Gehenna - Upon The Gravehill [King Of The Monsters]

I'll admit I'm a little new to this band, I only picked up the collection record 'War Of The Sons Of Light And Dark' last year while trawling through some label's online stores, I gathered a few records on mp3 after that and always meant to get some more of their stuff on vinyl.  This month I succeeded.
This is their '03 record repressed on lovely coloured wax, same label, I think it's Mike Cheese's own label, correct me if I'm wrong (edit: I was wrong).  I don't know the numbers on the first press, and I'm not normally one to hunt things down on ebay, if I missed it first time around, I missed it, move on.  Unless it's Disciple, then I need to get it all.
I ordered a couple of these with the thinking that I'd pick one up for someone in the UK who wanted to get one and didn't want to pay the postage for just one record.  I assumed I'd only be getting the purple vinyl which is out of 110, it took me a little while to notice the records were both different, only when I noticed one was slightly darker did I find out I had one blue and one purple.  That was kind of cool actually because now I didn't have to bother with any trades or sorting out someone to take it off me, I had pretty much a full set of the second press (there were 6 copies on black, for the band like).

Purple out of 110:

Blue out of 550:

Holding them up to the light shows they're definitely different colours but if you see them without being illuminated from the back they're nigh on indistinguishable from one another:

Another thing is that the sleeves are numbered, but out of 110 each, did I get a purple cover with a blue record inside?  This is the sleeve for the purple record:

While this is the sleeve for the blue record:

Anyways, enough of that, onto the artwork, this one's got a fold out insert, one of those ones where it folds out to four times the original size and I'm reliably informed that this press has lyrics unlike the first press, always a good thing (Edit: that was misinformation).  I kind of hate it when the lyrics aren't including, almost like the band has something to hide or they're embarassed in a way of the lyrical content.  Some bands leave a URL and say the lyrics are going to be there, but how long are they going to pay for that hosted URL?  November Coming Fire did that on Black Ballads, they actually never got round to even making the website so good job they put the full lyrics on the 7" version.

The other side has the full front artwork, good job, another potential framing victim there.

Lastly, Mike put a little note in with the records, the personal touch, I've said it before and I'll say it again, more labels should do this.

Integrity - Those Who Fear Tomorrow (repress) [Organized Crime]

Micha!  This is the big one I've been waiting for, the Organized Crime repress of Integrity's first full length.  I posted a while back about the 'In Contrast Of Sin' repress, I missed out on all three colours for that one and as such, I missed out on the cool extras that came with it, this time I was determined to get the whole lot.  I think I succeeded quite well.  The record comes on three different colours, if you ordered all three at the same time and were one of the first 100 pre-orders then you get an envelope with a bunch of old flyers which is stamped on the front.  That in itself is pretty awesome and adds a personal touch.

The black swirl vinyl came with a black and silver Stephen Kasner cover which is his own interpretation of the Francis Bacon original artwork much the same as the previous repress, mine was numbered number 28 rather than being one of the final 50 like before.  Score.  

Here's the jammy part, as my order was number 28, I was part of the first 30 which means I got a Kasner sketch edition.  Basically he did a quick sketch of the umbrella dude on the inside of the cover and signed it, turns out I can be lucky now and again.

For proof there was a laminated card inside telling you that you are basically a winner.

Front:  

Back:

Dwid has updated the artwork inside and out, all of the text is done with that cool invisible ink that he seems to like using these days, some of the text, like on the front,  so it's a more glossy effect to the background.  The other text you can only see by holding it against the light, I tried to get it to show up in a picture but it is bloody hard to represent.  For example this snap I took of the inside of the gatefold has the skull behind the lyrics, you should probably buy a copy if you want to see it properly.

The back cover came out a little better.

The pink and swirl records both have stamps on the white bags too, I can't imagine how long these all took to put together, they've put a lot of work into the whole package, I prefer labels to pull their finger out and do something cool like this rather than just to stuff the records in a mailer and send it out without even a note of thanks.

Red out of 680

Pink vinyl, #28/225

Black swirl out of 320, this came with the Kasner cover

To top it off, the mailer was spray stencilled inside so you can keep the records in their own box, icing on the cake or what?

Finally, just for shits and gigs, a shot of everything that came in the set.  The good news is there's about 4 more records in the series to come, cannot wait.

Edit, I noticed this the other night while having a listening session, the label on the A side smells like maple syrup, but not the B side.  Now that's weird.  Not as weird as you think I am now though, you probably think I smell every piece of vinyl before I put it on the turntable, normally that wouldn't be the case, but this time it is.  My buddy Dan actually noticed it, I think he wanted to eat the pink vinyl, it kind of looks tasty in a 5 years old chewing everything brightly coloured kind of way.  

Integrity - Septic Death [Victory]

This is a weird one (unusual for an Integrity record to be described as unusual isn't it?), this is basically two Septic Death tracks with Dwid's vocals recorded in place of the original vocals.  Originally given away with copies of a zine called Bloodbook, Victory did a repress of it on white, clear and black.  This is the second record I got from the missus as a birthday present.  The vinyl has a whisp of white in it on the edge, this would suggest that this was made just after the white records and the flecks of white are leftovers from that run.  I like it when that happens, I think the term is transitional records.  My copy hasn't got an insert, I think the original dude must have lost it or something, don't know how though, I've never lost something like that, but then again, I'm not retarded.

Integrity / Psywarfare - Split [Victory]

I got this one last week as part of a set of two for my birthday as a gift from the girlfriend, she knows the score.  This one is probably the only record I know I've got the full set instantly because the whole press was on these picture discs.  Two tracks from Integrity and two from Psywarfare (Dwid's side project).  The Integ tracks on this 7" are earlier recordings of a couple from 'Seasons In The Size Of Days' which is one of the full lengths that I still think is up there as some of their best work.  Apparently the photo on the Psywarfare side was taken by Jack Abernathy, that guy is mysterious isn't he.  The cool thing about the Psywarfare side is that it has locking grooves at the end of each track which is the same groove every record has at the end of each side, funny how Victory even mentioned that on the front sticker to make sure people didn't whinge they had a faulty record.

xDisciplex - The Revelation [Organised Crime]

Mad love for this group, I've posted a couple of times about how much I dig them, this is not going to be any different.  This is the final full length, came out in about '03, they stripped down to a 4-piece this time and the sound is less breakdown heavy and much faster than previous efforts.  If truth be told I think I prefer this one to the earlier stuff, especially vocally, gone are the raspy grunting vocal style from the 'No Blood, No Altar Now' era and in are a more shouty style, almost as if Dan Quiggle is doing an impression of Ray Cappo for want of a better comparison.  I didn't know this got a vinyl release as the CD was on Triple Crown who did the last Shockwave record and that didn't get a vinl release so I assumed they jibbed the idea off.  That's where Organised Crime steps in, it's one of the dudes who used to work at Victory since the good old days and he started his own label, this is OCR002.  I've got a 3-way live split 7" with The Promise and Terror from ages ago that I didn't realise was on this label, looking at the discog they've been putting out pretty good shit since the beginning.  So this Disciple record came on 3 colours, all with screen printed covers, they're not the full sleeve kind, but the ones that are a folded sheet of card with a third height back, I've not got any LP's with this kind of cover, plenty of 7"s though.  They're all hand numbered out of 750, according to the OCR site they had a lot more covers made up than records, I guess it was a printing error or something, wouldn't mind having one of the spare ones to frame.

I didn't think I'd be getting anything special other than the three LP's but when I opened the package I actually got one of the 50 final show covers.  I remember them announcing the show and there was serious debate whether I should make the trip to Erie to attend, I kind of wish I did but I was broke, cry me a river.

Front cover:

Back (47/50, tight):

The final show cover is out of 50 and the white vinyl that comes with it is out of 108.

Grey out of 105

Red out of 700

This is the back of the regular cover, the lyrics are on an A4 copied cover, the whole package has a real DIY vibe going on, it's a good choice.  Makes for a more individual look in the end I think.  My Disciple collection is coming along nicely, I'll have 4 different versions of the Scarab 7" soon too, I only have two at the moment.

It's getting to the point where I have enough Disciple vinyl to be able to take a photo of the whole collection, there are still a few gems I need to seek out before I do though, it'd be embarassing to take a photo with an easy to find one missing wouldn't it.

Sabbath Assembly - Restored To One [The Ajna Offensive & Feral House]

Bit of a strange one this, we're digging into the neo gospel genre here I guess.  These are all recordings of a bunch of songs the processians used to sing in their gatherings in the late 60's/early 70's.  Basically if you're into the Process Church and read up on this sort of stuff then you'll dig it, Aversion did a review of the record here that gives more of the back story to how this came to be and who was involved in the recording, I suggest you read that too.

Gold vinyl, when I ordered it I guessed what they meant was clear orange which is always referred to as gold vinyl but this is opaque metallic brown, or a true gold vinyl colour.  I used to own a Deftones 7" single for Be Quiet And Drive that was this colour, completely forgot about it until I saw this record, I used to love nu-metal back in '98, not H8000 metalcore like I should have been into.  What a loser.

Artwork is minimal for sure, it's all gold text on a white background, no 4p logos or any Process images of any kind, it keeps it mysterious.  The card that the sleeve is made out of is probably the thickest I've ever seen on an LP, it's almost like a bound book and the record barely fits inside, good job it's not 180 vinyl or I doubt it would fit at all.  The picture I took kind of shows how thick the card is, the sleeve isn't even one piece of card folded into shape like a regular record, it's two pieces with a kind of glossy sticker covering holding it all together.  

Haven't been able to stop listening to this record since finding out about it, constant rotation on both my ipod and record player, the songs are so catchy I find myself humming them at work.  I hope I don't start singing them out loud in the office though, people might think I'm one of those religious ones, you know, the ones who knock on your door and give you leaflets about saving your soul.  No one can save mine, I lost it when I laughed at that picture of Jordan's kid.

Rose Kemp - Unholy Majesty [Aurora Borealis]

This record is a real beauty, check out what Uncle Nate said about it on his blog, I can't say anything about it that hasn't been said already, all I can say is you need this in your life.  The CD version is on One Little Indian Records, this LP was licenced To Aurora Borealis Records and what a package this is.  First off the artwork is super clean and literally pops off the cover, it's done by Glynn Scrawled who you might recognise from doing bits and bobs for that band Rot In Hell.  The layout really takes advantage of the extra space the gatefold format allows, two images on the inside with limited credits and a final fourth image on the back.  Job done.  The insert is the record bag too and that's just black text on white giving you the wonderful lyrics and somewhat jovial thanks list.  I'm pretty siked that I managed to get this on red, there was 1000 pressed with 300 on red and the rest on black, I ordered it from some online store here in the UK and by chance I got this colour, result!

Inside artwork:

Back:

Biter End - Guilty As Charged [Deathwish Inc]

Picked this up last night, all dayer in CT, bunch of good bands, bit of an unplanned break in the middle, Trial cover and hangouts.  Good shit.  I'd heard these guys before the show but hadn't paid a lot of attention to them, maybe they'd been on in the van or someone put them on during Monday night hangouts.  Live they have plenty of energy and the crowd were losing their shit.

The LP cover is reverse printed, I've got a few of these now and if my band ever gets something pressed on 12" then I'm going to make sure we get this.  Basically the shiny side which is normally on the outside is on the inside giving the outside a matt effect, it's the little details that make a record.

The vinyl colour (maroon) is out of 1000, the total first press was 2000 with the other half split 300/700, kinda cool I got to buy a Deathwish record direct from the band, most of the time it comes via my awful mailman.

Insert is thick card stock too, basically the kind of quality you expect from this label, no expense spared.  I've been spinning this all morning, recommended.

Limited covers

Quick one, as I mentioned in my post about Cold Snap's new record, I missed out on the limited cover they had available on their jaunt with The Hard Way due to me going to see the smug comedian Stewart Lee.  In an act of kindness I was able to acquire a copy from The Dave Mayes yesterday and I am very grateful.  The quality of the cover is actually a lot better than most limited covers, normally bands just chuck a photocopied piece of paper over the regular record (which I love by the way, that's not me being an opinionated fuck) but these guys have gone the extra mile and gotten them printed up on nice thick card stock.  Good work.

I got this number:

At the same show there was a Breaking Point/Wiretap cover available with artwork by Big Tom, I knew I'd be after one of these and Saker was kind enough to let me take one of the covers to go over one of the copies I already had.

I like it when special covers have the date of the show on it, even better when I'm actually at the show in question.  Notice the HMP, good touch if you're clued up.  Any Americans who read this will probably think us Brits are retarded and there's no 13th month, they're the days, it goes small, medium, large.  Take back the calendar, we invented the calendar.

I also managed to snag a release cover from the show in Newport the night before, always welcome.