Rot In Hell / Integrity Split 2x7"

I'm gonna change tactic a bit here and post about something I recently got, instead of just older items. Needless to say I'm very excited about this. Its gonna be a long post, this deserves it.

I went to the mailbox the other day and saw there was a package in there waiting for me. It looked roughly the size of a 7" but decided it probably wouldn't be this record. I had waited for so long for this to arrive that I was beginning to lose hope. When I opened the package I was greeted by this cardboard case.

By seeing this I guessed that it would actually be the record I so dearly wanted to arrive, and it was! I carefully opened the case and pulled out the contents. I may have waited a long time for this to arrive, but it was well worth it. So where should I begin?  

This split contains 2 tracks performed by Rot In Hell and 5 by Integrity/Dwid. Rot In Hell bring "Erebus" and "Life Becomes A Desert Around You". The former appeared on the live recording "Niu", but the studio recording is just perfect. Its full of anger, violence and absolutely blistering solos. The latter is more reminiscent of their split with Hordes, and truly shows the diversity of this amazing band. 

Integrity bring forth 3 tracks that were present on the Thee DestroyOrr compilation released last year. Although I already knew these songs, they are still so amazing. "VVaiting For The Sun To Burn Out My Eyes" starts off so fast it'll make your head spin, while "Black Heksen Rise" really shows off the talent of the current duo. Both have terrific guitar solos, but I think Heksen really steals the trophy. The acoustic version of VVaiting is also present, but seems to contain some extra sound samples not included before. "Process of Prayer" and "VVhere Does The Fire Come From?" showcase Integrity's noise abilities. They both contain all sorts of sounds and twisted vocals. The latter of these serves as a narration for the illustrated book (to come soon) and is similar to "Humanity Is The Devil".

So, onto the packaging. The two 7"s are held in a gatefold cover, that contains some really great artwork. 

 The inside of the cover has a large picture of Dwid's cartoon face, and a 10 page book of Dwid's illustrations. 

 The illustration book is amazing. I'm not gonna post all the pages, but you can get the idea from the one I will post (my favourite). As of yet I have not, but I intend to have a listen through the final track while reading the book. Apparently it is a narrative of the pictures so it should be very interesting.

 As you no doubt have seen, I have the blue and green version of this record. This is pressed out of 500, so is by no means the rarest. If only I could have afforded one of the test presses with a unique hand-drawn cover.

Finally, the package comes with lyrics for two RIH tracks and two of the Integrity tracks. 

All in all this is an amazing package. My only quibble is that I never received any patches or stickers that TDON announced they would include because of the dreadful delay. I'm not overly fussed though, at least it finally came. Black Heksen has certainly risen.