Dissection – The Somberlain

My copy has a serious difference in volume between side A and B.. Side B is much louder. anyone else ?

Ok so I finally received my copy in the mail which is this purple vinyl version and I can finally give my opinion after having spent time with it and hearing it all the way through. I’m sure if you’ve done any research on this pressing you are no doubt aware of the 2 main flaws of this release. #1 it does not contain the original cover art by Necrolord anywhere with this album and #2 yes the way they divided the tracks is very irrational and borderline retarded. However, if you’re like me and you really love this album and just desperately want to own a nice copy on vinyl without having to pay an entire months rent then you probably are most concerned on whether you are getting a good copy “audio-wise” for the money. If you want my honest opinion, I say yes you are and yes it is worth it. I was concerned that the 30 mins of audio packed on side A would cause a major defect in the sound quality but I wasn’t positive that was a guarantee because I do own other vinyls that have this problem as well and yet the audio was NOT negatively affected. After cleaning the album, which I always do to new albums before playing them, I put on Side A on my turntable and even though I had to turn the volume up only slightly more than with most of my records it sounded really good. I can hear all the instruments clearly and through my audio setup the drums sound nice and thick and bass when he’s doing those awesome drum rolls over his toms. Every sound sounds really good on Side A, better than cd versions. I was quite surprised based on the negative reviews people have been giving this. Then Side B started and it sounds even fuller and more dynamic which obviously has to do with the fact that less space was used to fill with audio, make sure you turn the volume down again before playing Side B because it is louder than Side A so you will want to avoid being startled by the noticeable transition. All in all I really like this record and am just really glad to have it in my collection especially for this price. I had heard mainly bad things from people about this album but decided to take a leap of faith anyway and it paid off. I have faith in my turntable and my audio setup and I know what it’s capable of and that I bet it sounds better than most peoples setups and based on this knowledge I had a strong feeling that this was still a vinyl and most crappy vinyls still sound better than really good cds so there’s no way it could sound as terrible on my setup as people were saying, and I was right. So if you are someone who takes care of your records and has an audio setup to your specifications and you’re happy with your usual results with vinyls then get this because it sounds great on my equipment.

WTF were they thinking, putting >30 min on side A and only about 15 on the B side :-/

I can't buy this just for the fact they destroyed a beautiful cover and put this on it. For shame.