later, in 2007 roadrunner re-issued the album as part of their classics series on 180gr black wax. so ten years after that music on vinyl continues their collaboration with roadrunner and comes up with this nice gold vinyl version. the presentation is very close to the original, like that. only the centre labels are taken from the '07 re-issue. 1500 made. music on vinyl. 2017.

madball - demonstrating my style

music on vinyl from the netherlands joined forces with roadrunner records and is re-releasing some classic albums on nice colour vinyl. the first one of this series that landed on my shelf was life of agony's "soul searching sun". i am very excited for every new mail i get from the mov-newsletter to see what pearl gets the vinyl treatment next. when i saw the name madball in the list, i got sweaty hands.

i hoped for a "set it off" re-release but in the end it was their sophomore effort "demonstrating my style" from 1996. pretty cool nevertheless, especially when i heard that the "set it off" job was handled by another label, but more of this when the time is right. back to "demonstrating my style". i must admit that i didn't know this one very good. probably listened to it a handful times before and i don't even own a physical copy.

with this lovely vinyl edition i corrected that wrong doing of mine and i think it's a real good madball record. "set it off" will probably remain my favourite output of this nyhc veterans but "demonstrating my style" has some real ragers to offer. "true to the game", "streets of hate" or "pride (times are changing" are fantatstic madball hardcore right where it hurts. love this nineties feeling the album transports.

the presentation by music on vinyl is top notch as expected. for their roadrunner re-issues they seem to use a different cardboard for the cover sleeves. matte card instead of high glossy card. i appreciate this. feels more down to earth and in combination with a hardcore record just the right thing. i am not the biggest silver vinyl fan but it admittedly works very nice with the colours of the artwork. #693 out of 1.000 copies pressed. music on vinyl. 2016.

life of agony - soul searching sun

life of agony released one of my all time favourite records. "river runs red" was once handed over to me on a dubbed cassette by my oncle and ever since i loved this fifty minutes of recorded music. despite the fact that this album has a special place im my heart, i never spent much time with their other outputs. i listened to a few bits of "ugly" and knew the song "weeds" because a friend of mine loves it but that's that.

since 2014 the band is touring again after they resigned from their second resignation in 2012 and a new album is set to be released this year. now music on vinyl thought it might be a good idea to re-issue some of their older titles. well, that comes in just handy. at first they re-released the band's "unplugged at the lowlands festival '97" album on several vinyl colours for this years rsd. i wasn't interested because it's a live album plus, and that is even worse, no electronical distorted guitars.

when "soul searching sun" from 1997 was announced, i was way more interested. i skipped the pre-listening on the tube and the like and when the time came i ordered at per koro right away. after i gave it some spins i pretty much got what i was expecting. the record is solid but doesn't gets me as excited as "river runs red" does. they dropped a lot of their hardcore elements in favour for a more alternative orientated sound. this new recipe works on one half of the album very damn well.

songs like "gently sentimental", "led astray" or the superb "neg" are very strong. then there is another half which is just average alternative rock and a bit boring. still i think i'll grab this for an occassional listen here and there. the presentation is the shit though. nice matte cardboard sleeve, a fold-out insert and hot 180gr orange marble vinyl. very nicely done! #1334 of 1500 copies pressed. music on vinyl. 2016.

sick of it all - built to last

sick of it all is probably my favourite nyhc band out there. i love their energetic hardcore-punk and their anarchical lyrics, which are far from only relying on empty platitudes. i even love their emphasis on punk in their music, which is usually not my cup of tea. thanks to the high demand for sick of it all's back catalogue and the ongoing hype for re-presses, i have been able to get a fair amount of their albums on vinyl.

here is just another example. music on vinyl from the netherlands already gave soia's milestone record 'scratch the surface' a worthy re-press two years ago and now the time has come for their second and last major label release 'built to last' from 1997. it's the band's fourth full length and a damn scorcher. obviously it is because there is no such thing as a bad sick of it all record. on a side note, it was produced by garth richardson a.k.a. gggarth who also worked with rage against the machine, the melvins or skunk anansie.

nineteen years ago elektra records or east west records, which are ultimately warner music, decided to liscence the vinyl rights to independent labels because vinyl was pretty dead. the renowned equal vision record company pressed black and lovely blue marble vinyl. this version looks superior to the re-press but fetches quite a penny nowadays. this mov re-issue is great nevertheless and affordable, so i'm really fine with it. 180g rust brown vinyl coming in a glossy sleeve with insert. 1000 copies made. music on vinyl. 2016.

korn - life is peachy

the last piece of the puzzle. the last korn re-issue of the first six classic line-up albums on coloured vinyl. i was inconsequent when it came to obtain the last two releases of the music on vinyl re-presses. while i was on fire for the first four, the entusiasm died down a bit after the 'untouchables' release. probably that was the bad taste 'untouchables' left in mouth. anyway, now i fixed this situation and got my second korn album i ever listened to finally on coloured vinyl.

listening to it now there is a little paradox emerging. when i re-listened the record for the first time in probably something like ten years, it appeared to me that out of fourteen songs which are on the album, there are only a handful real good ones. most of them are average at best. 'good god', 'no place to hide', 'a.d.i.d.a.s.', 'ass itch' and above all 'kill you' are real crackers, but the rest? doesn't knock me off the edge of my seat musically. nevertheless when i am listening to the album, there is not only my point of view on music today but there is a strong emotional side.

back then, after my childhood buddy and me listened the shit out of 'follow the leader' we decided what album to get next. money was slim and so we made a deal. he would get the self-titled album and i would get 'life is peachy', so we could interchange the cd's. 'life is peachy' was my purchase and to hold something such as an original cd in hands meant the world to me. it was way cooler than the burned copy of the 'korn' album and got way more spins in my discman.

so the paradox is that despite the weaker musical side of 'life is peachy' it hits the top three of my personal korn list. I - follow the leader II - issues III - life is peachy IV - korn V- take a look in the mirror VI - untouchables. word. presentation wise mov let up a bit on this one. the sleeve and the vinyl are great quality as always. the insert however is a bit blurry and the typeface is pretty illegible. plus they dropped the nice black dust sleeve for a casual white one. 1500 copies on clear vinyl. music on vinyl. 2015.

korn - issues

i remember how excited i was in december 1999. it was christmas and i knew i would get the new korn cd 'issues' as a gift because it was on top of my wish list. i was thirteen back then and without the financial possibilities of today it was something real special to get a hold on original cd's. my uncle gave it to me and after the gifts were handed out and all the relatives went home, i jammed the compact disc into my discman and played it for the first time.

back then i was split over 'issues'. there were a bunch of great songs on it but also some songs that felt like fillers. i played the shit out of that album but back then it couldn't really live up to 'follow the leader' to me. now with sixteen years of further musical imprinting it still can't, because 'follow the leader' took deeper emotional roots within me - but i appreciate it more than in the past. 'issues' shows korn at the peak of their song-writing skills.

so many great songs on it. the intro 'dead' sends shivers down my spine, 'wake up' seems like the most underrated korn pearl of all to me, 'dirty' with its dissonant song structures is unbelievably strong and the best korn song of all time is on this album - 'somebody someone' is such a raw and heavy piece of music, it makes me want to jump around uncontrollably. on top those five lovely interludes, including the intro, make clear that this record is worked out right down to the last detail.

still some weaker songs on the album. stuff like 'no way' or 'hey daddy' but if i listen to all korn records up to the split, which is the departure of head to me, and all for the first time now, i would pick 'issues' for the best. i picked up this record at saturn store in hamburg, the same day i had my elder shopping spree. music on vinyl re-issues are pretty pricey and the price tag on this one wasn't low by any means, but still a bit cheaper than internet options and so it was mine. lovely coloured double vinyl with disc one on orange marble and disc two on yellow marble. 1500 copies made. music on vinyl. 2015. 

korn - untouchables

so, 'untouchables'. everytime i think of that record i heave a sigh. thirteen years ago, back in 2002, i was sixteen and after i bought the cd version of korn's fifth full length, i put it right into my discman to listen to it on the way to my best friend. by the first listen already i felt the downfall of korn the way i love them was ringed in.

of course, korn's sound became more and more quirky with every album they put out but the one thing that was always there, was the groove. they always had a sense for stuff that rocked. not so this time. with every korn re-issue that came in in the last months i could remember most of the songs, if not all of them.

with the new copy of 'untouchables' in my hands and reading the track list on the back, the only song that felt familiar was 'here to stay'. now i remember why. after listening to the album, it's pretty much the only song that is worth the effort of pulling out the record and dropping the needle on it. korn chose an experimental path this time, that i just didn't want to follow and still don't feel comfortable walking down.

this purchase is really all about the completion of the re-issue series. and musical side apart, this version really looks lovely. again a thick, glossy glue-pocket sleeve, black dust sleeves and two discs on this nice bronze colour. looks really good. i love that the two of them differ a little bit colour-wise. mov did the first pressing on 1500 coloured copies. i have #1000. music on vinyl. 2015.

korn - take a look in the mirror

back with another korn album. this time it's about their last decent record called 'take a look in the mirror'. after 'untouchables' went in a more experimential direction and was not that well recieved by 'the older korn fans', although being commercially very successful, the band felt the need to take a step back. 'back to the roots' is the oft-cited slogan to this record.

musically this was just a half-assed success, in my humble opinion. i mean, they stripped down their sound to the basic elements of 's/t' and 'life is peachy'. just drums, bass and guitars, no superfluity. that's cool. unfortunately most of the songs sound more or less like pale imitations of the aforementioned records. of course i still enjoy these songs but 'did my time', 'let's do this now' or 'when will this end' lack of real musicianship. they feel like fillers. even 'play me', which is a collaboration with nas, sounds like a tired copy of 'children of the korn' with ice cube. on the other hand on this last album with the original line-up, korn still were able to deliver some killers. 'counting on me', 'here it comes again' and especially 'alive' are downright crackers.

speaking of 'alive', when i heard this song for the first time i thought, man, does korn now start to play the same shit over and over again literally? this sounds just as 'need to' from the '94 album. later i found out that this song appeared on their first e.p. called 'niedermeyer's mind', was re-arranged in the shape of 'need to' for the first record and was now re-recorded almost in its original glory for 'take a look...'. love all versions!

after all, i think i still rank this album higher than 'untouchables' but it can't mess with the first four. beside all this musical part involving my personal feelings towards it, music on vinyl did a flawless job on this release, again. sturdy glue-pocket sleeve big enough to house two 180gr records and an insert. the first 2000 copies were numbered and coming on semi-translucent silver vinyl. nice look! music on vinyl. 2014.

korn - s/t

after i gave in and bought my favourite korn album 'follow the leader' on coloured vinyl and was aware of the fact that music on vinyl would re-press all the good korn albums on vinyl, i was thinking about if i should get all the other records, too? either i would only buy 'follow the leader', justify it by the personal involvement and leave the rest alone, or i would buy them all. nothing in between. as i listened the shit out of all the other korn albums as well, the decision was easy after all.

who am i to lie to myself? of course i would buy them all. music on vinyl released their self titled album from 1994 at first in august this year. this one passed me by and the first time i saw a copy, was on a record shopping spree in hamburg. even holding a physical copy in hands, i didn't really feel the need to get it. but then came 'follow the leader' and that set the ball rolling.

i checked the internet for a copy and again i came across an offer of hhv on ebay. as every order with hhv was very convenient so far, i knew i could rely on them. i ordered it together with another record that i will soon post about. the records came in fast and in perfect shape. won't be the last order i placed with berlin's hhv store.

musically i was never that much of a fan of it. back in the day when i heard the album for the first time, my best friend and me had an agreement. after we both loved 'follow the leader' we knew we had to get the two preceeding albums as well. i was responsible for 'life is peachy' and he would get the self titled album, so we could exchange the cd's. then i preferred 'life is peachy' over 'korn' at any time. i think that hasn't changed.

i mean, the songs are good but it's the first record and, in my humble opinion, korn needed some more releases to fully develop. interestingly songs like 'fake' and 'lies' have aged really good and i can't remember that i enjoyed them as much as i do now. i really like that music on vinyl pressed the 'whole' album to vinyl (unlike on 'follow the leader'), so you can hear the argument of a couple over an exhaust that the producer ross robinson found on a tape in an abonded house. it's pretty spooky and i really loved this sixteen years ago. the fact that this was found somewhere in a house and nobody knows who the couple is or who taped this adds to the creepiness. pressed on lovely red w/ black marble vinyl. 2500 made. music on vinyl. 2014. 

korn - follow the leader

yeah, you got me. i admit, i am a korn fan. but let me explain to you. as a kid, i was introduced to heavy music by my uncle. i told that story many times before, so i won't bore you with another repetition. that must have been around '95 and '96. for two years i was content with the hardcore stuff i had on self-made tapes. i mean, i was at the age of nine or ten. i had more things to do than just listening to music. playing football, annoying neighbors and stuff. in 1998 things really begin to change. a good friend of mine and i were on winter vacation with our families. in the evening we were watching mtv and wittnessed something that became our first own musical discovery.

we watched a music video and by the title of this post you might already guess which one that was. yepp, 'freak on a leash' by korn. we were totally blown away. we looked at each other and were like, dude, you've seen that? boy, that was so cool. the whole bullet thing in the video. these cool dudes in baggy pants and with dread locks. and then this crazy song with its heavy guitars at the end. that was the shit, we decided. back home my buddy got the cd single (jeez, cd singles were real crap!) and we listened to this song without end. then, i decided to get the album.

in my small home town there wasn't any fancy music store, we just had a book store with a small music shelf. of course, they did not have it in stock. they had to purchase it at wholesale and then they informed my mom that the album was ready for pick up. i don't know what i paid anymore but it was a good chunk of my monthly pocket money, if not all of it. i took it home with great anticipation. and man, they were fully met. at one point i transfered the music to casette and took the album with me everywhere i went on my walkman. i remember listening to 'follow the leader' exclusively all the time through the summer family vacation in croatia. i loved this album to the death.

as time moved on and i was a youth, new possibilities arose with the internet and mtv became more and more uncool, just like nu metal in general. somehow korn, limp bizkit or coal chamber were not enough anymore. i craved for music with deeper meaning for my own life and so hardcore came back into my life with all might. i sold all my old cd's to fund future purchases of more important stuff like heaven shall burn, cataract or bleeding through. nu metal and korn with it was dead to me. dead until an announcement of music on vinyl made me pretty curious. the newsletter said that they would re-press all korn records up to 'take a look in the mirror' on coloured vinyl. well, that didn't get me hooked immediately. in hamburg, i came across a golden copy and suddenly i felt like i wanted it but the price put me off. back home i downloaded the album, just to see if i still liked it.

what can i say, i still do. i know these songs so well and everything came back - good memories and the album simply feels like home. so of course i wanted it. i ordered it together with the conan - monnos lp from hhv.de. the record looks lovely on gold vinyl and i really like the glue pocket sleeve. only downer is the missing of the bonus song 'earache my eye'. apart of that the presentation is top notch. they even put the white promo sticker on the pvc sleeve. had the same on my cd copy back then. the question, if i should get the other re-presses as well, will be answered in due time. 2000 made. music on vinyl. 2014.