equipoise - demiurgus

the next artisan era records release in my collection. amazon proved to be the best source for vinyl from this american tech death label. still they only seem to have a portion of the label's catalogue. re-issues for spawn of possession records or the first the zenith passage e.p. successfully elude me as for now. we'll see if i ever get a hold on them.

back to equipoise. i saw this album advertised in the artisan era shop. it was praised as a technical death metal masterpiece with numerous members from bands such as first fragment, inferi or beyond creation. those super band line-up's raise expectations which are too often not met. in this case one does not have to be afraid, equipoise meets the expectations and at times even exceeds them.

the record is a whirlwind of breathtaking musical technicalty. every song bursts with energy and playfulness that "demiurgus" only weakness is the sheer flood of impressions. that is a complaint on a very high level, though. any beyond creation or obscura fan will feast on this opus. i snagged the dualis version on orange and blue merge vinyl limited to 300 copies. i used a may discount offering from amazon and made the price worthwhile through that. good score! artisan era released this in a slip sleeve with a double-sided insert. 2019.

inferi - revenant

it was at some point in 2017 when i was fully immersed in the realms of technical death metal. i bought stuff from fallujah, rings of saturn or decrepit birth like crazy and as of late i feel a bit set back into that time. all i am interested in lately is tech death. it started with the re-press of decrepit birth's opus "polarity" and the good shit keeps rolling in. a label that helped starting that new kick is the artisan era.

i got to know them via inanimate existence. this fine technical death metal band released their fourth record "underneath a melting sky" on this label and because i really liked the packaging, i checked what else they had to offer. there was a lot of very intriguing releases in their back catalogue, especially one band and its imagery was fascinating. inferi is the band's name and i needed a few listens before it clicked, but now the fire is raging.

it was difficult to get my hands on some vinyl but a commercial seller which i know from ebay seems to be more present on the amazon market place these days. they had vinyl in stock but without any info on the colour-way. fortunately the artisan era didn't press any black vinyl and so i ended up with some lovely clear blue with light blue splatter. musically this is the perfect mixture of the black dahlia murder madness with orchestration and a black metal edge to it. a-w-e-s-o-m-e! 250 copies pressed. the artisan era. 2018.

all will know

a few weeks ago i was asked by a german independent metal label, if i wanted to write a review of a new release of them. the label in question is noizegate records and the band is all will know. i have to admit that i didn't hear of either one before. i was a bit flattered to be honest, but of course i know that this is ultimately just advertisement. after i assured myself that there were no limitations by the label that i was forced under, i gave in to the curiosity. they sent me a vinyl copy of the respective album and here we are.

all will know is a german modern melodic death metal band. to be frank, that specific genre is not for me. i made some experiences with early 00 releases of in flames and dark tranquillity but those days are long gone. but when i listen to this compilation of the band's work (it is a "best of" of the three full lengths of all will know), it does remind me of "reroute to remain" by in flames and "damage done" by dark tranquillity. if you are into that sort of thing, than this is for you. solid release that brings nothing new to table. a safe pick-up for genre devotees, i guess. the whole package has a very nice and clean layout and the vinyl sounds flawless. noizegate records. 2019.

after the burial - evergreen

as far as i am concerned new sumerian records releases have always a special attraction to them. their roster of modern and technical metal bands is impressive and saw some of my favourite releases, especially born of osiris was striking in the past. so when there is some new vinyl i don't try to fuck around and buy as soon as possible.

so as soon as pre-orders were up at emp mailorder, i didn't hesitate to throw my money at them. their last album "dig deep" did not get much play time, although when i did spin it i really liked it. therefore i was curious if "evergreen" was to become a more frequent guest on my turntable or not. when the record arrived, the first thing that caught my attention was the beautiful artwork throughout the gatefold sleeve and printed dust sleeve. clean and minimalistic with fantastic cover pictures.

musically the band mixes complex time signatures, grooving breakdowns and big melodies into an undeniable modern metal mishmash. "evergreen" is not perfect but songs like "exit, exist" or "quicksand" are very close to it. it surprised me that the vinyl colour wasn't a mono colour pattern, which the european variants usually are. you don't hear me complain about this clear green and black split vinyl. don't know how many have been pressed. sumerian records. 2019.

the dillinger escape plan - dissociation

the final piece in my dillinger full length puzzle has fallen into place. after i got "calculating infinity" and "miss machine", i really wanted to finish off my task and began to seriously search for a colour copy of the final dillinger escape plan record "dissociation". after scanning the internet, i stumbled upon a white version from a german seller on discogs.

it was the right price and the best compromise considering the colour-way. i actually thought that the opaque blue looked best but as an australian exclusive, there was no way to get it for an adequate price over here. white does look nice as well and therefore i am very happy with it. it was sold as the u.s. version but i was almost sure it would turn to be the european white edition. also fine by me because they are almost identical.

after the first listen i wasn't sold to one hundred percent. it felt a bit like they wanted to include too many elements to create something special. after a few more listens i realised that they did just that and i just couldn't fully comprehend. a fantastic piece of creative musicianship and a worthy swansong of this game changing band. gatefold sleeve with printed dust sleeves. don't know excactly how many have been pressed. most likely 500 copies. party smasher inc. 2016.

decrepit birth - polarity

uuhh baby, i was excited when i saw a re-press for the third decrepit birth record pop up on several german distros, i tell you that. i really loved the last record "axis mundi" from 2017 and therefore needed "polarity" badly. the problem was that i couldn't find info on the colour of vinyl and which label was releasing it.

i presumed it was nuclear blast because it was the label the album/cd version was initially released on. i asked them if they offered colour vinyl and got a negative reply, black vinyl only. so i searched deeper in the internet and found out that agonia records from poland was responsible for this vinyl edition - and they had a colour option. i ordered a copy in no time.

musically "polarity" clearly beats "axis mundi" to second place if you ask me. this album is such a whirlwind of progressivity, technicality and artistry, it leaves me breathless after each listen. agonia released it in a slip sleeve with a printed dust sleeve and a poster of the nice dudes who formed this version of the band in 2010. lovely opaque orange vinyl and all hand-numbered. #59/100. agonia records. 2019.

misery index - rituals of power (tape)

we are already in may and here i am with the second new release of 2019. this year seems to become pretty weak in terms of new outputs. nevermind, i have a few in pre-order pipelines, so stuff won't get boring. now on to this lovely new misery index album called "rituals of power". it has been five years since their last album "the killing gods" was released, so it was about time.

when i heard news of the album, i checked pre-order options and stumbled upon the tape version offered by emp mailorder. i already have two albums on cassette by misery index ("retaliate" and "the killing gods", although i didn't write about the latter one yet) and so it seemed like a sensible idea to add another one.

"rituals of power" is a great record all the way through. it's the band's typical mixture of grooving u.s. death metal and fast grind core attacks that misery index perfected in their time of being. the tape version looks slick as well. nice clear blue shell and a j-card with all lyrics and production credits. don't know how many have been made. season of mist records. 2019.

the dillinger escape plan - miss machine

i am missing two dillinger escape plan records before i can call a complete full length collection my own. the two are the band's last record "dissociation" and the sophomore release "miss machine". so for me the recent relapse re-press of dillinger's first two albums came at the proper time. i got "calculating infinity" for christmas and now "miss machine" for my birthday. so just one more to go. check.

"miss machine" is such a scorcher. i am still undecided which one might be my favourite dillinger record. if there ever will be one, this record is close to it. they fully evolved their mix of dizzying mathcore, bitter sweet melody lines and electronic parts. superb album. i was never a big an of the band's idea for artwork and this is no exceptions. doesn't appeal to me. the vinyl colour however is a really nice splatter platter. 1.000 copies pressed. relapse records. 2004/2018.

suffocation - blood oath

suffocation's debut studio album for nuclear blast was released in 2009 and since then it saw only one initial vinyl pressing. back then nuclear blast didn't unnerve collectors by pressing numerous vinyl colour editions. there was only one, a red and black split version. when i got into suffocation, of course that record was long sold out and did not come cheap on second hand market places.

in such cases i am a big fan of re-issues. i never intended to pay the fourty plus bucks asked for it these days. i patiently waited and floga records came to my rescue. i knew this greek label only from cassette re-issues of sodom, therion and lately hypocrisy. they did an outstanding job on those early hypocrisy tapes and so i had no problems with ordering their "blood oath" re-press from high roller records.

i never held an original pressing of this record in hands but judging from pictures on the net, floga pressed an exact replica as long as the gatefold sleeve is concerned. don't know about the texture of the cardboard used (the floga version is high glossy) but i would not mind a difference. the vinyl comes on a bright shade of clear red. obvious choice. the album is great, by the way. 250 copies made. floga records. 2019.

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.