Vinyl Friday

Welcome to "Vinyl Friday!" What's vinyl friday? It's where every week I pick out a vinyl record and talk about it. Why? To inform the avid collector, of course. And also because I get bored sometimes and have nothing else to talk about. Just being honest. The first record came out a few months ago on Deathwish Inc, and licensed to a389 records for the vinyl release. The record is "Paranoid Delusions/ Paradise Illusions" by Baltimore hardcore band Pulling Teeth. Check it out.



Pulling Teeth has been releasing metal tinged, evil sounding hardcore on beautiful peices of wax since their debut "Vicious Skin" a few years ago. Their latest album "Paranoid Delusions/ Paradise Illusions," is no exception. In these five new songs Pulling Teeth dive further and deeper into their influences, throwing around traces of thrash, hardcore, sludge metal and doom. The finished product is a record that seems almost schizophrenic at times. A two minute song played at breakneck speed turns into 9 minute Black Sabbath-esque crawl. Distorted guitar solos turn into surprisingly soft melodies, most notably in the 20 minute track "Paradise Illusions" that takes up the entire b-side of the record. The record is all over the place, but nonetheless well executed and compelling.


For their cover art, Pulling Teeth once again tapped artist Jeff Beckman who graced the cover of their last full length "Martyr Immortal." The cover is a gatefold with one side depicting Beckman's interpretation of "paradise illusions" and the other of "paranoid delusions" The paranoid delusions side plays to the same apocalyptic themes that has graced their previous covers, featuring some of the same iconography like the snake and the all seeing eye. The Paradise Illusions side is the exact opposite. It's bright, green and cheery. Everything that you would least expect from Pulling Teeth. Still, both covers theme the album perfectly, and it only cements Pulling Teeth as the go to band in hardcore for extremely detailed, eye melting cover art.

According to Pulling Teeth's blog, the first pressing of this record was limited to 666 copies (seriously), with 333 of them featuring "Paradise Illusions" themed colored vinyl and the other 333 of them featuring "Paranoid Delusions" themed colored vinyl. All 666 of them also featured an extra "hologram cover" where the two images morph into each other. A limited pressing of blue splatter colored vinyl was also available via the Deathwish e-store, but quickly sold out. Any of these would've been awesome to get, but it seems I'm too slow. That leaves the rest of the world and I with the less special clear blue pressing. It's not a hologram but it's still nice to look at. It's to be expected though. From the music, to the artwork, to the packaging, everything Pulling Teeth has put out since its inception has been stunning, so even the stock pressings of the record are still nice peices.

Go pick this up from a389 Records. Or get on e-bay and bid hard!