dull eyes - war anthems

somewhere in the middle of the year i set a goal for myself. i wanted to clean my massive backlog, which had been over ninety records waiting to be put up here. well, now the last month of the year has come and i have to admit, i won't make it. i didn't consider my lust for new vinyl. although i trimmed down the pile to about thirty pretty old records, i couldn't keep up with myself. sometimes there had been over ten new records a month and putting up with old and new stuff didn't coincide with my goal.

anyway, i try to keep the rate of posts up and going and hope to clean the backlog in the middle of 2016. for now i am posting another one from the vault. dull eyes' debut release 'war anthems'. it was released two years ago on leipzig's powertrip records. the pre-order version came with a sleep dopesmoker rip off sleeve. i found that pretty cool but was late to the party. after that i didn't bother with the regular version on black vinyl. when powertrip did a re-press last year, shortly before the full length 'titanomachy' came to be, it was pressed on purple vinyl.

with this lovely colour re-press they had me and i finally added a copy to my collection. 'war anthems' is a bit rawer than 'titanomachy'. a little less stoner and more groove. i like the full length better but this 10" is definitely a very strong effort. more so because it was their debut. four absolute ragers which can be checked in full at their bandcamp. love the bandlogo on the cover art in particular. at the powertrip store you can order black first press copies out of 325 or a purple second press out of 125. choose your weapons, gentlemen. powertrip records. 2013.

rise & fall - into oblivion

last month i was snagging the third rise & fall record 'our circle is vicious' from ebay. the same seller also had their second full length 'into oblivion' on offer. while i got a second offer on 'our circle...' because the initial buyer didn't pay for the item, i simply won the auction for 'into oblivion'. i felt lucky because it's a first press on reflections records.

all subsequent pressings came on deathwish records. the cool thing here is that the reflections pressing came with a gatefold cover, while deathwish produced slip sleeves with an insert. the record was released in 2005. wow, that's ten years already. time flies. well, musically this isn't obsolete at all. these belgian dudes just know how to write a fast and dark hardcore-punk record.

the converge proximity can be heard all the way through the album, but it's damn good executed. just like the two following records, 'into oblivion' knocks you off your seat at the first tunes. the album was recorded in belgium but the mix was handled by kurt ballou at his infamous godcity studios. also the cover artwork was again made by jacob bannon and is looking sharp.

reflections pressed a limited colour version and a black vinyl version for 'into oblivion'. i can't say how many black vinyl was pressed. there is also a limited tour edition that came on black vinyl, i believe. anyway, my clear red with black splatter vinyl is out of 250 copies. the record comes with a printed inner sleeve with all lyrics and credits. looks really good. reflections records. 2005.

mastodon - once more 'round the sun

a big 'yes'! the last piece of the puzzle. the last words to this chapter. mastodon's latest album 'once more 'round the sun' on coloured vinyl. again i ordered through the german warner/reprise webshop and this time the delivery didn't turn out a complete catastrophe, like happened with my first 'the hunter' order. warner imports the goods from their u.k. offshoot and this time all went down very smooth.

after repeated spins on my turntable, i can only say that mastodon have outdone themselves again with this masterpiece. i probably used this word in connection with this band quite often, but what can i do? their stuff is breathtaking on a regular basis. progressive, quite gritty, balls to the wall rocking and sludgy here and there. 'once more 'round the sun' is a friggin' scorcher which cannot be denied.

i think it was when i wrote about the 'call of the mastodon' lp, i said that i couldn't really hang with mastodon's newer stuff. well, i feel like i've grown with the bands releases and when i listen to 'chimes at midnight', 'asleep in the deep' (funny cat video) or the heartbreaking final of 'diamond in the witch house', i feel like i never want to listen to anything else. it's that good.

again and keeping in touch with 'the hunter', this album is non-conceptional. the band stated that every member went through some troubled times in 2013, but by doing so all at the same time the writing process for 'once more...' had have a cathartic effect. they pooled those negative forces and turned them into something positive. i can only confirm the positive outcome to hundert percent.

the artwork for this record looks absolutely stunning. so many details and completely over the top. a wild, spacy trip for the eyes. it was done by the artist skinner. the two monsters represent life and death and everything in between symbolises the journey from birth to demise. reprise went for a lovely colour pattern this time. it's called cyan blue and white mixed. but it has a somewhat green tinge to it, like toothpaste. i really like it. reprise records. 2014/2015.

snapcase - progression through unlearning

some essential nineties hardcore release. this is, without a doubt, the second snapcase full length 'progression through unlearning'. i really love their records. it's unmistakably hardcore but not the same old routine over and over again. it's elaborate and heavy music. you can hear its nineties origin any time but at the risk i am repeating myself, it still sounds fresh today. fortunately victory decided to re-press their gems quite regularly.

so after the last re-pressing from 2012 for the annual record store day, three years later and we saw the birth of another pressing. the purchase of a used copy of 'end transmission' triggered my hunt for their remaining output, and so this new edition was more than welcomed. i ordered directly from the victory store and thus was able to snag the most limited variant. i am, among other collectors, a friend of pink vinyl colour patterns so there isn't much to be desired here.

ok, maybe an opaque pink would have been a little cooler but that's just my personal opinion. again victory went for a more or less duplicate version compared to the original first press. i like that. concerning the cover art, i am always a bit puzzled as to what snapcase did pursue with them. they must have a meaning but i can't figure it out. anyway, listen to some 'zombie prescription' and then go and order a pink copy out of 112 pressed as long as they are available. victory records. 1997/2015.

shattered realm - from the dead end blocks where life means nothing

shattered realm was a hardcore band from asbury park, new jersey. back in the day when the german label alveran records was still active, i listened to a lot of bands from their roster. european bands like maroon, do or die or purified in blood and, through their cooperation with u.s. based eulogy recordings, some american bands like until the end, casey jones or said shattered realm.

via this connection i knew 'from the dead end blocks...' vaguely and when i was browsing through the schwarzesocke.com webshop to look for a birthday gift for a friend, i also checked their vinyl section. not much to get but two releases. one of them being the one i am writing about right here. it had some storage wear because it was sitting their for probably almost ten years but it looked good enough to spend eleven bucks on it.

in the end it wasn't only a bargain but also a lucky find because copies don't sell too often on ebay or discogs, especilly coloured copies. musically this is hardcore at the metallic end of the spectrum. not too spectacular but entertaining all the way through. on a side note, joe hardcore who did vocals on this record, became one of the main forces behind the establishment of the infamous this is hardcore fest in philadelphia later on. don't know how many copies were made. spook city records. 2005.

outspoken - a light in the dark

when i bought the two outspoken 7"es 'survival' and 'the current' from willem almost two years ago, i knew that i would go for the full length as well at some point. when i searched the relevant vinyl sections at core tex webshop for interesting stuff, i came across a marbled orange copy of 'a light in the dark' for eleven bucks and i was floored. i thought it was difficult to get hold on a copy and to get it for the regular price was pretty cool in my book.

i later learned that it was not even that hard to obtain a nice coloured copy on the usual second hand markets. you get them for quite reasonable money. whatever, i have a copy and that's the point. i really like the full length. when i feel like listening to some outspoken i rather grab the twelve inch instead of the two 7" formats. i know you already heard that classic before but just for the hell of it, check it out in its full bloom.

when my copy arrived, the vinyl looked flawless but the cover was a little beat up. it has some dents and surface wear, which the pictures hide quite charmingly but are still definitely to be seen. i asked core tex for a replacement but they said that they just had a bunch that were all looking this way because they bought them from the band and the records probably had been on tour. i don't know if this can be true, but i like the idea of my copy being on tour with the band, so i stay with this version of the story, ha! second pressing and 275 copies made. new age records/conversion records. 1992/2011.

electric wizard - come my fanatics...

the wizard is back again. after i fell in love with their 2000 masterpiece called 'dopethrone', i set out to collect all their releases on coloured vinyl. so this is my second find. the band's second full length 'come my fanatics...' from 1997. luckily rise above records did a lot of re-presses for their electric wizard back catalogue recently, and so this was relatively easy to obtain.

i was checking german distros carrying electric wizard titles and i stumbled upon high roller records, which had a fair amount of copies up for sale. among others they got copies of 'come my fanatics...' on purple/gold vinyl in stock recently. seeing them, i didn't hestitate to order even though i already blew my monthly vinyl budget. but man, you know how it is, being late means paying even more in the future. this logic will always justify my dirty deeds, haha.

i like what rise above does with those electric wizard re-presses. for 'come my fanatics...' they changed the art work, which was absolutely in favour of the all around look. check the original here. aside from my love for vinyl, i am also a big comic book enthusiast. i recently read 'fatale' by ed brubaker and sean phillips. it has a lovecraftian theme and is partly about a cult worshipping the cold, alien gods known as the great old ones.

the dudes from the cover remind me of those cultists. check out an excerpt here. musically this is great stoner/doom metal of that special electric wizard kind, that i came to love on 'dopethrone'. the only song i find a bit useless is the instrumental 'ivixor b/phase inducer', the rest is doom perfection. check out 'wizard in black' and 'son of nothing'. 500 pressed on that gold marbled purple vinyl. rise above records. 1997/2015.

100 demons - s/t

earlier this year i was writing about the re-press of 100 demons' first full length release 'in the eyes of our lord' on a389 records. by the same time i ordered their sophomore release on deathwish inc. that was re-pressed for record store day 2014. this album marks their last release up to now. actually i can't even say if the band is still active.

their facebook page showed some posts from this year and they even played some very few shows. so i don't know if they just come together to play some concerts occasionally, or if they will record some new material at some point, or if they even called it quits. who knows? anyway their self titled album is a blast. they recorded at zeuss' planet z studios in massachusetts and therefore the sound is awesome.

musically they remind me of hatebreed in their early 00' phase, which fits the time of the release date of '100 demons' pretty good. check out 'time bomb' and 'repeat process'. the record went through a few pressings. at least two pressings by deathwish and even one european pressing by now defunct dead serious recordings. i'm afraid i can't provide any numbers on my clear red copy, though. deathwish inc. 2004/2014.

ryker's - never meant to last

it's not that long ago that german hardcore legends from kassel released their return album after a fourteen year long hiatus. ryker's were back in 2014 with 'hard to the core'. well, it was an ok record. good, sure, but as i said back in this post i rather drop the needle on their classic nineties stuff. all this didn't hold me from being there when pre-orders for their new record 'never meant to last' went up. only one year after their last output.

just like it was the case with 'hard to the core', i was too slow for the most limited colour-way on blue marble out of 75 copies. so i snagged the second to most limited version on white with red and green marble vinyl. seems like white wax is my way to go with ryker's vinyl. four out of five coming on this colour. anyway, for 'never meant to last' the band experienced a substantial line-up change.

founding member kid-d left the band because of decreasing motivation and no time for recording new stuff, but no bad blood apparently. as a permanent stand-in ryker's introduced dennis of brightside fame. at first i doubted that he could replace kid-d properly. i mean, kid has a real characteristic voice and was therefore part of my love for the band. in then end all my worries have been washed away. dennis pulled it off real nicely.

generally the album is better than 'hard to the core' in my book. that mixture of old biohazard and sick of it all stuff is heavily to be felt and i really like that a lot. great to see that this band is still able to put out valuable music. at the beginning of the year i was lucky enough to catch them live with kid-d still being part of the ensemble. now i'm eager to see them with dennis on the mic. check some tunes here. 100 made. beatdown hardwear. 2015.

parkway drive - ire

when parkway drive released their first album 'killing with a smile' in august of 2005, it was a few month later when a friend of mine played it to me while driving from a show. i thought, man, this is pretty damn good. i bought the cd and listened the shit out of it. two years later came 'horizons' and i got the cd as soon as it was out. expectations weren't fully met but it's still a real good record, which by the way has never got the vinyl treatment. someone needs to fill that void!

three years later 'deep blue' was released and this is where i lost them for a while. 2010 was a troubled year for me with some big changes along the way. money was short and so i stood away from everything that wasn't totally necessary. 'deep blue' fell through the cracks back then. in 2012 'atlas' was unleashed and i struggled to get a copy. it took me another two years to finally pick it up.

listening to that record, i had to admit to myself that i was an idiot for ignoring them. 'atlas' is a powerful record from start to finish. so when parkway drive announced their new album going by the name of 'ire', i knew i would be there right from the start. well, not straight because i didn't pre-order but i knew that there would be plenty of options available, so no real pressure to order fast.

in the end i even got hold on one of the most limited colour-ways. this transparent red should have only been available to people on the pwd mailing list. well, i am not but through some links of the kingsroad merch eu shop i got directed to the offer and so i took the chance. with a few spins under my belt i must say that these aussies really amaze me. the band is experimenting quite a lot. pwd got a bit catchier and more hymnal on 'ire' but also more intense.

boy, just listen to 'writings on the wall'. vocalist winston mccall gives me the goose bumps with his batman voice here, haha! the record sounds like it was made for the big halls, the big summer festival stages. it might push them further and they are standing on the edge to become a real big name. we'll see. the artwork is quite cool, even though i don't think i understand it. the vinyl looks ace. somehow pinkish. the d-side etching looks sharp as well. very good release all around. 300 made. epitaph records. 2015.