Release News / Pre-orders

[Godflesh]

I got mail today from Nailboard Online Shop stating the same and offering me a refund.
I must say I'm disappointed. I would've liked to get a splatter version too. Never fear though, Nuclear Blast will surely press five more versions in a few months, so we'll get a splatter then.

[Blood Music]

Haha!

[hugo]

gotta have that splatter. Have they shown how the one in the wooden box looks like yet?

[RevolvingImages]

Oh shit

http://theendrecords.com/sculptured-anno...aborators/

[hugo]

Oh shit

http://theendrecords.com/sculptured-anno...aborators/

Nice!
Whatever happened to Winds? they had a good thing going on

[RevolvingImages]

Yeah, I can't believe it's been 9 years since their last album! Awesome to see Andy Winter on this.

[seasonsinthesky]

Cool, a comparison with the box would be preferable, it doesn't have to be too in-depth just wondering how these sound next to it.  I already have that Pale Folklore pressing so just curious about Ashes and The Mantle.  Thanks guys for whenever you get a chance!

So here's the response, 14ish pages later... these had a hell of a time getting to me (half my fault, partly UPS being awful; most expensive shipping of all time). The corners definitely show it.

This is primarily about The Mantle. About the only real difference between the cuts is the fadeout of "In the Shadow..." Fades done poorly are fucking kryptonite to me, so I'm happy to say the new master does it right; the wooden box version has a quick '60s fade out. Everything else is basically the same – this album really didn't need the bass control that benefits Pale Folklore (digitally), and in some instances actually seems to affect the clarity of the mix detrimentally; the very top end was certainly reeled in a bit as well. Both pressings have the same distortion during the finale of "Odal" (drums dropping bombs on whole notes while the rest of the band are doing the post-gaze thing) not present on the original CD master.

Only had time to test bits of Ashes so far, mostly the ending of "Falling Snow." The bass smoothing (I'm assuming it's a multiband compressor) and other EQ tweaks really help this album's mix. The wooden box pressing is definitely less clear and more 'smeared' in the >1kHz clarity regions in comparison. However, they both have shit fadeouts on the end of "Not Unlike the Waves," so that disappointed me a bit (it's really, really easy to get rid of the "Fortress" fade in). The box version seems to have a weird skip/edit right where the CD track changes (from NUTW to OFIB1); combined with the weird skip where the Of Stone, Wind & Pillor bonus live tracks segue together, I'm lead to believe the Viva Hate people used CD rips with bad sector misalignment across some of the segues. It doesn't affect ACFTDOM/ITSOOPC but it does affect these others.

All told, I'm happy to have the box because it's got "Scars of the Shattered Sky" (a top 10 Agalloch pick for me), but otherwise I'd say The End remaster presses are either even or superior choices. My only annoyance about the remastering overall is that he didn't address the blatantly horrible lack of dynamics across Pale Folklore, hence why I didn't bother buying that one (considering I already have the box version and the white reissue from 2013ish).

[RevolvingImages]

Cool, thanks for the write-up! I think I'll skip Pale Foklore (already have the 2013 version), but I may pick up the other two.

[RevolvingImages]

Finally, Devin Townsend - Transcendance arrived. A day before I see him live, so I'll have to digest this quickly!

[hugo]

My green Vikingligr Veldi just shipped! Exciting times, exciting september!