Freitag, 14. Juni 2013

d.r.a.: bitterness exhumed, blkout

bitterness exhumed - a place of many ghosts
because of the great stuff this label was releasing in the past i can almost buy blindly from demons run amok entertainment. so when new releases get announced i always check them out. no exception with bitterness exhumed. before pre-orders went up one could check a video on youtube of their song ‘opposition’. i think it was mainly chosen because of the guest appearance of nico from war from a harlot’s mouth. bitterness exhumed play a bastard of metal and hardcore with lots of dissonances, breaks and dark melodies. pretty much in the vain of wfahm. i think this youtube video was supposed to appeal to wfahm fans. and what can i say – it worked out just well. i was hooked.
as soon as pre-orders were up i secured myself a copy of the special pre-order vinyl version. it comes with a simple fold around cover with different artwork, kind of an obi strip and a poster. first impression is amazing. the art of the fold around cover looks ace. even better than the actual cover artwork, which is pretty good too.
more cool details to come. first one is the wax seal on the back of the strip. the vinyl for the pre-orders is pressed on clear red with black splatter colour pattern. it matches the alternativ artwork and therefore is a good choice of colour. the inside of the alternate cover is stamped with a custom made bitterness exhumed stamp. thumbs up!
the normal cover and the printed dust sleeve are made of thick quality card. the artwork by sin eater is great, too. only the combination of the pre-order vinyl and the cover colours look a bit misplaced. ah well, can’t have it all.
the pre-order sleeve is numbered out of 100. i have #56. as i learned via discogs ‘a place of many ghosts’ is compilation of six new songs and five re-recorded songs from two ep’s. one is called ‘doomridden’ and was only available on cd and the other is a self-titled two-song-7”. i already looked out for the 7”. but it’s from 2011 i believe and only the black version available through the band’s big cartel. got to snag a coloured copy on ebay.
the music is very good for a debut as well. sometimes they just put riff after riff next to each other but on a high level for sure. already excited to see how this band will develop.
500 made. 100 for pre-order on clear red with black splatter vinyl. 400 on clear vinyl. demons run amok entertainment. 2013.


blkout - point of no return
a strange story that is linked to this release. it actually was released in the end of 2012. of course i checked a song back then because it’s d.r.a. after i did so i put blkout aside because i didn’t like the song (can't tell you which one it was). then at one of my regular visits at burnout record store, hamburg i listened to a bunch of records in the store. among them was blkout. i decided to listen to it again. i mean you know how it is, you have a whole bunch of new music and sometimes you get lost in the sheer flood of it. sometimes i just can’t rely on my first impression. i passed the intro and the tunes of the first song ‘something to remember’ kicked in. boy, that was actually pretty good. i just listened to that one song because more stuff was waiting in front of me. but i said to myself to get a copy from the label. i didn’t bought it right there because it was just the black version and i knew that there was a coloured run.
when i finally listened to it in whole, i just don’t know, i was kind of torn. the rest of the record isn’t definitely that what the first song was promising. the record reminds me a lot on fire and ice whom i don’t really like. on all accounts ‘point of no return’ isn’t a bad record but it’s that discontent feeling of expecting something different.
the presentation is pretty cool though. i love the artwork on that one. the choice of colours and that the white printings on the sleeve are of some glossy quality. the big fold out insert in poster size with all the lyrics is great, too. ‘point of no return’ was released by resist records for australia, six feet under records for north america and by demons run amok entertainment in europe. 300 on clear orange with black splatter vinyl and an unknown number of black copies. 2012.