Underoath – Underoath : Observatory

I was weary about getting this after seeing so many people talk about skipping problems on TOCS, but I took the plunge anyway. Boy were they right. Side B, mainly "It's Dangerous Business...", is full of skips. Truly unlistenable. Thankfully I bought a copy of TOCS years ago. DTLG and LITSOS both sound great, with only one skip on side B of DTGL that I .

It's very exciting to finally own DTGL and LITSOS on vinyl since I never picked those up, but if TOCS is what you're most looking forward to, I would look elsewhere

One skip on b side of TOCS, otherwise I can't complain.

This version ended up at 17,000 copies produced in the run.

My copy sounds great! Only the one skip on side A of tocs.No clicks or pops at all

I see a lot of valid complaints and noise surrounding this set. However in my personal experience this set is overall good but shy of great. The major complaint I see seems to be QC, and I can report no major issues from my set. No skips on records, although a few pops, sleeves and box and feel good, not great. No holo on front of boxset like shown in the mock-up, but otherwise it came as described. Records look great, and mine came no dirtier than any other record I own. Sleeve artwork is high quality and boxset art looks great. TOCS & DTGL sound pretty good in my opinion, LITSOS is noticeably lacking, not to where it’s bad, but lesser than the other two. Audio quality is the most clear issue in my opinion, but for albums that were almost assuredly mastered for CD and not remastered for vinyl, I’m happy. If I had another complaint, it would be the box feels a little flimsy, but still suffices. It’s no masterpiece, but for what it is I’m pleased with my purchase.

My box was beat to hell, clear dammage to the corner, which damaged the sleeve of two out of the three records. The shipping box was not adequate, no protection for the bottom or sides of the box. Really rough skipping on the B-side of TOCS. Pretty disappointing.

A bit disappointing. Like others have said, we knew what this was as far as presentation goes, and I was fine with that. But the quality leaves a lot to be desired. My 2004 clear pressing of TOCS sounds 100x better than this version (plus, the '04 pressing had the bonus track and put "It's Dangerous Business..." at A6 instead of B1, which totally ruins the flow of the record for me). And as others have noted, my copy arrived with more dirt on it than I've ever seen; DTGL was especially bad. Really feels like the manufacturer couldn't have cared less about this set.

So seeing as everyone is weighing in on these....

1. The set was a great value, and met the obvious demand for these albums, rad!
2. The delays, lack of communication on delivery, and cut corners (color printed box?) sucks.
3. The box itself... yeah its very lackluster, not color like in the mockup, but whatever, its a box.
4. Recordings... I thought the messaging around what these were was plenty clear. No issues.
5. Packaging... Minimal, no lyrics sheet, and inner sleeves are (literally) paper thin and ripped from the factory. Meh. And yeah all of them are filthy with dust and debris. Cleaning required.
6. Sound... these are old albums, the mastering is what it is. I think the sound on these LP's is great all things considered. BUT, the gaps between flowing tracks is a clumsy oversight and lame.

Final thoughts...
I am happy to have it, happy to own it, and I think its all around "OK" for the price.
Certainly not a collectors wet dream, or any sort of difinitive version though.

I will come to the defense of Underoath here. I think this was a fine box set and it was explained perfectly on their website when we ordered it. This was to be a re-issue of 3 albums in their original packaging, with little other "extras." Underoath specifically acknowledged that previous vinyl releases of these albums were hard to come by and expensive. To put out these 3 albums at an accessible price of $85 was the task, and I say that task is well accomplished.

Upon receiving these albums, I unpacked them and washed them all using the Spin-Clean record system. I typically do that before any playback of records - new or used. 3 of the 4 albums had no warping at all. 1 of them is slightly warped upon close inspection and it absolutely did not affect playback. I'm not going to ask for a replacement disc because it's honestly not that bad.

I think these albums sound pretty great for being from the early to mid 2000s and (likely) digitally recorded. One repeatable skip was noticed at the beginning of Side A of DTGL - Maybe that's just a bit of dirt that I can solve by cleaning it again. A few of the comments here complain about poor sound, gaps between tracks, compressed mastering, etc. Here's the thing: vinyl masters of these albums obviously already existed as they have seen multiple vinyl releases over the years. This Observatory release was NEVER going to be a re-mix, re-mastered, re-imagined type of release. So I'm a bit confused by the folks complaining of the sound quality or mastering job. It's not like this was the first time they were ever put out on vinyl. I think that these recordings still sound great and have withstood the test of time quite well. Props to Adam D in particular.

Would I have loved more content like posters, photos, and a lyric sheet? Absolutely. In fact, I am continuously disappointed when bands release albums without that type of content. But when I ordered this Observatory box set, I knew I was buying 3 classic albums for a good price. I knew that these records already had multiple releases on vinyl and would very likely be the same vinyl mastering as found on those releases.

The records sound good enough. Not the best but it’s fine. Sadly I have faced some pretty terrible skips on my TOCS and I have an adequate turntable to adjust my tone arm weight and anti-skate. The box is pretty mediocre and flimsy, and the box set is very minimal with nothing to compliment the records. Seems very rushed from the plant and they really left the records DIRTY. Even after cleaning mine a couple of times I still have skips and lots of dust stuck in the grooves. Hopefully more cleaning should do the trick. Could have been so much better.

EDIT: My LITSOS has two side a labels on it as well, not a big deal just thought it was funny.