This time around we feature the collection of writer Vincent Martinek.
The first record I ever bought with my own money was…
Probably one of the CD’s I got at Borders (REST IN ETERNAL PEACE) as a kid. I got gift cards for every major life event from my family and built up a lot of my CD collection that way. But if we’re talking about vinyl, that would be Alcest’s Souvenir d’un Autre Monde which I got from good old Reckless Records in downtown Chicago.
The record that made me want to make music was…
Metallica’s Master of Puppets. It’s impossible to overstate just how much impact that album had on me growing up. I lived and breathed it from the first time I put it on, and it shaped me into the person I am today.
The record I’ve played more than any other is…
The Mountain Goats’ The Life of the World to Come. The Mountain Goats are by far my favorite band, and there’s something about this album in particular on vinyl that just sounds so good.
The record that always make me feel good is…
Spectral Voice’s Eroded Corridors of Unbeing. Big, dumb idiot riffs always put a smile on my face.
The record I turn to when I’m feeling down is…
Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words’ No Words. Soft, morose ambient music from Colorado’s excellent Cloister Recordings label. When I’m feeling particularly depressed, I like to listen to music that is more textural and formless, and this is a perfect soundtrack for processing my feelings.
The record with my favorite cover art is…
Lantlos’ .neon. One of my favorite albums of all time, and that cover art haunts me. Fursy Teyssier’s work is incredible.
The strangest LP I own is…
Brian Eno’s Another Green World. Eno might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but as someone who loves weird ambient stuff, he’s definitely mine.
The rarest LP I own is…
Thou/Leech – We Pass Like Night From Land to Land. A long out-of-print and wildly celebrated split containing three songs from NOLA’s finest sludge band and the last recording of Salem, OR’s Leech, whose members went on to form Blood Incantation and Mania among other acts. The edition I have is actually one of about 40 pieces of dead stock that Gilead Media, who put out the picture disk version of the album, had new cover art and jackets made for. These were slipped into random orders from the label’s Subscription Club and by the grace of all the powers that run this universe I managed to be one of those lucky people. Big shout out to Adam from GLM for consistently being the best.
The last LP I bought was…
A few pieces from The Flenser’s latest sale, in particular Bosse-de-Nage’s Further Still, which is a perfect mix of black metal and classic screamo vibes.
About
I’m Vince, a Midwest transplant living in California. I caught the metal bug at an early age, cutting my teeth on classic thrash before finding myself diving into heavier styles of music from there on out, which eventually lead me to finding a community of friends who let me write about the albums I feel passionate about. Whether it’s hip-hop, foggy ambient, screamo, or any style of extreme metal, I’m interested in music that is ‘heavy’ in a variety of senses. Currently, I write a weekly music and alcohol pairing column for Nine Circles called Receiving the Evcharist, as well as a monthly screamo-centered column called Chaos is Me. You can also hear my voice on the Nine Circles podcast in our Album of the Month episodes!
Vince’s writings at Nine Circles: https://ninecircles.co/author/jaggedvibrations/
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