Vinyl Fetish: Yob - The Unreal Never Lived and The Illusion of Motion Review

I gleefully ordered both of these albums at a ridiculously high price ($35). Granted some of that glee was due to the fact that I ordered them on my phone after having been at the bar for 6 or so hours, but the overwhelming majority of it was because my two favorite Yob albums were finally being pressed on vinyl. A week plus a few days later when I finally sat down to listen to them however, I was somewhat less gleeful. No, they're not bottom barrel pressings with pixelated artwork that sound like garbage (though the "etching" on side D of The Illusion of Motion is pretty pathetic). They're bare minimum pressings by a label that unceremoniously dropped the band years ago. This price gouging pressing is simply about cashing in on the popularity boom Yob has enjoyed with the release of their last two albums. There was no passion or care or even any real effort put into pressing these albums. Yet, I bought them. I thought about spending the rest of this post hurling invective at the major label with a roster full of lowest common denominator dreck that put these out. Instead, I'm going to celebrate the fact that two of my favorite doom records got the vinyl treatment at last. Kind of.

Same liner notes from the 2005 release.

Couldn't get a great picture of the "etching." It looks exactly like the cover of "Ox" by Coalesce...but crappy

As you can see, the liner notes are the same as the original releases, I wouldn't be surprised if Yob weren't even aware that Metal Blade was pressing these until they were already out there. No inserts, posters, goodies, etc. They don't seem to have been remixed or remastered, not that they really need to be. But if they had been I would hope that they would have fixed that computer alert beep at the 9:35 mark of "The Illusion of Motion" (if you haven't noticed it, strap on your headphones and check it out). I also don't understand why the order of "Kosmos" and "The Mental Tyrant" are switched on The Unreal Never Lived. "The Mental Tyrant" is such a killer closer, that final riff before the chanting and whatnot starts absolutely slays. I had never heard the bonus track "Essence," apparently it was included on the Japanese release. I was pretty excited to hear it, but after listening to it I can see why it ended up being a cast-off.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I can't seem to find a distro that has these stateside. 20 Buck Spin, where I acquired mine from, sold out in a few hours. Maybe one day Yob will be able to wrest the copyright for these two albums from Metal Blade and do another pressing with somebody who actually cares about their music.