gretz

oddly, the pressing changed drastically due to the issues we had. so what happened was enough were pressed to fulfill the pre-orders for now. As it stands the black is the most rare, followed by the green. the splatter, unintentionally, ended up being the most common.

I may be biased since I went through all the hassle of having the new master done, but I think it sounds great. We had to have this pressed at GZ in the czech republic which I am not a fan of. I have never liked the Direct to Metal cutting they do there and while they DO accept lacquers we had 2 different lacquer cutters refuse to do it if GZ was pressing, so... it was a bit stressful for us. This record is technically about 4 minutes too long to comfortably put on one piece of vinyl without some fidelity problems. we lucked out in that the song that was going to suffer the most "lesser lights of heaven" being at the end of side 1 has almost no low end in it anyway and is KIND of blown out a bit on the original album. so inner groove distortion on any song, THAT was the one to have it happen, so without even shifting songs around, the song that would have suffered the most from a long cut is the song that kind of didn't matter if it did because, it kind of sounds like that anyway. the irony is, the very things we don't like about what the DMM cutting process were already built into the record anyway (mostly the lack of Bass frequencies and a little to much brightness on the top end) . So we didn't lose anything by using this process, there is a distinct lack of low end on the record and the high end is bright, so nothing changed. DMM DOES allow a longer/louder cut which can be more forgiving on the Inner Grooves, and that was what we needed more. overall (and i can say this objectively since i am not ON the album) i think this master sounds WAY better than the CD/Digital versions, there is actually a lot more clarity to everything without sounding drastically different, and when it matters, the quiet parts really get quiet to allow the loud parts to jump out more. -- the rest of the guys all commented on this when they heard the vinyl so it's not just me.

i found (as expected) the black and green to be much better sounding than the splatter. not that overall it's that much worse, but there is a bit more "noise" on the splatter but that is part of that type of variant anyway and why we usually do NOT do them when it's our own releases

there will be more copies of all 3 variants posted after pre-orders ship out

No lie, it is coming by boat.

for what the license cost is and how it is set up, it would be impossible to do the fear without a pre-order. and we would hit this same road bump. if you knew what it cost to do these and the "minimum" required copies pressed you would be shocked anyone even attempted this.

It won't be pre-orders. Once the finished products are in hand (i have already approve artwork proofs and am about to give the thumbs up on the test presses) we are being given a projected "in hand" date of early to mid june. Tragic Hero will immediately send out all pre-order packages at that point we (Zao) will put up copies of all 3 variants on bandcamp Tragic Hero will also have copies of all 3 variants that will be up for sale through them. there are NOT a ton left from this pressing (less than 50 each of Olive and Splatter) there are a reasonable amount of black left (still not a ton). how many olive and splatters that make their way onto the market will be totally dependent on making sure all pre-orders arrive safely. essentially what is left of those are the "safety" copies that are always kept of variants.

that is our target safe date. They will ship as soon as they show up from the plant.

given total freedom and choice... would have done a 2xLP at 45 rpm. But we are getting hammered with the license cost so 1 it is. crossing our fingers.

500 Clear with Gold Splatter 1000 Olive Green 1000 Black initially (although we will keep the black in press as we do for all releases post 2015). Don't believe in limiting the black. To us the black is the main one, the other stuff is bonus. Gatefold with printed inner sleeve. No download code with this one. Also doing a reprint of the Ccamo "Praise The War Machine" shirt to bundle with it. New 24bit audio master made from the final mixes so we could get as hi-def of a cut as possible - especially since we are REALLY pushing the side limits on this one. A double was unfortunately out of the question due to the cost of getting the license for the album in the first place. The "japanese" funeral of god artwork is also included as part of the packaging (the new back cover since the original CD technically didn't have a "back". All orders will go through the zao bandcamp page and will be fulfilled by Tragic Hero Records (who we are partnering with to do this) - Pricing will be Media Mail based for the most part. As a result of Tragic Hero shipping Funeral on their own. You can still order stuff that is out now and not have to wait for your pre-order. No cross bundling of Funeral and anything else we have. prices are about 23 for Olive and Black. and 25 for the splatter.

We didn't fool anyone. We always hold a batch of any limited variant until we are sure that the first wave of mail order copies arrived safe and sound. once we know everyone is taken care of, we release the rest. (there are another 10 sitting here but we will probably just give them to friends or sell them at a show in the future once we know this wave is taken care of.