VENGEANCE RISING - Released Upon the Earth (Limited Vinyl Run)

Yet another superb vinyl reissue from Roxx Records as part of the Limited Run Vinyl series. I have picked up all of the shipped records in this series so far, and they are very well done. Solid 180 gram, wonderful packaging, and the remastering is always satisfying. And that applies with the release before us — the final recorded release from the band Vengeance Rising with Roger Martinez at the mic, originally released in 1993.

While this is the band's fourth release, this is the second album after the complete member change. If you read my recent review of the previous album, Destruction Comes, I explain a bit of the story, as well as my thoughts from the time. In brief, the previous album found vocalist Roger Martinez standing alone, and essentially writing all songs, playing all instruments, singing, and producing everything (aside from drums, which were provided by fellow thrasher Chris Hyde of Deliverance, and a guest playing lead guitar parts).

But now, after assembling a new touring band, Roger was no longer alone, making Released Upon the Earth more of a band project again. He is still listed as handling lead, rhythm and bass guitar, but the credits also list Deliverance's Jimmy Brown as handling rhythm guitars, Victor Macias of Tourniquet fame playing bass, Johnny Vasquez on drums and Jamie Mitchell on lead guitars. This line-up was not the actual touring band for this album, but the recording was definitely less of a one-man project.

Mixing of the album was a joint effort between Roger and George Ochoa, also of Deliverance fame. George went on to be part of the touring band as well for this album. In my opinion, the guitar tones on this release are very reminiscent of a Deliverance sound, which is a huge improvement from the guitar sound on the prior release.

The end result is a much more solid release than it's predecessor. It has much more clarity in the instruments, much more dynamics in the playing, and as mentioned, a hugely improved guitar tone. It is heavy, not always fast, sometime just mid-tempo grinding.

The opening track "Help Me" is absolutely killer. While it does have basically two lines of lyrics being screamed throughout, they are buried deep in the back of the track, leaving this track to be more like a six-plus minute instrumental track. It is just bottom heavy, slow and plodding, with screeching guitar leads shredding throughout. You can almost tune out the lyrics in the background, but if you do focus on them, it makes the song that much more heavy (and scary) feeling.

Vengeance Rising Released Upon the Earth Vinyl

Now, hopefully if you are reading this vinyl review, you are aware of the difference in sound that vinyl can give over tradition CD or most digital formats. Vinyl can offer a wider range and depth of sound waves over against the shorter, compressed digital counterparts. That being the case, vinyl can present higher highs and lower lows, and that is usually noticed even on a mid-priced turntable setup (like I have). For the audiophiles who invest in the much more expensive systems, the difference is supposedly even more greatly noticeable.

Many of these Limited Run Vinyl releases are presenting us with these recording for the first time remastered on vinyl, therefore, it can be a new listening experience depending on your system. My system can notice it, and while I found a good amount of improvement with the previous Vengeance Rising release (reviewed here), it is more-so noticed here since the starting recording already had much more depth to it. So while this album was already heavy, it now it just feels more powerful to me.

Of course, as I mentioned in my review of the previous release, my tastes have changed in the 26 years since this release (a wider range of heavier aggressive music than prior), so that surely plays a part in my feelings when revisiting this type of release. That being said - my revisiting this with new "more mature" musical ears, and then adding in the vinyl advantage, this release is given new life in my opinion.

From the opening track, this is a much more brutal album for me, and I think the vinyl remastering helps to give more distinction between instruments, as well as just overall clarity, while adding the beefier heaviness. In other words, for the past 26 years, I've liked the album well enough, but now, much more so.

In my mind, when thinking of the band Vengeance Rising, I just can't help but unconsciously split things into two bands, because the line-up change between albums two and three drastically changed the sound of the band. The first two releases with the original band were (for me) more musically interesting, as they had more dynamics throughout the releases. The second two were more straight-forward thrash, with less variety of tunes throughout.

While over the years I have always absolutely loved the first two releases way more than the second two — WAY more — I have to admit, after spinning these vinyl reissues of the second two VR releases (and revisiting them with "new ears"), the large love-gap between the two pairs has been closed greatly.

As with all of the vinyl releases in this series, they come with various colored vinyl, and this one offers us a purplish swirl which looks really cool (though a fire or blood red might have been more suiting considering the cover art). I am glad I have acted fast and gotten my hands on these limited releases, because the experience with these classic reissues on vinyl has, so far, been simply amazing with each one.