Vinyl Fetish: Flourishing- The Sum of All Fossils LP Pre-order

The Sum of All Fossils was one of my absolute favorites of 2011. It's nearly a year later and I'm still having a ridiculously hard time trying to choose between it and Mitochondrion's Parasignosis to crown with album of the year honors. Regardless, they're both in the top 5 death metal records I've heard in the last decade and I'm jazzed this is finally being released on the only format that matters through Australopithecus Records. 300 copies are being pressed, 50 on 180gm black, 50 on maroon and 200 on white. A limited edition t-shirt to celebrate the vinyl release is also available for pre-order.

TSOAF is a challenging record and not just in terms of technicality (though it is that). It's challenging in that it completely defies pigeonholing and the listener's expectations at every turn. Swirling technical death metal riffs  that would sound at home on a Mitochondrion or Portal record butt up against Am Rep style noise rock bits. The Godflesh-esque industrial stomp of the rhythm hammers throughout. The entire record is sprinkeled with ambient parts, grindcore sections and completely triumphal riffs. Even the vocals are hard to pin down, being alternately death metal growls and shouted noise rock fare. I know it sounds like a complete hodgepodge, but what makes this album so great is that Flourishing don't just manage to "pull it off", they make it sound as if combining the influences that make up their sound is completely natural and we were just too blind to see it. Fans of Gorguts, Human Remains, Pyrrhon or even Am Rep style bands with at least a tangential interest in metal should definitely check this out, it's a completely unique record.

THE SUM OF ALL FOSSILS

Vinyl Fetish: Stoneburner- Sickness Will Pass Pre-order

Sickness Will Pass is one of my absolute favorites of 2012. You can read me gushing about it here. So I'm ridiculously stoked that it's finally coming out on the preferred format. Unfortunately pre-orders opened on the same day as ticket sales for Maryland Deathfest, so my bank account hates me right now. Two variants are available for pre-order, red and black marble (limited to 100) and a standard weight black unlimited variant. There is also a super reasonably priced pre-order bundle that comes with a red and black marble LP and a shirt (pictured below). Go to Seventh Rule and buy this fucking thing. Right. Fucking. Now.

Pre-order from Seventh Rule

Vinyl Fetish: Deafheaven/Bosse-de-Nage Split Pre-order

The Flenser is currently taking pre-orders for a 12" split between Bay Area black metal/shoegaze/pos-rockers Deafheaven and Bosse-de-Nage, done in partnership with Deathwish Inc. This is Deafheaven's first release since their strong debut LP on Deathwish last year. For Bosse-de-Nage this split comes right on the heels of their newest full-length, III, one of my personal favorites this year. The Flenser is offering a purple marble with black variant limited to 200 copies exclusive to The Flenser webstore, as well as a standard black. It would appear that the Flenser exclusive variant is already more than half sold out at this point, so grab it quick. Deathwish will also be offering an exclusive variant, details to be announced later.

The Flenser

Vinyl Fetish: Midnight- Complete And Total Hell

Those of you desperate to get your grubby little hands on the now out of print Complete And Total Midnight compilation rejoice! Complete And Total Hell contains all of Midnight's pre-Satanic Royalty material from the previous compilation, plus the Farewell To Hell 10" which the previous compilation did not. However, the unreleased track "Death Sentence" was not included on this repackaged version, it also does not include the 7" of The Spits covers. Available on grey and black vinyl, no pressing info is available at this time. Snag one from Hell's Headbangers now or pay outrageous eBay prices later, your choice.

Long live death.

Vinyl Fetish: Barghest/False- Split and Mutilation Rites- Empyrean Pre-orders

Gilead Media just opened up pre-orders for two releases involving three of the finest black metal bands the United States has to offer, all three of whom went completely sickhouse on our asses at Gilead Media Fest. See our post about it here.

First up is Empyrean by Mutilation Rites. As I said when I posted their I Am Legion EP a few months ago, I'm fairly confident that Mutilation Rites is the best black metal band in the United States currently. Empyrean fits right in with the Devoid and I Am Legion EPs released earlier this year by Forcefield Records and Gilead Media. This might be the first time that any band has ever had multiple releases make my end of year list. These dudes are on a fucking roll. Pressed on 180gm black vinyl in a Stoughton tip-on jacket.

Next is the Bargest/False split. I've somehow managed to avoid hearing this despite the fact that it's been up on Bandcamp for a few weeks now. Gonna have to fix that ASAP. However, I'm entirely sure both bands will knock it out of the fucking park. This is the first release for each band since their respectively self-titled vinyl debuts of last year, both of which were issued on Gilead Media. 800 copies pressed on 180gm black vinyl in a nice thick jacket and a poster.

Get 'em both here

Also, there are some pretty boss new shirt designs for each band

Vinyl Fetish: Converge/Napalm Death- Split 7" Pre-order

Haven't done one of these in a while! A year or so removed from their split with Dropdead, Converge teams up with another bunch of old dudes band with a long, storied history, Napalm Death. I will say I wasn't quite as keen on Napalm Death's most recent effort as many, but I'll be picking this up regardless because a) it's Converge b) Converge do a fucking ENTOMBED cover (Wolverine Blues) with guest vocals from Tompa Lindberg and c) the Deathwish exclusive vinyl looks fucking sweet. I wish Converge had chosen to do something off of Left Hand Path, since doing a straightforward death metal song would have been more outside their wheelhouse, but I'm excited regardless. Available from Kingsroad on yellow and pink vinyl and from Deathwish on randomly colored swirly "vinyl bong" vinyl, which is a pretty boss manufacturing technique used by Gotta Groove Records. No pressing info is available at this time.

 

Deathwish 

Kings Road 

Vinyl Fetish: Whirr (Whirl)- Distressor EP

Not sure how I missed that this reissue was happening. The original pressing of this Whirr EP (they were known as Whirl at the time) was fraught with issues. I know that a number of people who ordered it from the UK based label it was released on never received their records. I opted not to order it from them based on that fact, so I've been semi-actively looking for a copy at a reasonable price on Discogs for a year now. I go to the Discogs homepage today and voila! a reissue. Comes with all new artwork and two bonus demo tracks. 595 copies pressed, 325 on clear with splatter (ugh, I know, splatter vinyl is fucking lame) and 270 on green/white swirl, which is supposedly exclusive to the Graveface Record Club (also lame). Oh well, at least I'll be able to own one of my favorite EPs in recent memory on vinyl at last

 

Graveface Records

Vinyl Fetish: Ignivomous- Contragenesis LP

One of my favorite albums of the year to this point is finally available on the preferred format. There were two versions pressed, a limited "die hard" version  on red vinyl that comes with a patch and a sticker and a regular version on black vinyl. Absolutely crushing death metal, don't miss out on this.

Die hard version.

Die hard version.

Regular version.

Vinyl Fetish: Baroness- Yellow & Green Pre-orders

Pre-orders are up at Relapse for the new Baroness album Yellow & Green. Looking forward to this one. Heard some demoed versions of some of these songs and I think they're going to turn off a lot of the less open minded Baroness fans. Whatever, dimwits will be dimwits. Available as a standard 2xLP and a deluxe pressing in which the LPs are housed in a 28 page hardbound book.

Standard Pressing:

7000 Black
1000 Yellow A/B Green D/C
1000 Black 180 Gram

Deluxe Pressing: 

1500 Yellow Opaque
500 Orange Cream
500 Dark Green
500 Yellow/Green Split 

 Get it here.

Vinyl Fetish: Sleep- Dopesmoker 2xLP Reissue Pre-orders Are Go!

No need to introduce this. Here are the deets:

SLEEP LP PRESSING INFO:
Dopesmoker 180 gram Picture Disc double vinyl version= 1,000 pressed (only 500 available via Southern Lord mailorder. Band has the other 500)
Dopesmoker 180 gram Black double vinyl version = 1500 pressed
Dopesmoker 180 gram Green double vinyl version = 3500 pressed
Dopesmoker 180 gram Clear double vinyl version = 2000 pressed (*only available in Europe or when purchasing the 'ALL VERSIONS' package)

"For 2,000 of the vinyls (1500 black and 500 green) we had the artwork printed on holographic foil paper and then fabricated by Stoughton for their "old-style" tip on gatefold jackets. This was the bands vision as the best way to present the artwork. Due to the high expense of the paper we only did a portion of the pressing on this paper stock. After these have sold through we will have the "regular jackets" which are the ultra high quality Stoughton "old-style" tip on gatefold jackets and special parts of the art has a spot-uv gloss. The lungsmen and their space pod come to life!"

 Vinyls? Ugh. Southern Lord, get it together (grammatically).

(It's Southern Lord, so prepare to be raped by shipping fees)

Drop out of life with bong in hand... 

Vinyl Fetish: Thou/Mohoram Atta- Degradation of Human Life Test Pressing

I told Rob I wasn't going to post this, but I decided that if I went ahead and did so it might light a fire under his ass and he might actually order a copy rather than wait for weeks and complain to me about how he didn't get a copy when it sells out. I don't know how many test pressings Halo of Flies had for this release, but I doubt it was very many. "Shorties With MP40s" is one of my favorite Thou songs and easily their silliest song title. This also features Thou covering "Screaming At A Wall" by Minor Threat, the fastest thing they've done to date. Dude from Halo of Flies said he's going to write "a cute little note" for everyone that buys a copy and "maybe I’ll toss something else in as well."  Don't sleep on it.

Get it here.

Download the Thou half of the split here.

Vinyl Fetish: Coffinworm- The Great Bringer of Night Pre-order

Well, it appears that the mighty Coffinworm's 2009 demo The Great Bringer of Night will see a proper (read: vinyl) release via The Flenser. Two bonus tracks from the same recording session bring the total up to 5 songs. This might not be essential for some of you as the only song that didn't make it onto their absolutely crushing full length was "The Inner Caligula," but if you love this band as much as I do it's worth the 15 bucks for that song alone. Remastered by James Plotkin, limited to 120 copies on gold vinyl and 380 on black.

Get it here

Download the demo here

Vinyl Fetish: When Hell Comes Home Split 7" Series Vol. 1 Thou/Kowloon Walled City

Pretty stoked about this. I wasn't interested in enough of the records in this series to order a subscription, so I was worried about having to wait for the ones I did want to pop up on eBay/Discogs and shell out a ton of cash for them. Fortunately, Hell Comes Home has decided to to sell them individually. This split features Kowloon Walled City covering "July" by Low and the almighty Thou doing a cover of "4th of July" by Soundgarden. Rob and I have been jamming on the Thou cover non-stop for about a month now, it's so good. Haven't had a chance to listen to the KWC cover yet, but this one is worth it for Thou alone.

Get it here.

Vinyl Fetish: Graf Orlock- Los Angeles 7" Pre-order

Graf Orlock return with their first release since the tremendous Doombox EP. 10 whole minutes worth of grind on this bad boy! Actually, half of that will probably be samples, but the 5 minutes will be totally worth it. Issued by the band's own Vitriol Records and limited to 600 copies on black vinyl, there are 3 different covers available. Each cover features actual bullet holes shot through it by a member of the band and comes with a fold out poster (not sure if the poster comes with bullet holes as well). These go on sale Saturday around 9pm Pacific Time.

Grind or die.

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.

Vinyl Fetish: Carcass- Necrotic Innards Live May 1990

So...for serious, I need this. Limited to 150 copies on "Linda Blair's upchuck" colored vinyl.

Get it from Dark Descent.

Vinyl Fetish: Mitochondrion- Archaeaeon 2xLP Pre-order

Mitochondrion's 2008 debut full length Archaeaeon is finally set to be released on vinyl. If you can remember back a few months, I named Mitochondrion's Parasignosis album of the year for 2011. While Archaeaeon isn't quite as good as Parasignosis, it's still some remarkably good, completely head-fucked death metal. Issued in a gatefold with all new artwork, the first 150 copies come on gold vinyl. You better believe I got a gold copy.

Dark Descent- Gold Vinyl

Dark Descent- Black Vinyl