Integrity / Rot In Hell – Split [Thirty Days Of Night]

 Back in February 2010 when we were all a little more fresh faced than we are today, Thirty Days Of Night announced they were about to unleash pre-orders for a split 7 inch by Integrity and Rot In Hell.  I shat my pants at the time, like a lot of people because with this announcement Rot had just ended their Deathwish requested release freeze before the LP dropped (they still delayed it a while longer but that's a different story).  Anyway, a few nights later when the pre-orders went up I cancelled my plans to go to the movies and waited anxiously for the TDON store to be updated with the new bundles,  I ordered the most limited black copy plus the standard green/blue mix there and then.  I thought nothing of it at the time but no-one would have believed that we were to wait a further 18 months to get our hands on the things.  I won’t go into detail about it all because it’s been well documented elsewhere, I’m just here to give a bit of background and to blog about vinyl. 

This puppy is one of the band only copies on white vinyl out of 100 which I ordered direct from the band on the holy terror site, the records from TDON are safe and sound at the in-laws place.   Both records are housed in a black dust sleeve, it's good to see them opting for a corresponding colour rather than just the standard white paper, it's the attention to detail that I like most about records from these two bands.  This is a double 7" with the first record holding the actual split and the second being a kind of noisy accompaniment to the illustrations within the book by Herr Hellion.

 

The original idea was to have it housed within a hardback book but that didn't happen due to circumstances out of the band and label's control so it ended up being a double gatefold with a booklet inside which is still pretty different if you ask me.  It's full of creepy photographic art and messed up drawings of a fawn guy ripping a hole into another dimension and bringing forth all kinds of beasties.

Dwid saw fit to sign each of these copies which is a nice touch, makes the band only part of the press that little bit special.  Don’t expect to see any of my bands doing this though though, I think the record buying public would frown upon receiving their copies with my name scribbled all over it in wax crayon like the scratchings of a 30 year old man child.  We’d have our money requested back via paypal with a note saying “thanks a lot Duggan, you ruined hardcore.”

In all seriousness, it’s good to see this thing released and in the hands of the fans hands, the Rot tracks on here are tidy as usual, I’ve had the songs for a little while on the down low but you didn’t read that here.  Oh and pick one of these up if you’re a Colohan completist, just saying.  Integrity released the songs on here on their Detonate Worlds Plague 12" which I guess is technically an EP, this split was scheduled to come out ages before that record but it didn't so quit you're bitching.

November Coming Fire - Dungeness [Thirty Days Of Night / Anchors Aweigh]

Picked this up at the NCF reunion show at TDON 6 yesterday, it's a split release from TDON and Anchors Aweigh from Italy.   It never got a vinyl release when it was released through Reflections in 2006 and it's a real shame that it didn't get a vinyl release right away so it's good to see these labels stepping up and finally getting this gem cut on record four years later.

Artwork is slightly altered, taking the basic feel of the original CD release and expanding it to fit the gatefold LP format nicely.  The first few copies sold at the show came with a nice little bonus for old times sake in the form of the original 2002 demo which showcases a band in a more visceral and metallic vein of bands like The Haunted or even Arkangel.  Some good gang vocals on this baby.  They only made 138 copies of it originally, although it did take a while for them to make the covers up and sell them at a show, so long in fact that the first Break In show I played in 2003 where we debuted our demo, they finally had the NCF one available.  They quickly outgrew the sound of the demo, it's good to see them still embracing it by adding this little extra in to the LP.

There were 250 records of each colour pressed, each colour exclusive to each label, I saved a bit of cash having an LP shipped from Italy by picking both up from the band, thrifty.  Good choice of colour combinations. 

The dust sleeve is signed by the band, I didn't go all fanboy and get them to do it, the first few came like it.  Kind of cool if you like that sort of thing.

It's good to see these guys getting their shit out on vinyl so long after they first called it quits, if ever there was a record from a UK band that warrants the vinyl treatment it's NCF.  Here's hoping for Canaan next.

Lovewolves - A True Discourse & Ark Of The Covenant - S/T [TDON]

A month or two back TDON put up a duo of pre-orders, now seeing as I own every piece of vinyl they've put out bar the Azriel 12" and the Last Witness 7" (I'll pick up the LW one at some point), I thought I'd spring for the x3 deals of both. It helps that I like both the bands too. There was 500 copies of each bands record pressed, 100 on black, limited to the x3 package and two sets of 200 on different colours. It's good to see Lonewolves getting a vinyl release, I think Carcaroth would have been great on wax too, shame it wasn't released on it at the time. Ark Of The Covenant is pure 90's Goodlife metal, definitely the best band Darke's been involved with, the music suits his vocal style to the ground, good riffs, good breakdowns. Both of these records look like they could have benefitted from having a big hole on them, I think Lonewolves even had the artwork take that into account as the labels have a large white circle on them, maybe it cost too much, maybe I'm mistaken.

No catalogue number again, I'm pretty sure Jamie has sworn off these now, shame as I like knowing which records came out before others. On a related note I've noticed the last few Purgatory and CTW releases have omitted the catalogue number, maybe I've got too much love for them, maybe I'm old fashioned. I mean I still think you shouldn't wear the shirt of a band that's paying a show and you should wait two years after a band splits up before covering one of their songs.







Black vinyl, out of 100 each

Colour vinyl, out of 200 each:
Ark:

Lonewolves:

This next one is pretty special, it's black with clear red splatter, now since clear red is a weak colour, 40k painters will know what I mean, it doesn't show up when put over or in darker colours.

Here's a picture of it up against the light, I've got a Rot In Hell 12" with white splatter on black but this is the first one I've seen with a clear colour used with the black.