jeff rosenstock - worry.

after i really fell in love with the snotty, musical sophistication that is "we cool?", i wanted more of jeff rosenstock's recorded stuff. the first record i came across, was the "worry." lp. it is the follow-up to "we cool?" and came out in 2015. it was pretty much on the cheap side but i was actually looking for some early pressings, as they seemed to have the cooler colour configurations.

i landed at the finest vinyl page and found a copy on clearance with the information that it was a baby blue and pink merge copy. yeah, that sounded good and so i ordered it. a few days later it arrived and it turned out to be one of the latest pressings on ultra clear vinyl. so i e-mailed the mailorder with the plea to return the copy as it wasn't the one i actually ordered. i got no response whatsoever and as i didn't care too much, i just kept the record.

instead i make bad advertisement for the mailorder (fuck finest vinyl!) and will never order from them again. the album is pretty sweet, though. urban gentrification and social inequalities are the main topics lyrically and musically this is just the fantastic mix of punk, pop, alternative rock and singer-songwriter music that made me rave about rosenstock's "we cool?" album before. lovely! fourth pressing out of 1.000 copies. sideonedummy records. 2015/2017.

slugdge - gastronomicon

the last of the three full lengths of slugdge being pressed to vinyl. with the steady success of the slugdge vinyl editions, i am sure the debut "born of slime" will get the vinyl treatment in due time as well. but for now i am done with the little collection. i am really excited to add "gastronomicon" to the stack because it is such a rager.

i am most impressed with the quality of any slugdge record so far. "gastronomicon" is no exception. so well executed prog death metal that the band has no peer. uinque and most entertaining. every word uttered to describe them is a waste of resources because you have to listen to them in order to fully comprehend. take my advice and check them out via their bandcamp page.

at the end of the bygone year willowtip records gave "gastronomicon" its first vinyl pressing although the album was actually released five years ago in 2014. again i was bound to find a european distro carrying the record, if i wanted to avoid nasty oversea shipping rates. the only one that i found was jpc.de but with a hefty price tag of almost fourty bucks. so i rather looked out for an option i went with quite a few times as of late - amazon.

look and behold there was a seller that offered a copy for almost ten buck less. no hesitation, it was mine. again no colour indication, so i assumed i would get the least limited - the random edition. i was right and have now this cool blue and brown marble double lp version. my grandma had an old tooth mug that looked just like the brown lp. it's translucent held against a light source. very nice all around. 250 copies made. willowtip records. 2018.

spawn of possession - cabinet

spawn of possession is a band i largely overlooked. i became aware of them when i saw the vinyl re-issue of their sophomore album "noctambulant" go up for pre-order at the artisan era internet shop. i am still looking for an e.u. retailer that carries artisan era records (anyone a clue?) and of course i was looking around on the bay. no "noctambulant" but the first album "cabinet" crossed my path.

"cabinet" already was released sixteen years ago in 2003. the label it actually appeared on was unique leader records and they lisenced the vinyl rights to french label osmose productions ten years later. the two labels seem to have teamed up quite a few times apparently. my copy of decrepit birth's "...and time begins" is a product of that liaison as well. back then black and limited red translucent vinyl was pressed and i was delighted to see the red lp on sale with a reasonable starting bid.

in the end i placed the only and thus the winning bid. the record arrived in prime condition. sharp edges to the sleeve, no seam splits on the printed dust sleeve and clean vinyl. the seller knew how to ship the goods well. musically this is fast and technical death metal of the breathtaking kind. archspire must have been great spawn of possession fans because there are quite a few similarities. not sure how many have been pressed. osmose productions. 2013.

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.

napalm death - harmony corruption

at some point in 2017 i bought my first copy of the earache grindcrushing splatter series (morbid angel's "altars of madness"). after i snagged up the second piece (napalm death's "from enslavement to obliteration"), i began to consider starting a little collection. after i managed to grab entombed's "left hand path" for serious money, i was all in for the challenge. again ebay was the source for this find right here.

at the very end of 2018 finally the next piece of the puzzle fell into place. obviously all of the missing records (bolt thrower's "realm of chaos" and nocturnus' "the key" for example) are not for the faint of heart. therefore i was surprised to get "harmony corruption" from napalm death for a price which was ten bucks lower than the usual discogs going rate at the moment. i mean, it is one of the rather cheap records of the series but a good deal is a good deal.

the pre-owner took good care of his record really. the sleeve is almost in mint condition and the vinyl looks super clean as well. musically i like this album way better than "from enslavement to obliteration". probably because of the longer duration of the songs and the increased death metal portion in the overall sound. "harmony corruption" was the first album with barney greenway on vocals who left death metal act benediction for napalm. 2.000 copies made. earache records. 1990/1991.

devotion - head space astronaut (tape)

the second record i ordered for a sweet clearance deal was this devotion tape. i wasn't familoar with the band at all, i just thought the cover looked cool in a way. so i checked out the record on the tube and was really impressed with what i heard. lovely stoner metal with chunky riffs, melodies for days and the right grit to make it stand out of all the rest. convince yourself here.

this u.s. based band released two albums so far. one in 2009 and this one here in 2016. so with a bit luck we meet again on this blog in 2023. the tape version is super neat. the layout of the j-card cover and the clear cassette shell with silver liner and white print gives the release a real oldschool feel. "headspace astronaut" was only released on analog formats. vinyl and tape. tape version made by kram records. 2016.

integrity - live in rome 1992 (tape)

it has been a while since i posted about a tape on this blog. i collected quite a lot of cassettes as of late but didn't feel like writing about them. vinyl always seemed more urgent and as i didn't buy any new releases on tape, they just fell flat. at the end of december i began to listen to more tapes again and i think now it is time to get some gems off the backlog list. first one is this integrity tape.

straight and alert records is/was a small d.i.y. label from france which also ran a distro. at some point in last year i got an e-mail from them with the info that they were about to close down and thus had all items of their webshop on clearance. there wasn't much on the vinyl part but a few tapes caught my interest. first one i spotted was this live tape of an integrity show in rome from 1992.

originally it was as an bootleg release, i believe. but i am not really sure. what i am sure of is, that contraband records from the states gave this recording a proper tape release. the sound quality of the cassette is good and it is real fun to listen to the band and those old songs in such an early and raw stage. contraband made 150 tapes and this is the most common version in a purple shell out of 100 copies. 2018

death - symbolic

this record is not an official christmas gift but is somewhat linked to one. i really began to love death when relapse records announced a broad re-issue campaign for the band's full length releases. in the course of two years i was able to snag up almost all the albums death released from 1987 up to 1998. with the exception of "leprosy" and "spiritual healing" being back on black re-issues, all my death vinyl are relapse releases.

one album seemed to elude me because strangely relapse could not obtain the rights for it. i don't know why the legal position of "symbolic" is different to the other albums but it meant no easily available vinyl edition for me. so now my christmas gift becomes part of the story. i got the well-researched documentary "death by metal" on dvd and was fascinated by the insight that chuck schuldiner wanted "symbolic" to be the last death record. he wanted to focus on a fusion of the technical approach and traditional metal with a real singer.

only nuclear blast, the label the control denied album appeared on, didn't want to take the risk without releasing a safe death album. so "the sound of perseverance" came to be. this story made me see "symbolic" as one of the milestones in the musical context of death. now i really wanted a copy of that record. original roadrunner copies are skyrocketing on second hand market places, therefore only re-issues came into question. searching all possible options, i stumbled upon an amazon offering.

it showed the metal blade re-issue from 2014 for around thrityfive bucks. quite reasonable and so i pulled the trigger because it was the last copy available, not caring if it was black or white vinyl (the two colours pressed for this re-press). as i saw way more white copies than black on the net, i really hoped for the colour vinyl and i wasn't disappointed. musically this the shit! it won't top "human" as my favourite death record but it is so close! check it out! lovely pressing on 180gr white vinyl. metal blade. 2014.

post scriptum: here is a picture of the great documentary that is "death by metal". tons of interviews with band members and other companions, live excerpts and old interviews of chuck schuldiner. nice fanboy package!

the dillinger escape plan - calculating infinity

another, yet delayed christmas gift. we met up with my father-in-law a week after christmas to attend the sixtieth wedding day(!) of my wife's grandparents. on this occasion we exchanged some gifts and i got this wonderful looking record. my dillinger escape plan record collection is only a half-decent affair. i had three out of six full lengths to this point and so the recent relapse re-pressings came in handy.

when i was asked by my father-in-law what i was wishing for, i kindly forwarded a link to an amazon offering of the latest splatter pressing of "calculating infinity", which was originally released in 1999. thus it wasn't such a big surprise to unwrapp the vinyl but very pleasing nevertheless. musically this is the most raw dillinger escape plan record i know so far. that might be the case because it is the earliest of the albums i have.

the wild, chaotic side of the band is pretty prominent and the catchy melodies, which are to be found in equal measures on further releases, are pretty rare here. i really like that because the album is such a heavy kick to the head. it took me a few spins to fully comprehend but now i cannot get enough. love the uv spot gloss print on the cover sleeve. the vinyl looks ace on orange with silver and black splatter out of 1.000 copies. relapse records. 1999/2018.

slugdge - dim and slimeridden kingdoms

after "esoteric malacology" ticked all the right boxes and the vinyl was on heavy rotation, of course i ventured deeper into the back catalogue of slugdge. i found out that the band released already three full lengths before "esoteric...", all self-released. now the latest album sells quite good on the vinyl format. as "esoteric..." goes into its third press, willowtip records also got a few more vinyl versions of other slugdge records under their belt.

in 2017 the label already released a vinyl edition of slugdge's third full length called "dim and slimeridden kingdoms" from 2015. two colour-ways were made with the most limited being swamp green with black splatter and the lesser limited being transparent yellow. i ordered via amazon again and therefore it was likely that i was going to recieve the yellow version. fine with me because swamp green always tends to look super dark and thus almost black.

musically this album is maybe less technical and shows the main emphasis on the atmosphere. but that is just a minor difference and every tech death fan with a soft spot for sludge metal will love this record from start to finish. again i love the hilarious song titles like "flying snails" (a nod to gojira and their "flying whales") or "the toxic salts" (a nile reference to "the essential salts" is never wrong in my book) and more. such a strong record! 350 copies on toxic piss yellow vinyl. willowtip records. 2017.