august burns red is a fantastic band. period. musically they are absolutely on top of their game. in the metalcore genre there is none more imaginative, none more creative and none heavier. no killswitch engage, no caliban (boo!), no parkway drive. of course this is just my humble opinion but you simply cannot deny the musical force this band displays. from the vinyl point of view i was missing some essential releases of august burns red.
at the top spot and much to my dissatisfaction still there, their first full length "thrill seeker", which, i begin to believe, will be sitting there until solid state does another re-press. that damned first press is a nightmare to get a hold on for a half-way reasonable price. second place was "constellations", their third full length from 2009. a first press black copy, which was the only colour pressed, fetches insane prices up to two hundred bucks.
to avoid this madness i was waiting for the re-issues to come. if it wasn't for tobe, a fellow vinyl collector, i don't know if i learned about the existence of this new edition in time. he tipped me off and i ordered straight away. the only way to get it was via merchnow.com from the states. even though i e-mailed the lads to ship the vinyl outside the sleeve, the record arrived here sealed. sometimes the shrink wrap is tight enough to prevent seam-splits, not so this time. my cover has a top seam-split and my printed dust sleeve is split at all three edges.
fuck, i hate that! give me a small tear, give me a creased corner or give me a split plain white dust sleeve but lord, spare me those nasty cover seam-splits! as it is economically stupid to send my copy back and ask for a new one, i'll keep mine. i chose the orange inside clear red against the swamp green for obvious reason, because it looks better. solid state changed the cover a little bit compared to the original but still stood true to the idea. i am ok with that. the album is a scorcher indeed. check it out! 1.000 copies made. solid state records. 2009/2016.
