hezagenius

Man alive this album is a classic! I remember reading something about it being so great and I figured with a name like Tiamat, it had to be fucking heavy. Then I listen to it and I'm like what the fuck is this? Then I listen again, and then again, and finally I realized what everyone was talking about. It's not a metal classic because it's heavy. It's a metal classic because it's not heavy (although it has its heavy moments). This album was a gateway drug for me. It made me realize metal isn't just bands like Slayer. Music can sound like Agalloch or Tiamat and still be metal. This is a must fucking own for me.

Run it under cold water in the sink for a while. The labels should be fine as long as you don't scrub them. When they dry, they should look normal again. Whenever I clean a record, my first step is to run it under the faucet to get all the loose stuff off. Then I scrub it with distilled water, enzyme cleaner and tergitol. Then I rinse in the sink. Then I submerge and rinse in distilled water and then pat dry and let it air dry the rest of the way. After that, I put it through a vacuum RCM. If that doesn't get it clean, the record is toast. And the labels always look like they did when I started.

What the fuck. If they are picture discs, fuck that noise.

I'm all in on the Knick soundtrack. Great show and I remember hearing the music for the first time and I was like what the fuck is this awesome shit?! Nice how they mix that cool ass minimalist electronic music into a olde tyme show about a hospital with its fair share of junkie doctors, unscrupulous ambulance drivers and an x-ray machine that only requires you to be exposed to it for a single hour in order to get an image of your skull. I'm glad Cinemax is doing guilty pleasure shows like this and Banshee and not trying to make critical darlings like HBO.

Interesting. I, too, got a cancellation email early this morning. I just checked the status on their website and it shows the order as being open and the item on backorder. Coolio.

The easiest way to identify EU pressings is they say "Parlaphone" on the spine. The EU pressings are released by Warner Bros. The US pressings are released by Sanctuary. That will be visible on the back.

Got mine yesterday. 1572 or 1578, I can't recall. Seems like there have been several in that range so they must have found a box or two. Mine had a substantial seam split on the top of the front. Not sure if if was from the shipping or if it was like that. Pretty annoying but I've received several jackets with seam splits in this type of mailer. There's actually nothing in there to prevent it on 2 sides which sucks.

Damn. My order from TR isn't in yet. Got the shipping notification several days ago and I was hoping to have them this weekend. Really stoked to hear these! MONO usually doesn't disappoint.

Why say no when it feels so good to say yes

It better be delivered on a feather pillow and come with a BJ for that shipping price. I still ordered it of course. My wallet is butt hurt today. Ordered the Beatles mono box, the two new Led Zep boxes and now this. It's time to chill the fuck out for a while.

that shipping is fucked.

Fuck it. Just ordered the mono box from CCM. That deal was too stupid to pass up. $225 for something going for $350 on Amazon. And I added the 2 new Led Zep boxes coming out this week. Those were $84 each which is $20 cheaper than Amazon. All 3 boxes came in under $400 and shipping was $19. And the LZ boxes only added $1 each to shipping. If they are anything like the first 3 boxes, those fuckers are heavy! My wife is gonna be pissed!

Ouch. That's one benefit to using Amazon. If something is wrong with your payment, they notify you and you can fix it. I think they give you 24 hours or something like that. That happened to me when my credit card number was changed and I had an outstanding order that hadn't been charged yet.

Got my payment notification through Amazon so it sounds like these will be shipping soon.

I believe Amazon Canada sells the UK versions so for the individual LPs, that may be a cheaper route than Amazon UK, even with Canada's fucked up high ass shipping prices. What ever happened to NAFTA?

I cancelled my US box and ordered the UK box yesterday. Interestingly, the US records come in poly sleeves while the UK records come in paper sleeves.

Anyone on the fence about picking these up should do themselves a favor and head over to the Steve Hoffman forums and read their thread about these. It's almost unanimous that a) the new pressings are not as good as old pressings (not really a surprise), but also the UK versions are better than the US pressings. The UK versions were pressed at Optimal (in Germany I believe) while the US pressings were done at URP. There seem to be more instances of poor pressing quality (dirty and/or warped records) with the URPs, although the Optimals weren't totally immune from this. Someone posted a waveform of each pressing for one of the records and there is a noticeable difference. The Optimal looked more dynamic. People said that both pressings seemed to less dynamic than the originals and several people posted that it sounded like a "wet blanket was over the speakers". Some speculated that the master tapes may have degraded quite a bit over 30 years. Others speculated that these new pressings had less EQing done so they sound more flat. Just wanted to throw out that info so you could do a little more research on this stuff before you buy. The UK versions from Amazon UK are still cheaper than the US pressings from Amazon USA, at least for the box. This is not true for the singles or individual LPs.

On the NWN forum, someone posted a response from CM saying the items won't be available for purchase through CM USA until they are in stock. Not sure if that is supposed to be Nov 20 or what. That chat is quite lively. There's also this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULVER-Trolsk-Sortmetall-BOX-SET-4LP-MC-poster-clear-vinyl-ltd-100-/231365265803?pt=UK_Records&hash=item35de71c98b#ht_331wt_1350

Ulver's twitter feed has a pic showing the pricing for the EU stuff and it says the clear is only available from cmdistro.de so it looks like the US cmdistro won't be getting that. Not surprising, but it still blows.

Whenever it happens, I'm sure I'll be in my car.

Says they are "temporarily out of stock". I'm assuming they haven't gone up yet?

I typically let small corner dings and very small seam splits go, as long as the packing job was done well. If it was packed well, then it is hard to fault the seller. Of course, you could make the argument that if something gets damaged in the mail, it wasn't packed well enough. If the packing job was shitty and the record or jacket gets messed up, that thing is getting returned. If I'm paying good money for something, I expect to receive it in that condition and that the seller do everything they can to make sure that happens. Sellers that say "shit happens" when they don't take the time to pack something well are just being lazy and are not looking to make customers happy. I don't get to pay 50% of the price and say shit happens. Is it too much to ask that labels/sellers pack a record correctly? A padded envelope is not acceptable unless there is significant reinforcements inside. I can't even count the number of times I've received a record in a padded envelope with absolutely no reinforcement. Sometimes they make it OK. Usually there is damage to the jacket. The record should at a minimum be sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard and then put into an LP mailer box. Those things are not expensive, especially when you buy them in bulk. For what labels/sellers are charging for shipping these days, they can afford to use them. If a record is packed like that, the chances of getting damaged in transit is pretty low.

CM USA only has CD box right now

I know, right. November 20th must really mean October 20th. Clear would have been legit to grab.

Can you file an insurance claim if insurance wasn't purchased when it was shipped?