Toxic Shock

I've been looking to pick up the new Toxic Holocaust album. I found it at my local record store, but they only had it on black vinyl. Yawn. I placed it back on the shelf, and decided to try my luck online. Trust me, this was not an easy choice to make, as I tend to lean towards instant gratification.

To my surprise, when I was searching the internet back at the office, I found that REVHQ had some in stock on colored vinyl. I jumped on it. When the package arrived a week or so later, I opened the box and found this staring at me.

What the fuck? At first I was shocked...thinking that REV placed the LP in my package by mistake (kind of like the crap Starkweather colored vinyl I also received as a surprise with this order). Then I realized that they just used the album sleeve for protective packaging. Lemuria has to be the polar opposite of Toxic Holocaust. Indie-pop crap from Bridge Nine. Someone at REV must have a sense of humor.

Here we go. This is more like it. The new album from Toxic Holocaust. Joel Grind returns once again, giving us another dose of mid-80's inspired Metal. Take the greatness of early Venom, Slayer and Possessed, throw in some Crossover in the vein of Nuclear Assault, and you have a new Toxic Holocaust album. Thrash!

The artwork for Conjure and Command is amazing. While I love the Ed Repka artwork of the past, the doomy, black and white art for this album seems to push the band to the next level...dare I say, more serious? This album was definitely a surprise for me, and may work it's way into my Metal Top 5 this year.

200 pressed on green vinyl. It also comes with a download card. Of course I had found a download online for Conjure and Command a few weeks back, so I didn't really need the card. I do however really appreciate them when I need them, and it irritates me when labels don't include them with their vinyl.