Cursed - Two

To say this post is a long time coming would be an understatement. It literally took years to get these two damn records. Well, one took a long time. As it usually is with collecting, the limited color eluded me for a while.
The first copy I got of this amazing album was from Chris Colohan himself when Cursed rolled through town on tour. My friend invited me down to the show as his band was opening. I owned the original press of One, I liked all the other CC bands like The Swarm, CTO and Left For Dead so hell yeah, I was going.
When I got to the show, I was so surprised by the lack of people there. Almost everyone was drinking at the bar or hanging at the back booths. Lame. I wondered up to the small, empty merch table and started up a conversation with the nice guy selling stuff. I bought a shirt, hoodie and this black vinyl copy of Two. After talking vinyl for a while, the guy excused himself and got up on stage to start singing. Ok then!

As anyone who collects Cursed vinyl knows, this stuff is pretty limited. This album most of all. There were only 700 pressed on black from Goodfellow Records (a Canadian label of all things) and was never officially repressed. There is a bootleg out there, but fuck that.
I know I mentioned it in my original post for the Three album, but I always get a kick out of the Canadian government Q Factor grant program. To have federal tax dollars pay for the release of a Cursed album and have their stamp on the back cover is just plain weird.
 

Pretty stark layout with only a single full sized insert. All this black on black is hard on the eyes!

The second copy took me years of procrastinating to finally get. Marcus had offered it to me for what I thought was insane money back a couple years ago. Well after watching just about every fucking copy out there go for $100 or more on ebay or Discogs, I figured I better take him up on the deal before he raised the price or threw it up on ebay. I'm just thankful Marcus has such shitty taste in music and was willing to let it go.
Clear vinyl was limited to 300 copies. Maybe. Goodfellow Records is long gone and never had the best discography to refer to anyways. It's rare. It's in high demand. It's expensive. I'm glad I finally own it.

My Cursed collection is slowly (very slowly) getting there. Just a couple more 7" variants to go and then I can sit back and wait for the dozens of "One"represses to come.

Ghost - Infestissumam

I am going off the rails a bit on this one and have decided to post on a metal album. I'm calling it "pulling a Mike Preston". What can I say? It can't be hardcore all the time. To tell the truth I have been collecting metal albums (and tapes) since I was seven years old. While I may have transitioned from metal to thrash and then crossover, I never really stopped with the metal. I have some of the dumbest records in existence on vinyl just to keep collections intact. St Anger anyone?
Well for the last couple years no band in any genre has captured my attention more than Ghost. I have been lucky enough to catch them live a couple times, once opening for Mastodon and the other on their own headlining tour a couple weeks back. Such a good time. One thing though, burly drunk dudes trying to sing along to Ghost is bad news.
Anyway, when word came down a new Ghost album was due, I was all over the internet. Mike and I exchanged emails, I joined Facebook pages, shared links to preview songs like Secular Haze, etc. Once the Canadian pre-order happened, I didn't hesitate. Well yeah, I kind of did. I was pretty bummed about the dumb legal name change to Ghost BC. Still they offered a package where you could score the Secular Haze 10" that previously was only available in Sweden. That sealed it for me.

The domestic version comes as a gatefold on red vinyl. There was some grumbling online that the vinyl was too thin, easily warped and came delivered in cheap mailers resulting in split seams. Mine arrived just fine.

This is the B side label art that caused quite a stir when they tried to put it on the cd. Apparently the pressing plant objected to the scene depicting a satanic witch orgy. Dude, you ain't seen anything yet.

Here is the Secular Haze 10" that came with the package. I dig the Abba cover on the B side.

This is the t-shirt that also was in the pre-order package. The B.C. is still lame. I will probably never wear it. I already have four Ghost t-shirts in regular rotation.

The best news came down a few weeks ago when I read that there was a Swedish/Scandinavian version of the album pressed on high quality clear vinyl that would contain additional deluxe artwork and best yet, would not have the lame B.C. in the name. I found a link to a webstore in Sweden that shipped to Canada and two weeks later - bingo!

The cover is also a gatefold but with an attached artwork book on the right fold. There are full 12"x12" drawings for each of the songs in addition to thank you's and all that.

There is also the dreaded printed inner sleeve with lyrics and the full size artwork of the domestic B side label.

The Swedish version is by far the superior version and I am really glad I ordered it. Drop me an email if you want the link to the place I got it.
As far as the music goes,  this album has really grown on me. Originally I was disappointed there was nothing as catchy as Ritual, but now I think songs like Year Zero and Jigolo Har Megiddo are as good or better. Awesome.