Apocalypse/Omega

[The Sentinel]

From the HRR website:

Which brings us to the album "Abandon Hope", which has just been released as a strictly limited vinyl edition on High Roller Records. Steve explains: " 'Abandon Hope' is basically the material that did not go on to 'The Prophet'. Tracks that were never released except as demos that we later recorded over the years. There is no new material. It is a record of what we did. In a word, if you put it next to 'The Prophet', you will have 90% of our catalogue. One track, 'Midnight Train', was to have been the A-side to the single, had we not gone for 'Stormchild'. All the recordings will not have been released before. 'Chosen Few' is a bit more adventurous in this recording. 'Killing Man' has a 'guest' appearance on bass by Dave 'Mex' Higgen, writer of the song, founder member of Apocalypse, who left after a very short while but nevertheless can be credited with coming up with the name in the first place. The title track uses the original intro soundtrack that we used as our entrance on stage. There is a bit of live recording in 'In the Heat of the Night' which prior to this was only ever released as a studio demo on the Omega 'Alpha' cassette, my copy of which you can barely hear above the hiss of the tape!"

[Black Axe]

But I just got the 'Abandon Hope' lp and I didn't like it. Maybe the production? Something just sounded off to me. I'll listen to it again in a few weeks when I get some extra time.

I do like it. But I agree that the sound is a bit off. The vocals also had a weird hissing effect on some songs when I heard it through speakers. Still need to listen to it with headphones on.

[doomedplanet]

Listened to it completely today. It fell flat on me, this especially sucks since I know some of the songs in far superior versions, I guess it goes into the "I-dont-plan-on-listening-to-it again" pile. Maybe I'll like it in a few years...I'm kind of sad since I love the band...

[From_the_Fjords]

Omega is a great record. A side is awesome. B side is always great but less epic/dark/progressive, strange the choice to put a Beatles cover on this record.

Apocalypse single is wonderful

[lynx]

What about the reissue of the 7" + demo on vinyl? Is the sound quality good?

[Astra Wally]

From HRR:

Following on from "Abandon Hope", High Roller Records is proud to announce yet another Apocalypse longplayer - maybe the ultimate one - consisting of cleaned up and re-mastered versions of the official Apocalypse and Omega demos plus the legendary Apocalypse 7" single "Stormchild" from 1982. The centrepiece of the new album entitled !Blood Sacrifice" might as well be the band's re-working of Gershwin's classcial "Summertime" composition. Guitarist Steve Grainger explains: "Gershwin wrote 'Summertime', a masterpiece of its day, blabla...

http://www.hrrecords.de/high_roller/start.html