madball - infiltrate the system

another long time want of mine. madball's sixth album 'infiltrate the system' is one of my favourites of them. very energetic and the sound is the shit on this album. they recorded at zeuss' planet z studios and in the 00's alot of great hardcore records were forged there. emmure, hatebreed, or the acacia strain recorded in massachussetts to name a few.

the album was released by ferret records for the u.s. market and by i scream records from belgium for europe. i scream in turn liscened the rights for a vinyl release to reality records, also from belgium. they pressed two colour ways. an opaque grey with black splatter and a tri-colour version.

as you might know i am a sucker for split colours, so of course i needed the latter variant. i wanted this record pretty much from the beginning of my collecting days, but never had a chance to grab a copy before. in last year's december an opportunity finally arose. i was an ebay auction away from my desired copy.

what can i say, you might imagine the end result. the record itself isn't in prime condition. some surface noise here and there but it plays without skipping. it is a loved one but i'm happy with it. check out 'we the people' and 'revolt' and tell me you don't feel like moshing around. can't be! great vibe. 500 made. reality records. 2007.

zero mentality - in fear of forever

this is a record i was after for as long as i had their sophomore effort 'invite your soul' in my collection. 'invite you soul' is a cracker of an album, it was a regular guest on my turntable and i still like to give it a spin from time to time. first i checked pressing information for 'in fear of forever'. it turned out that there was only one coloured vinyl version released by a label called cathargo records.

never heard of them before and ever since but taking a look at discogs, i found out that they released a handful of vinyl records for some european hardcore bands of lesser popularity. bands like solid ground or teamkiller. anyway, they produced a turquoise colour version for this specific zero mentality album. in that case, the price isn't that much of an issue. availability is the key. i once had the opportunity to get it via discogs but i was too slow.

two years later, in 2014, finally another chance came my way and this time i was ahead of the game. for the first time i saw the real deal. i couldn't get any pictures beforehand because there just weren't any to be found and i always thought it was an opaque vinyl affair. man, take a look at this beauty. an 180g clear turquoise marble vinyl. lovely! check out 'face the music' and 'nicht mehr'. pre-order version limited to 100 copies. cathargo records. 2005.

congress - blackened persistence

my backlog is huge. if i don't consider to go over my usual of something like twelve posts for two or three months, i don't think i will ever make a serious dent in that matter. for now, i'm not really in the mood but we will see to what the year will lead. to make me feel better though, within the coming four posts, this one included, i will put up some stuff from my wantlist, i already have what feels like forever. first one: 'blackened persistence' by congress.

congress is my favourite h8000 band. period. none better, in my eyes. along the way, i managed to get my greedy hands on almost every vinyl release of congress there is. only two were missing. the split with liar and 'blackened persistence', their first full length. the split isn't high priority but 'blackened persistence' definitely was. some years ago i even had the chance to snag a green copy from ebay for fifteen bucks. can you imagine, i let this chance pass me by. but then discogs made my day.

you know the rules, of course i paid more for this lovely opaque sky blue version. but i'm ok with it. it was reasonable still. musically this early work is a scorcher. the perfect blend between metal and hardcore which makes them so special to me. check out the album in its full glory by clicking this link. the record doesn't come with a proper insert but with a cd booklet. different sources tell me that there are either 50 or 100 copies of the blue vinyl. goodlife recordings. 1995.

xibalba & suburban scum split

i actually had this record in my possession before i ordered the new xibalba album 'tierra y libertad'. but only as of late and i gave 'tierra y libertad' the advantage in order to be contemporary. i saw this release first on lenny's blog. he always wrote very fondly of xibalba and as this post was no difference, i couldn't help it but to give them a shot.

i came across this specific record at hamburg's finest, burnout record store, pulled it from the racks and threw it on the turntable to check. boy, these two xibalba songs are nothing short of amazing. bulldozing death metal with hardcore and doom elements of most crushing nature. check out 'death threat' and bring your surroundings to nought.

the suburban scum part however isn't really grabbing me. it's not like their stuff is complete shit, it simply fails to excite me. but check for yourself. 'misery loves company' to your service. the split 12" was pressed on three different colour-ways. 300 on blue w/ white merge, 500 on blue w/ black splatter and 1200 on clear blue. closed casket activities. 2014.

nile - annihilation of the wicked re-issue

here is the next exception. a brand new re-issue of nile's mammoth release 'annihilation of the wicked'. it is my favourite album of these egyptian death metal fanatics. as you might know, i already have a first press copy on marbled grey vinyl but i was always a little bit dissatisfied with it. first: i don't think that marbled grey is the best match for the cover art.

second: my copy's glue, which holds the cover together, dried off on some ends. i can almost fold it out completely. i was always too worried to fix that, because i am scared to make it worse and probably glue it too tight so i cannot put the records inside the sleeve. anyway, grabbing an upgrade copy of a more limited first press copy seemed too expensive to really pursue it.

when i saw the whole package of this re-press at the relapse store, i couldn't help but get me a copy. fortunately high roller records from germany put up pre-orders for all four re-presses. i didn't hestitate and jumped at it. that spared me the agony of oversea shipping rates.

relapse went for a few changes to the original pressing. they changed the tracklisting of the three vinyl sides to add a bonus track. 'sss haa set yoth' was previously unreleased on vinyl. it got included on the japanese cd-version of 'anihilation...'. it was all new to me but sounds just as rad as the rest of this cracker.

furthermore they re-arranged the tracklist on the back cover, printed red instead of grey labels, gold foil logo print on the front and graced the d-side with a new etching. sorry for the bad pic of that. the colour is bad ass too. love how the gold changes with the light from gold to almost brown. i don't buy the re-pressings for 'amongst catacombs...' and 'black seeds...' because i think my original copies are superior to the new ones. but for the two i have, i can only say that relapse did a hell of a good job here. 1700 made. relapse records. 2005/2015.

nile - in their darkened shrines re-issue

this year marks the twenty fifth birthday of relapse records. this very fine underground metal label has a back catalogue full of classics and boy, they are not even slightly modest with giving these classics the re-issue treatment. one can think about this policy critically or not, it gives the new fan the possibility to get music on a new and shining copy of their desired format without paying over the odds on a second hand platform. i really acclaim this, with all its negative side effects.

in the past i exclusively bought re-issues because first press copies were hard to come by, or mostly because i couldn't afford them. i am real fine with re-issues. it's about the music and not about how limited a release is, at least not foremost. so, when i have one copy of a record, this is where i stop. don't need several copies. what for? can't spin multiple copies of the same record all at once.

at the beginning of the year an interesting problem was heading my way. i saw the announcement of relapse re-pressing their whole nile back catalogue on lovely pieces of coloured vinyl. i love nile. i have all of their albums on vinyl, for two of them i even spent the most cash i ever did for a record. so of course i have a first press copy of 'in their darkened shrines' on green vinyl in my possession. but man, just take a look on this re-press. so lovely! usually when i get an upgrade-copy i give the spare one to a friend or sell them but this time...

i listened to the green copy and thought, man, that copy looks real nice, it's a thirteen years old original and i want to keep it. so now i have two copies of that record and somehow i am ok with it. is this a change in the game? or just an exception? well, time will tell. anyway, relapse went for some changes with this new version. they made a new master for the vinyl pressing, printed some new labels with the nile logo on, printed the liner notes in a legible typeface and put the nile logo on the front in green metallic foil. 1700 made. relapse records. 2002/2015.

rise after defeat - adrift

only the regular reader of this blog might remember my first post about this italian band called rise after defeat. back then, two years ago, it was about their first release 'maieutica'. check this entry by clicking the label tag at the end of this post. at the time i believed to never hear anything else of this band. not because the music was bad, the contrary was the case, but it seemed to be one of these bands that just get too less attention for another release.

as you witness i was pretty wrong with that assumption. rise after defeat released their first full length in all its glory last year. i saw the announcement via strikedown, which was their record label at the time but seems to be defunct by now, but i never bothered to rush the purchase. to be honest, 'adrift' wasn't high priority.

by the start of 2015 i decided to finally pull the trigger and get myself a copy. listening to the tunes coming out of the grooves, i have to say the band really grew musically. the overall sound is matured and more focused. it's funny what time and better understanding for each other does to a band's sound. worked again. convince yourself by listening to the whole album at their bandcamp.

the whole packaging of 'adrift' is very well done. a thick cardboard sleeve with superb artwork, an insert of thick paper, black dust sleeve, nice clear red with black splatter vinyl, a poster, stickers and a friggin' rise after defeat guitar pick. value for money as one can afford the vinyl for lousy ten bucks. 300 copies made and still some available in their e-store. strikedown records. 2014.

mastodon - blood mountain

mastodon is a big name in today's metal scene. as i seem to live under a rock from time to time, i managed to not pay attention to them until last year. i grabbed a copy of their compilation release 'call of the mastodon' at burnout store hamburg. from that point on i was lost to this prehistorical mammoth. since relapse is re-pressing a lot of their back catalogue it was pretty easy to get a hold on the first few records of mastodon.

with 'blood mountain' it's different. sure, the vinyl version was also handled by relapse back in 2006 and the first two pressings came out through relapse, but the rights were only licensed by reprise records - the label mastodon signed to for their third record. as reprise wasn't that outgoing when it came to re-presses, which was a mistake of mine that i will explain in a moment, i waited for my chances.

the chance came in the shape of an auction on the bay. i payed about the same amount which is recently asked on discogs, only for a flawless copy plus i just had to pay domestic shipping rates. so, a good deal in my book. i already had a clear blue copy of the rsd '10 re-press by reprise, which i sold by now, and i have to say the gatefold of the relapse pressing looks way better than the reprise sleeve. that paul romano artwork is incredibly awesome. love it!

musically 'blood mountain' is a masterpiece. can't decide which record i love more, 'leviathan' or this. doesn't matter though, in such cases i'm happy about being undecided. check out 'hunters of the sky' and 'colony of birchmen'. face melting! if you want a new copy of that killer record hassle-free, you can easily order a recent reprise re-press on green vinyl. so much for reprise's limited re-press policy! thankfully they are going to give 'crack the skye' a re-issue too. looking forward to it. 500 copies on real nice clear red and yellow split vinyl. relapse. 2006.

the dull eyes - titanomachy

the dull eyes is a young band from the west of germany, düsseldorf to be precise. they play a brand of hardcore induced stoner/doom metal. they already released a 10" in 2013 which goes by the name of 'war anthems'. i have this release too and bought it actually before i got my hands on 'titanomachy', but for currency reasons i chose to go with their full length first. to be perfectly honest, with a duration of almost twenty five minutes this is only scantly a full length but muically this is played so damn good.

perfect stoner worship. they have stripped down their hardcore elements to an hardly existent minimum and it worked out pretty well. 'titanomachy' easily outguns the first 10" by far. i didn't know beforehand and probably it isn't that much of a novelty, but at least it is for me and so i'll share it with you. titanomachy is the term for the 'clash of titans' from the greek mythology. that is a pretty cool album title, if you ask me.

if you're interested you can download or stream their whole album via their soundcloud. the vinyl version was released by germany's powertrip records. on my search for this album on the net, i came across another mailorder from germany, called evil greed. searching their offerings i found a purple copy of 'titanomachy' and some more vinyl to add to the order. check them out. what i have is what i believe to be the regular version out of 300 copies. i'm not really sure, information is a bit scarce. powertrip records. 2014.

pallbearer - foundations of burden

around the end of the last year, i discovered a new band for me. pallbearer. i ordered a re-press of their first record called 'sorrow and extinction' and fell in love. i fell in love with their massive wall of sound and their mix of modern doom and classical heavy metal. so naturally i wanted more. i checked their discography and their latest album was 'foundations of burden' released by canada's profound lore records.

my problem was that the record's coloured vinyl pressing was already gone. all 500 units of a black with red merge colour configuration sold. as didn't want to pay the high prices over at discogs, i was forced to play the waiting game. as 'sorrow and extinction' was already re-pressed and the demo pressed to vinyl for the first time, i was pretty sure that the current popularity of the band and the generally high re-press rate at the moment would inevitably lead to a re-issue.

my clairvoyant abilities didn't disappoint. on one of my usual visits at pallbearer's internet page i stumbled upon news of a new coloured pressing of their sophomore album. i headed over to the label's page and ordered a copy straight away. after one and a half week this baby, plus a canadian spider in the mailer which is now living on my balcony, landed at my door.

musically they sound somewhat different to 'sorrow and extinction'. the sound is more nuanced and complex. still epic and crushing but more vigorous. check out the first two songs, 'worlds apart' and 'foundations' and be doomed. the look of this new pressing is uniform to the first, except the vinyl of course. lovely red gatefold sleeve with glossy print and fantastic inside art. blue with red merge vinyl out of 500 copies. profound lore. 2014/2015.

as a little bonus, profound lore threw a copy of the pallbearer 'fear and fury' flexi from the decibel magazine flexi series into the package. nice treat!