Well, things got very crazy when it got to shop for Records these last few weeks. But of course, when the opportunities comes, why not take them. For example, one Swedish online shop, Ginza actually started their sale at the same time as the sale for books started, which is at the end of February. I don't shop from them very much anymore since their webpage got quite bad after their upgrade, also the result when searching is really off. But, they are the best ones for Plastic covers for LP's and while I was getting that I thought I'd check out the sale as well... Ooouups! BIG BOX of CD's all for me! Also, Peter almost the same thought and bought a bunch for himself as well. For me it was a few MSG remasters, Grave, Thy Majestie, Holy Grail, Dr Livingdeath, Zombified, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Evil Masquerade, Vixen (yes, the US hair ones...), Seven Witches and a few more.
A package from TPL (Attacker, Blaze, Matlese Falcon...), some off of eBay (Access Denied, Lethal Saint...) and of course the visit at Keep It True (Legend, Toranaga, Artizan...). The collection of new ones then looked like something like this;
Sure, these are both for me and Peter but they're going into the same shelf no matter what.
And when starting checking eBay it tends to be rather expensive in the end... Perhaps not per record but in total it can run away a bit, but it's very rare that I actually regret buying any records.
When searching for Savatage or Vicious Rumors stuff on eBay, there are a few compilation album that always shows up. I don't know why I never checked them out before, should have been interesting enough at least. At least now, I took the opportunity to get them.
First the "US Metal Vol I-III". The first two are really cool, featuring songs (some unreleased) from Exciter, Vicious Rumors, Manilla Road, Vixen, The Rods and a lot more. The fun thing is that it isn't the bands that are listed for some songs, just the guitarplayers.
"Welcome to the Metalzone" is more standard but still a lot of good stuff. And since Savatage is featured, of course it is needed for the collection.
Speaking of collections, Peter started to do a homepage for his Anvil collection. Taking photos (multiple) for each unique record. And we are talking about a serious collection so it sure was a lot of pictures... A very cool thing to do and I got a bit inspired and started off with my Savatage stuff as well, but it won't be as many pictures. Not to start with anyway...
And while ordering, since the postage for one LP from US can be rather expensive and that most sellers combine shipping for multiple items it feels better to get a few extra so the postage per LP won't be as high!!!!
One of the choices was Tyton "Mind over Metal". Took it one more of a chance and damn, it was a surprise. The things I've heard earlier sounded great but that was from an earlier release. But apparently I've heard stuff from "Mind over Metal" as well. At the old Swedish Radio show "Rockbox" back in 1987 or perhaps 1988 Tyton's "Legacy" was played. I was completely sold on that song and I'm so sure Per Fontander annouced it as the new and upcoming Testament album. Of course I've never ever heard anything like Tyton's "Legacy" from Testament for obvious reasons so it was good to solve that mystery now 25 years later!
And yes, that package from TPL was massive. It felt a bit bad though, because all of it (Ginza, eBay stuff) showed up while I was in England for work so when I got home around midnight I just opened it up and check that all was in there, not more than that! The next day it was an early morning and away for Keep It True. And of course, a visit on that Festival ended up in another bunch of records. The TPL package got to me a bit late though, I would have liked to listen a bit to Air Raid prior to the Festival since it's always more fun to see bands after listeing a bit.
The pack on display above shows a selection of the latest arrivals, mainly from TPL but also from KIT (High Spirits and Eliminator 7"). The real stacks are much bigger, both me and Peter got one similar...
But back to the TPL package, the crown jewel is still to come... Damn, I would love all my favorite bands to do something like this. I mean the book, a lot of pictures on old (sometimes very odd) releases and old pictures. I'm of course talking about the Jag Panzer box set "Historical Battles". Hard to get stuff in a very nice package, that's great!
Since the plastic covers I got from Ginza was far from enough I dug into the sale ones more but couldn't find anything really interesting. Checking out some product it was either just a recomendation to check out something or something someone else had bought while getting something I was getting. Started to click around and found the Blue Öyster Cult Columbia albums, which is everything up until fantastic "Imaginos" plus a few collection and live albums, all in a nice package, 17 CD's plus a few free liveconcerts downloads. Really cool!
And then last but absolutely not least, the new Vicious Rumors stuff. Took the opportunity to get the CD and LP from Ginza. The japanese version of the CD arrived the other day as well...
So I know what I have to do the coming weeks!!! Need to go through all of it before the next TPL package arrives. I think the deal will be to pick it up at Muskelrock.
But before that we'll have a releaseparty for the Cult of the Fox album and Void Moon rehearsals. Gonna be nice but busy (since I need to practice quite a lot for the VM rehearsal), business trip again and we are going to catch a few Vicious Rumors shows down in Europe before Muskelrock!!!
Cheers
E
NP: COMMUNIC - Waves of Visual Decay
