Roses Never Fade - Devil Dust CD

About 5 years ago, an interesting album was released by the likes of Dwid Hellion, T, Matt Shack and Nick Fiction. Although these were all big names in the world of metallic hardcore, what they released was far from what would be expected from such a group. The album contained 12 tracks of dark, acoustic "apocalyptic folk" that was just done right FANtastic. After a couple of EP releases, the group is "back" with their second LP.
When I say back, it is really by name only. The line up has had a bit of a change over the years, with AVVs Nathan Opposition joining in on vocals on their latest EP. This album also sees Austin Rathmell, from The Way to Light, joining Opposition as vocals. Aside from these two, the only other member, and only original member left, is Nick Fiction. This is really quite a different band from the one back in 2009, and it definitely shows.

There are still tracks that are reminiscent of the first line up, such as Incandescent Dreams, a highlight for me. The guitar work sounds reminds me of the previous album's title track, and the haunted whispered vocals are just perfect. The big difference lies on the tracks where Nathan Opposition takes the lead on the vocals, these are generally a lot softer than I'd come to expect from the group. In a way they almost don't fit with what RNF originally tried to achieve back in 2009.

Currently this has only been released on CD, courtesy of Neuropa records. Hopefully this will see a vinyl release sometime in the future, it does deserve it.
The CD packaging doesn't have an awful lot mention, and I'm slightly disappointed that no original artwork had been developed for this release. Aside from the new twisted portraits of Oppostion and Rathmell, all the artwork has come straight from the first release.

That may have seemed a slightly negative review, but if anything it is just because the bar had been set so high. It is still a great second album, and I'd love to hear more from the group in the coming years.

Vocal Test

With every band comes that classic track that all the fans know off by heart, and always gets played at shows. While in many aspects Integrity is utterly unlike many other bands, they do share this commonality. Of course this is without a doubt Vocal Test - the opening track to Humanity is the Devil.
As if this track wasn't killer enough, the band have just released the master audio files for free. This means it is entirely open to be remixed and recut however you see fit, so I thought I've had a go at re imagining the track.

Head along to here to get the files and listen to Vocal Test like you never have before.

VVegas / Moutheater split 7" part III

Here I am with another VVegas record, albeit it only partially counts as a new record really. I have previously written about this particular 7" twice already know, but here I am back again with a third colour variant.

This particular variant is a little more special as it also features an alternate cover. The other two version were a grey/black swirl and clear red with some fantastic artwork designed by Dwid Hellion. This time around I've myself the pre-order version on clear yellow with (if I must be honest) somewhat less appealing artwork.

As far as I can tell 100 copies of this variant were pressed, although others I have seen were numbered on the cover and centre label.....
In terms of regular variants (not test-presses), that is all the colour variants this wee 7" came in. I can't see me ever really wanting to get this kind of set for a huge number of records, but for certain special ones it can be quite fun trying to hunt down all the versions. They do look pretty cool next to each other too.

As a bit of a follow up form last week, listen to how VVegas has progressed from their most recent 7" to this -