Hey everyone! I know I was talking about starting up a review section for vinyl, and I am just getting around to doing it now after finding a suitable camera for taking photos(I could never justify buying a camera since I wouldn’t use it very often…figures). Anyway, so as to avoid blowing my proverbial wad all at once exposing my small collection all at once, I am just going to be doing this every once awhile awhile (perhaps once a week), until my pesky music buying habits allow me a much more ample collection of vinyl.

Basically this section isn’t meant to review the quality of the writing on the album. Since I am going out of my way to find vinyl to purchase, often for a higher price than that of the digital or CD format, its a given I already enjoy every album I buy and am just looking for a different listening experience. Basically, I have been hearing for awhile that vinyl is a superior format for listening to music than digital, so as a test (aka another excuse to go out and buy music), I am purchasing vinyl from albums that are older (recorded analog), and newer (recorded digitally) to really sparse through all the hype.

First, I’ll take you through my pathetic excuse for a listening set up.

Since I am on a limited budget, I had to purchase something that could simply play music. I know audiophiles everywhere will be shrieking in terror at the thought of how I am playing vinyl, but I have to start somewhere people, and as I up the quality of my equipment, I will be sure to go back and re-examine prior reviewed albums to see if it was just my poor excuse for a sound system that robbed me the first go around. So let’s get on with it shall we?

My player is the ION portable USB turntable. After researching I heard that this was a decent player for the roughly $90 price tag I ended up paying for it. While being mainly used for LP to digital conversion, I merely wanted a decent player to listen to LPs with. I know I could have hunted around Craigslist for a likely superior product for half the price, but I am impatient and wanted to listen to some albums that I had already purchased prior to actually buying the turntable.

ION Portable USB Turntable Features:

- Comes with built-in speakers and stylus (huge buying point for a noob like myself)
- USB port (obviously)
- Stereo In
- RCA Port
- Stereo/traditional sized head phone jacks
- 33, 45 AND 78 RPM playback
- And of course, the gain, pitch, tone and volume controls

I will say now, that upon trying out the internal speaker system, I quickly learned it was an utter piece of shit. I figured this would be the case, so now I am hijacking the speaker system of a Phillips Magnoavox boom box that has beaten to a pulp based on its worthy service as my apartment’s party speaker system. The results, while still far less than stellar, are enough to get a little out of my recent purchases until I can find a more suitable sound system (of which I will definitely be hunting down on craigslist!).

Alright, so now that we have the equipment spread out of the way, as sad as it may be, on to the first choice for review. Skeletonwitch’s latest album, Breathing the Fire went over quite well with me, and when I read that Prosthetic was releasing a very limited edition orange vinyl of 250 copies, I knew I had to jump at the chance to get one. What I didn’t know however, was how SHITTY the customer service is at Prosthetic Records! Holy shit! I ordered this bad boy on the 15th of October, but didn’t end up receiving the package until November 21st. Anyone see a problem with that? My account with Prosthetic had said that they had shipped my order (no tracking number available), and that the order was complete for weeks. Well, it wasn’t quite complete because I wasn’t listening to mega-awesome Skeletonwitch vinyl yet!

I really thought that Prosthetic had burned me on this order, and I wasn’t sure how I’d go about getting a product that I had PAID for. So over a month later, the package magically shows up on my doorstep. Bizarre? Perhaps, or maybe Prosthetic are just assholes with their webstore, which is really a stand up way of, you know, making money in a tough economy? Bah! You can bet your ass that I won’t be buying anything from Prosthetic directly anymore.

Alright, so enough of the bitching, and more covering of the cool nifty bits that people give a crap about.

SKELETONWITCH – BREATHING THE FIRE

Skeletonwitch’s Breathing the Fire is a great album of 2009, and this limited edition orange vinyl (an equal number were pressed in white vinyl as well) looked quite nifty, so it had to be mine…all mine. The artwork is immense and really puts the CD and digital art to shame. I have super hot revealing pictures that are much bigger and more detailed than the above, but I trust you can get the jist. Want bigger and sexier? Leave comments and let me know. Also not pictured is the gatefold inlay (I forgot to take it off the camera I was using), which isn’t very impressive anyway, featuring a dark, ominous background featuring the songs and their lyrics, as well as the “special thanks” section.

Despite having a cool looking bright, orange vinyl, the sleeve it sits in is merely the standard white used for protection. If an album I purchase has a sleeve with art (as some do already), I will make sure to take pictures.

Now, for the sound quality. Out of the albums I have purchased thus far, which is a mix between analog and digitally recorded music, I have discovered that modern, digitally recorded vinyl doesn’t seem to sound as good as its digital form. I have read about this on the Net, and I have come to support this claim, at least with my current equipment I am using. However, Breathing the Fire surprised me with how good it actually sounded. Despite being a digitally produced album, it had a similar warmth to it as the analog albums I have bought. Could it just be the tonal qualities of the instruments on this particular recording? I don’t know, but it was a much more pleasant experience listening to Breathing the Fire than other releases.

This was definitely a worthy investment and gave me hope for digital transfer to analog. Prosthetic though, they are still in the doghouse as far as I’m concerned.

CODY