Entering The Mouths Of Madness

To say that I've been looking forward to the new Orchid album would be an understatement. It has easily been one of my more anticipated releases for the year. The band haven't lost any of that Sabbath influence that I've loved from past releases...Leaving It All Behind starts off with a riff that is similar to Sabbath's After Forever, and the video for Wizard of War bares a striking resemblance to Paranoid...still, as a wise man once said, "Complaining about too much Black Sabbath, is like complaining about too many boobs in your face".

Shit got out of control when I started collecting Orchid vinyl earlier this year. As soon as I thought I had them all, suddenly a new pressing would prove me wrong. Things started off a little slow in collecting The Mouths Of Madness, with Nuclear Blast only releasing a few different colors...but then there were a couple more...and then a few more. It got to be overwhelming, and a few times I've come close to throwing in the towel and quitting. This post covers eight different pressings, and does not come close to being a complete set. Madness indeed.

First off, this album cover rules. I absolutely love everything about it...then entire look and feel for this thing is perfect. Green vinyl was only available to Nuclear Blast Bronce customers (whatever that is) and limited to 100. It was one of the surprises that I found out about after I'd bought seven copies of the album. Not wanting to miss out of the most limited pressing from Nuclear Blast, I scooped one up off eBay. The price was a little high, but not nearly as high at the $100 price tag some douchebags were trying to sell it for.

Yellow vinyl is limited to 250.

Just like the poster that was included with the Capricorn LP, singer Theo Mindell does an original artwork piece for the gatefold sleeve of The Mouths Of Madness. Nice touch.

250 on clear vinyl.

Another nice touch is the etching of the Orchid logo on the back of the second record.

The etching is a bit difficult to see and photograph for some of the vinyl. Clear colored vinyl makes it damn near impossible to see the etching in pictures.

500 pressed on gold vinyl.

Of course there had to be a poster. I think that any release that Nuclear Blast puts out these days comes with a poster. Does anyone really care about these?

500 pressed on purple splatter vinyl.

Each record comes with a sticker that shows which color the vinyl is, and the more limited ones are hand numbered. I love these things, as I'm not left to guess which piece of vinyl is inside.

In addition to the regular Nuclear Blast pressings, the label also did a couple of runs for Napalm Records out of Austria. I'm not sure what the purpose was of these Napalm pressings, but as they were limited to 100, I'm glad that I didn't hesitate on them as they are now sold out.

Hot pink and purple vinyl for the Napalm Records distro.

Even the Napalm pressings have their own individual stickers for the front cover.

So there it is, eight copies of the same record. The scary fact is that this post is part one in my continuing saga to collect them all.