New Releases - 12/6/19
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
Jump to… New Releases Reissues & From The Vaults New on Vinyl Compilations
New Releases
The Who - WHO CD/LP (Polydor)
The Who are back with their first new album in thirteen years. Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap. The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and "an old rock star that has lost his marbles." Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest, "I think we've made our best album since in 1973; Pete hasn't lost it; he's still a fabulous songwriter, and he's still got that cutting edge." Townsend adds, "Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I've tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. I didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are OK, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today." [Indie exclusive colored vinyl pressing.] Vinyl has not yet arrived...
Lee Scratch Perry - Heavy Rain CD/LP+MP3 (On-U Sound)
A dub companion to the critically acclaimed Rainford album that sees the Upsetter and co-producer Adrian Sherwood radically re-version the original tapes with a host of guest musicians including Brian Eno and Vin Gordon. [Limited silver colored vinyl pressing.]
Lovekillers feat. Tony Harnell - Lovekillers Feat. Tony Harnell CD (Frontiers)
Lovekillers marks Tony Harnells return to the soaring vocals and melodic hard rock sound of the '80s TNT albums.
Edge Of Forever - Native Soul CD (Frontiers)
Sporting a dynamic and renewed lineup featuring founding member, producer, singer, and keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio, guitarist Aldo Lonobile (Secret Sphere), bass player Nik Mazzucconi (Labyrinth), and drummer Marco Di Salvia (Hardline), Edge Of Forever's new album is back to the heavier, but still melodic, sound of their acclaimed debut.
The Murder Of My Sweet - Brave Tin World CD (Frontiers)
Fifth album from the cinematic/symphonic metal band.
Praying Mantis - Keep It Alive CD+DVD (Frontiers)
Recorded live at Frontiers Rock Festival V in Milan, Italy on April 28, 2018, this live release shows the NWOBHM legends offering the crowd a set of new songs and several classic tracks.
Acid Reign - The Age Of Entitlement CD/LP (Dissonance)
The reactivated UK thrashers release their first full-length album in 29 years.
Left Behind - No One Goes To Heaven CD/LP (Pure Noise)
Tapping into the darker side of the hardcore/metalcore stratum, Left Behind deliver a sludgy mix of breakdowns and staccato guitar riffage that invokes names likes Harms Way, Crowbar, and Black Breath.
Oath Of Cruelty - Summary Execution At Dawn CD/LP (Dark Decent)
Having formed in 2010, Houston's Oath Of Cruelty has been honing their craft for nearly a decade releasing two demos and 2014's Hellish Decimation EP. Summary Execution At Dawn is nine tracks spanning 33 minutes of death/thrash influenced by bands such Kreator, Sodom, Merciless, Slayer and more.
Compilations, Best Of's, & Sundry Collections
Various Artists - Space Funk - Afro Futurist Electro Funk In Space 1976-84 CD/2xLP+MP3/2xLP+7"+MP3 (Soul Jazz)
An intergalactic journey into black space, fueled by funk, powered by computers, Space Funk is a lovingly compiled collection of superb, rare and off-the-wall space funk and electro releases mostly issued on small independent labels in the late 1970s and 1980s. Features music by Jamie Jupitor, Solaris, Juju & the Space Rangers and many more intergalactic space warriors. [The album comes in deluxe artwork and three formats: digipack + slipcase CD, a very limited deluxe double-LP + bonus 7" single and a standard double-LP version.]
Reissues & From The Archives
Tony Joe White - That On The Road Look "Live" CD/2xLP (Real Gone Music)
The only live album recorded at Tony Joe White's peak and it's never been available at regular physical retail on CD. Recorded in the fall of 1971 while TJW was opening for Creedence Clearwater Revival, this show became the proverbial 'legendary lost live album'. The vinyl for this title was a RSD Black Friday release and we still have stock available.
The JBs - More Mess On My Thing CD/2xLP (Now Again) The demo Bootsy Collins and his band recorded for James Brown in 1969 that won them the title The J.B. s and changed the course of popular music. The vinyl for this title was a RSD Black Friday release and we still have stock available.
Bob Dylan - The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9) [Reissue/2009] 2xCD (Sony Legacy)
Recorded for his first music publishers between 1962 and 1964, these recordings trace Dylan's dramatic growth as a songwriter from early traditionally-styled songs through social commentaries and ultimately to groundbreaking lyrical genius.
Jimi Hendrix - Live At Woodstock [Reissue/1999] 2xCD (Sony Legacy)
Live At Woodstock documents Jimi Hendrix's legendary performance at the Woodstock Festival on August 18, 1969 and contains his iconic interpretation of The Star-Spangled Banner and other songs from the original festival film and soundtrack album.
Jessie Mae Hemphill - Run Get My Shotgun CD/LP (Big Legal Mess)
Jessie Mae Hemphill played guitar and drums, wrote and sang her own songs in the primal northern Mississippi hill country blues traditions. Considered the Queen of the Guitar Boogie, as one of the earliest successful female blues musicians, Hemphill has been an influential and pioneering artist. Run Get My Shotgun is a ten track collection of field recordings originally recorded on New Years Eve 1989 by Ko de Korte and Tom Haarsama.
New Riders Of The Purple Sage - Thanksgiving In New York City 2xCD/2xLP (Omnivore)
Captured at the late show from November 23, 1972, at the Academy of Music, Thanksgiving In New York City features the band in the midst of an energetic and highly regarded tour. The vinyl for this title was released for Black Friday and we still have some stock on it.
New on Vinyl
Better Oblivion Community Center - Little Trouble b/w Sleepwalkin' Daydreamin' Version 7"+MP3 (Dead Oceans)
Two new tracks from band featuring Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst.
The Milk Carton Kids - The Only Ones 10" (Milk Carton Kids)
The Milk Carton Kids return with the new 10" vinyl EP, The Only Ones, which follows up 2018's All The Things That I Did And All the Things That I Didn't Do - dubbed "practically irresistible" by NPR. The new project speaks to the core of what The Milk Carton Kids are about musically - the duo. Off the heels of their last, full band effort, The Only Ones brings them back to their roots. [white vinyl indie exclusive pressing.] Available here at Grimey's since their in-store last month. Now out everywhere.
Miranda Lambert - Wildcard LP (SME Nashville)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl., Seventh studio album by the country music icon. Features the single "It All Comes Out In The Wash".
Luke Combs - What You See Is What You Get 2xLP (SME Nashville)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. New release from the country superstar. Produced by Scott Moffatt, What You See Is What You Get features 17 songs including the five tracks previously released via Combs' The Prequel EP earlier this summer.
Cody Jinks - The Wanting After The Fire 3xLP (Late August)
Now available on vinyl. Cody Jinks follows up his 2018 album Lifers with two new albums: After The Fire and The Wanting, both released via the Texas songwriter's own label, Late August Records. A former thrash-metal singer, Jinks has become one of outlaw country's most popular new stars, amassing a passionate base of fans who gravitate to his blue-collar brand of lived-in country music and his fierce DIY aesthetic. "I tried to play the game a long time ago, I tried to do the clean-cut thing," Jinks told Rolling Stone of his indie approach. "I talked to some people who wanted to shelve me for a developmental deal, but it just wasn't a route I could see myself going down. Too much hand tying." [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Joe Henry - The Gospel According To Water LP (earMUSIC)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Songwriter/composer/producer Joe Henry is a hyperliterate storyteller, drawing an author's eye for the overlooked detail across a broad swath of American musical styles - folk, rock, jazz and blues - and rendering genre modifiers useless. Working with an incredibly diverse range of musicians - from Elvis Costello to Ornette Coleman to Richie Havens - Henry has produced four Grammy-winning records: Don't Give Up On Me (Solomon Burke), Genuine Negro Jig (Carolina Chocolate Drops), A Stranger Here (Ramblin' Jack Elliott), and Slipstream (Bonnie Raitt). Henry shares his personal reflections on the origins of his new album, The Gospel According To Water: "The album was recorded over two days this past June, and fairly by accident, when I thought I was merely making demos of thirteen new songs ahead of forgetting them - all but two written between Valentine's and Father's Day; all having flowered from the black earth of recent experience - namely a cancer diagnosis late last fall that left me reeling - though, as well, set into motion many blessings and positive shifts in my life, as well as an unprecedented songwriting flurry."
Rachel Grimes - The Way Forth 2xLP (Temporary Residence)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. The Way Forth, a new folk opera from Rachel Grimes, encompasses lush layers of voices and orchestrations in an experiential, non-linear investigation highlighting perspectives of Kentucky women from 1775 to today. Inspired by a treasure-trove of family documents, photos, and letters spanning several generations, Grimes began in 2016 to research some of the more vexing questions that came to the surface about these people, places, and events. Fueled by intuition, travel to visit family, photographing, and filming present day rural Kentucky life, the research led to many more questions: What is missing? What is not being said here? What did she really think and feel?
Mark Kozelek & Petra Haden - Joey Always Smiled LP (Caldo Verde)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Mark Kozelek teams up with violinist and singer Petra Haden for a new LP. Along with Haden, it features contributions from Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, character actor Kevin Corrigan, regular Kozelek collaborator Ben Boye, and more. And following six originals with very Kozelekian song titles, the record closes out with a folky, beautifully spare cover of Huey Lewis & The News' immortal Back To The Future soundtrack hit "The Power Of Love".
Walk Off The Earth - Here We Go LP (Walk Off The Earth)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. A collection of songs about life, love, loss and straight-up kicking ass. Ranging from top 40 pop and organic folk ballads, to EDM rises and drops, Here We Go touches on many modern genres but still stays true to Walk Off The Earth's signature sound.
Hurt Valley - Glacial Pace LP (Woodsist)
During a trip to Death Valley, California in 2010, two friends decided to drive an old Saturn station wagon down a four-wheel drive road into the wilderness. After a few hours of driving through the canyons, ever so slowly so not to bottom out the car, they came upon a clearing. It was filled with burned out vehicle carcasses and double wide trailers that had all been shot at, set on fire, vandalized, and finally left to become relics of the desert. It was surreal in the sunset of painted rocks and dead silence. Upon returning home to an A-frame house in Sugarloaf California, Brian Collins started Hurt Valley as a recording project. Many ideas and songs were fleshed out next to a wood burning stove and firelight. Fast forward a few more years, and with a relocation to Los Angeles in 2014, Hurt Valley became a routinely worked on project. What happened next, along with the comings and goings of many different friends and neighbors, was the recording of a series of songs over the course of a few years. Days, nights and weekends, and anytime in between, songs were crafted and recorded in a living room, in an apartment, in Los Angeles. This is what would become Glacial Pace, an album that is part memoir, part dream, part feeling-good, bad, and in between.
Nolan Potter's Nightmare Band - Nightmare Forever LP (Castleface)
For fans of Embryo, the Mothers, Pink Floyd, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Moody Blues, the Stark Reality, and Placebo. They're from Austin, Texas, but you'd swear it's from 1972 Europa-Mothership.
Arp - Ensemble - Live! LP (Mexican Summer)
Last summer's spellbinding album Zebra struck a chord with many listeners. Combining innovative production with an interest in music from around the globe - fourth world, Japanese avant-garde, minimalism, kosmische, dub, cosmic jazz and more - Zebra found Arp (AKA Alexis Georgopoulos) firing on all cylinders, drawing comparisons to Don Cherry, Midori Takada, Jon Hassell and Alice Coltrane and ultimately, made the best case yet for the polymath he is. If Zebra, the first album made primarily in his home studio, showed Georgopoulos blossoming as an arranger/producer, Ensemble - Live! emphasizes a different character - the sound of a group dynamic, of a vibe, of inspiration found in the moment - and how these songs work with 5 people playing them at the same time, together in a room.
Steve Hauschildt - Nonlin LP (Ghostly Int'l)
Developed and recorded in several studios during and around the edges of tour - Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Tbilisi, and Brussels - this material emulates an alienating encounter with a smattering of places, a replicant of culture shock, a solitary and stark experience with uncanny environments, melody and dissonance as oblique locales. Nonlin finds Hauschildt evolving his palette of tools, integrating modular and granular synthesis. The improvisatory and generative nature of modular systems, when paired with his signature grid-oriented and hand-played techniques, guides these compositions slightly out of line to hypnotic effect. [Limited colored vinyl pressing.]
Donovan Quinn - Absolom LP (Soft Abuse)
Fourth full length release from Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards/New Bums). Coming out of the psychedelic underground school of '01, Quinn has slowly built an idiosyncratic catalogue that combines obsessive long-form metaphors and oblique arrangements with simple song structures.
Arthur Russell - Iowa Dream 2xLP (Audika Records)
Now available on vinyl. Blazing with trademark feeling, these nineteen songs are a staggering collection of Russell's utterly distinct songwriting. At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell's most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s, as well as songs with pop and dance grooves, gesturing at Russell's devotion to New York's avant-garde and disco scene. Collaborating here is a stacked roster of downtown New York musicians, including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Henry Flynt, Jon Gibson, and Peter Gordon. Several tracks on Iowa Dream Russell were originally recorded as demos for Mercury and Columbia Records.
The Limiñanas - Le Bel Ete LP (Because Music)
Taken from the movie Le Bel Été, written and directed by Pierre Creton, this new album from The Limiñanas is the first OST written by Lionel Limiñanas. Much of the record was composed while on tour, making a more electronic feel than other recent work. The main theme "One Blood Circle" features French pop legend, Etienne Daho.
Screaming Females - Ugly [Reissue/2012] 2xLP (Don Giovanni)
Screaming Females - Rose Mountain [Reissue/2015] LP (Don Giovanni)
Screaming Females' seven years as a band, four full-length albums and 700 globe-spanning live shows has made them difficult to miss. Through it all, the New Brunswick, New Jersey trio have continued to exude a frenetic energy which is built upon the zeitgeist of America's punk and indie underground yet has always remained forward-looking.
Klaus Nomi - Klaus Nomi [Reissue/1981] LP (Real Gone Music)
Klaus Nomi was a fixture in the late-'70s NYC East Village performance art scene, but his big coming-out party was when he performed alongside David Bowie on Saturday Night Live in 1979. It wasn't easy to out-alien The Man Who Fell to Earth, but Nomi's demented harlequin act complete with plucked, Elsa Lanchester-like eyebrows, whiteface and widow's peak - not to mention a pink poodle doll pal - pulled it off (Nomi often claimed he was from outer space). That got Nomi signed to RCA, where he recorded two studio albums (and adopted the oversized plastic tux that Bowie wore when he sang "The Man Who Sold the World" on SNL) before succumbing to AIDS in 1983 at the age of 39, one of the first celebrities to die from the disease. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing.]
Venetian Snares - Greg Hates Car Culture [Reissue/1999] LP (Planet Mu)
Greg Hates Car Culture was Venetian Snares' first ever vinyl release. Long out-of-print, it came out in 1999, as the third release on Minneapolis label History Of The Future. Aaron Funk's hallmarks were there from the start. His absurdist sense of humor, the razor sharp edits and his use of odd time-signatures. There is a rawness here, not often captured on later records, where you can imagine Aaron playing live in front of a room full of young breakcore fanatics. Indeed most of the tracks here were recorded live, tweaking his effects and EQ on the fly, to DAT from his Amiga.
Carl Stone - Baroo LP (Unseen Worlds)
"I have always been searching for a way to articulate the intangible area between the recognizable and the unfathomable, a feeling perhaps informed by some long-abandoned experiments with psychedelics. This has been a continued pursuit starting with my tape experiments in the 1970's until the present, with technological evolution driving new ways of expression. With the exception of 'Xé May', which is performed on an Elektron Octatrack, these pieces were constructed for live performance using a laptop computer running programs I have built in the MAX programming language."
The Juan Maclean - Future Will Come 2xLP+MP3 (DFA)
The Juan Maclean is a Brooklyn, NY based DJ and producer who has been a mainstay of the New York club scene, as well as maintaining a rigorous international touring schedule, since the release of his first records on the DFA record label in 2002. DFA offers up a colored vinyl double-LP reissue of The Juan Maclean's 2009 album The Future Will Come. "Thoughtful dancefloor fare...a cosmic, contemporary Human League (The Guardian). "A dance album evolved to the point that even a robot could come around on its human potency" (Tiny Mix Tapes).
Samuel Jonathan Johnson - My Music [Reissue/1978] LP (Be With)
My Music is a stellar spiritual soul/jazz-funk gem, recorded by keyboardist-singer Samuel Jonathan Johnson in 1978. The epitome of a cult classic, it didn't do much upon its release but steadily found an audience over the decades that followed. This is music that shares the jazzy R&B; DNA of contemporaries like Roy Ayers and is an intoxicating blend of mellow moments and more groove-heavy tracks. Spacey keys and lush production give it a luxurious, enveloping warmth.
Donna McGhee - Make It Last Forever [Reissue/1978] LP (Wewantsounds)
Donna McGhee has been one of the key female singers of the New York disco scene, gracing several cult albums with her superb singing.
Nolan The Ninja - Illphoria 2 LP (Mello Music)
Earning his reputation while working alongside the likes of Royce Da 5'9", Quelle Chris, Denmark Vessey, Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Chris Orrick and more, Detroit raised musician Nolan The Ninja returns with a new instrumental album showcasing his lo-fi brand of hip-hop. Includes guest appearances by legendary west coast emcee Blu and fellow Detroiter Semi Six.
Dreamville/J.Cole - Revenge Of The Dreamers III 2xLP (J.Cole/Dreamville)
Dreamville and J. Cole's third compilation album features contributions from Dreamville artists, J. Cole, Bas, Cozz, Omen, Lute, Ari Lennox, EarthGang, and J.I.D. The album features appearances from several artists including DaBaby, T.I, Young Nudy, Buddy, Reason, Maxo Kream, Mez, Vince Staples, Ty Dolla Sign, Dreezy, Smino, Saba, and Guapdad 4000, among others. Features production from a variety of record producers, including T-Minus, Christo, Elite, Bink!, Deputy, Henny Tha Bizness, Hollywood JB, ChaseTheMoney, Pyrex, Galimatias, Pluss, Kal Banx, and Cam O'bi, among others.
Vivien Goldman - Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982) LP (Staubgold)
2019 repress; LP version. The London-born, New York-based Goldman is one of the foremost chroniclers of the perfect storm of reggae, punk, hip hop, and Afrobeat, but between 1979 and 1982, she was also a working musician, creating songs that, years later, would be sampled by The Roots and Madlib. This collection covers Goldman's first three musical formations; first as a member of experimental British new wavers The Flying Lizards, next as a solo artist with her single "Launderette" featuring post-punk luminaries, and then as half of the Parisian duo Chantage with Afro-Parisian chanteuse Eve Blouin.
Oto Hiax - Two LP (Editions Mego)
Second phantasmagorical audio outing from Oto Hiax, the duo of former Seefeel and Loops Haunt members, Mark Clifford and Scott Gordon. Two expands the duo's unique take on spectral synthesis incorporating a diverse amount of approaches to experimental sound. Two presents a hybrid mix of acoustic based audio design, ambient tonality, sound effects, abstraction, and video game soundtracks, with sound design onomatopoetically corresponding to track titles.
Univers Zero - Phosphorescent Dreams LP (Sub Rosa)
Marbled vinyl. Available for the first time outside Japan, Phosphorescent Dreams is an album of symphonic schizophrenic avant-rock from Univers Zero, originally released in 2014. Phosphorescent Dreams presents the complex musical schemes and ways of Univers Zero, ranging from maximalism to minimalism, classical avant-garde with a 2020 vibe in a constant flux. In a blend of tension constantly emerging from a subtle dialogue between avant-rock and contemporary influences, harmonies and dissonance.
Mike Cooper - Oh Really!? LP (Trading Places)
Trading Places present a reissue of Mike Cooper's Oh Really!?, originally released in 1969. The guitarist and singer-songwriter Mike Cooper was a key figure in the British blues boom of the late 1960s. Acquiring a lap steel guitar in 1963, he studied Blind Boy Fuller's work and in 1965, teamed with Dave Hall to support Bert Jansch, Al Stewart, and others; after releasing work on the Kennet, Sydisc, and Matchbox labels, Cooper soon began incorporating country blues aspects into his work, drawing from Son House and Mississippi Fred McDowell, as well as non-blues artists such as David Bowie, John Martyn, Roy Harper, and Dave Van Ronk.
Javier Diez Ena - Theremonial LP (Beat Generation)
Javier Diez Ena's Theremonial is a record with only theremin sounds, but rather than a soloist piece, it's a kaleidoscopic range of sounds. Rhythms, melodies, basslines, textures, harmonies, noises -- every sound has been played with the instrument, sometimes in its natural spooky way, sometimes filtered through a weird variety of effect pedals, playing the role of kick drum, bass, snare, guitar chords, shakers...Two strong flavors stand out in the potion: darkness and exotism, as the sounds within evoke the siren of a ghost cruise ship crossing the sea on a foggy night, or klezmer noir.
Various Artists - A Short Illness from Which He Never Recovered LP (Blackest Ever Black)
New vinyl-only compilation from Blackest Ever Black, consisting of all-new recordings unavailable elsewhere, plus a pair of tracks -- Carla dal Forno's much-loved cover of The Kiwi Animal's "Blue Morning", and Scythe's zero gravity blues "Flower, Drop" -- appearing on this format for the first time. Selections range from corrosive synth-scaping (Jonas Tiljander), astral melancholia (Ian Martin), bittersweet Low-German DIY pop (Hypnotic Sleep), evergreen-dazed instrumental guitar (Unchained), and elegiac drowned folk (Bridget Hayden).
Orior - Still Strange 2xLP (Demdike Stare)
Still Strange reaches back into the prized loft tapes of Jeff Sharp, aka Orior, following the revelatory discovery of his overlooked early '80s gems on 2016's Strange Beauty collection. Still Strange contains four gorgeous flashbacks to his early 80s post-punk era, and then shifts focus to recordings that Orior made around the early '90s. From those feted early tapes, you'll find Phil Hollis returning to lend jagged guitar on the drum machine sizzle of "Feels Like Summer", while mysterious synth player New Cross John contributes to "Invium." The 90s work is decidedly more blunt and gloaming, especially in the Deathprod-like "Under Shadow" and the near static witching hour ambience of "Endless", while shorter vignettes point to pre-echoes of Board of Canada's crepuscular scapes and even Bladerunner-esque sci-fi noir soundscapes. RIYL: Deathprod, John Bender, Boards of Canada, Vangelis.
Strafe F.R. - Shadow Position LP (Touch)
Strafe Für Rebellion is a long-term collaboration between the artists Bernd Kastner and Siegfried M. Syniuga, which started in 1979. The tracks represent four different windows to look out from their studio in Düsseldorf into the street and their different layers of sound. Witness the electric city and the power house. Strafe F.R. is sitting inside the fuse box. The electric chirp of the night. The socket in which we sleep. The kettle drum gives the rhythm of breathing, the bass determines the time. You stumble forward, forward into the next day. There are shadows but there is also brightness, complementary colors and contrasts, movements, and reflection until there is stillness.
Foreigner - Double Vision: Then And Now 2xLP+Blu-ray (earMUSIC)
Recently released on CD - now available on vinyl. Recorded in 2018, Foreigner's Double Vision: Then And Now celebrates the 40th anniversary of the band's multi-platinum 1978 album Double Vision with a masterful live performance of their biggest hits, filmed at Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, Mount Pleasant, MI.
Christian Death - Catastrophe Ballet [Reissue/1984] LP (Season Of Mist)
Christian Death - "Ashes" [Reissue/1985] LP (Season Of Mist)
Few albums from any generation can stand the test of time, let alone become the archetype of a genre and measure by which all others are judged. Christian Death's landmark album second album Catastrophe Ballet is such a recording and a cornerstone of the Gothic/deathrock/post-punk/early punk scenes. Led by charismatic, iconic singer Rozz Williams and guitarist Valor Kand, Christian Death broke rank from their LA punk rock surroundings here, and eschewed raw anger for an elegant, romantic and hypnotic form of art not heard before. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Overkill - Feel The Fire [Reissue/1985] LP (Megaforce)
Limited edition shaped picture disc of the thrash metal band's debut album.
Possessed - Seven Churches [Reissue/1985] LP (Red Music Legacy)
Few bands have done more to push the boundaries of extreme metal than the legendary Possessed. Even fewer can create a unique style which continues to set them apart from all others by being the very first in a genre they laid the foundation for. Possessed are by definition, one of the pillars of death metal.
Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design [Reissue/2001] LP (Peaceville)
From Katatonia mastermind Anders 'Blakkheim' Nyström, Peaceville presents the fourth and final album from his symphonic extreme metal solo-project, Diabolical Masquerade, which launched onto the scene in 1996 with the release of debut album Ravendusk In My Heart. Death's Design was first released in 2001 when it was speculated that the album was originally to appear as an actual movie soundtrack before the film was unfortunately cancelled. Past guest musician Dan Swanö featured alongside Blakkheim as a more prominent and involved contributor to this black metal horror soundtrack.
Fit For An Autopsy - The Sea Of Tragic Beasts LP (Nuclear Blast)
New Jersey six-piece band Fit For An Autopsy deliver their fifth studio album, The Sea Of Tragic Beasts which is introduced by lead single "Mirrors". Producer, guitarist, principal songwriter and co-founder Will Putney comments, "You carry things with you, for better or worse. 'Mirrors' illustrates the darker side of this idea. It's also a testament to how the decisions you make can have a resonating effect on the ones around you. Clearly this song was born out of a personal struggle, but in end it's a reflection on the greater human condition of love and dependency; not being able to release yourself from the darkness around you. Our new record dives head-on into some difficult topics, 'Mirrors' is the tip of the iceberg." [Red & Yellow swirl vinyl pressing]
Whitechapel - The Valley LP (Metal Blade)
Since their 2007 debut, The Somatic Defilement, Whitechapel's output has been mired in darkness, but they have never inhabited blacker territory than on their seventh full-length, The Valley. "Lyrically, emotionally, melody wise, there are not many 'happy' sounding parts on this record," states guitarist Alex Wade. "Our last album, Mark Of The Blade (2016) did not sound exactly 'happy' either, but the majority of those songs did not have much emotion or vibe behind them, they were just straightforward metal songs. These songs have a darker, more melancholic presentation to them." The valley of the title relates to the part of Hardin Valley, west of Knoxville, TN, where vocalist Phil Bozeman grew up. Set against this backdrop, he approaches the hardships of his childhood unflinchingly, building upon everything that came before, making it clear that he has survived that which he was forced to endure and is not afraid to confront it. "It's all about me as a child, and some of it is me looking back on that time from the perspective of now," he explains. [Red vinyl indie exclusive pressing.]