Band:BONEMACHINE
Title: Destination: Hell
Format: A plain silver CDr in a white paper envelope within a single sided colour cover, re-released in 2015 by the Smell The Stench label (Australia), no catalogue reference.
Edition:22 numbered copies
Track Listing:
01. Sympathy For The Devil (Let Me Please Introduce Myself...) 77.03
There's an odd parallel between the world of Agatha Christie books and the world of Bonemachine releases, and it's nothing to do with waxed moustaches or being Belgian.
No, it's all to do with reissues and remakes. You see, if you have read the assembled detective fiction of Ms. Christie then you'll appreciate that there are many novels and short stories of hers that would make brilliant television programmes or films, yet they have been consistently overlooked in the continual churn of remakes and re-showings of a smaller core list of classics: "And Then There Were None" being an excellent example, having been made into 5 different films and numerous television adaptations since 1945.
Similarly, there are many Bonemachine songs that languish on strange compilations or lurk on very limited edition releases that would greatly merit reissue - the songs on "Burn Down Psychosis" or "Triangle" springing immediately to mind. And yet - as is often the way - it is a relatively common release that gets the reissue treatment. And here it is - "Destination: Hell".
This is the third official time the song has been released: the original pressing was in fact the original Bonemachine release, back in circa 2001/02 period, whilst the second appearance came as part of 2008's "Erste Rotation" compilation album. With the third pressing coming out in 2015, that's almost exactly 7 years between variants, so we might expect a deluxe reissue sometime around 2022 to keep up this pattern....
The original review in 2010 was so thorough Nazgul doesn't have a whole lot of words to add to it, save for the fact that the artwork on the Smell The Stench pressing is certainly the best of the three versions and gives a real sense of battle and mayhem to the album. Great stuff.
And speaking of artwork, it transpires that in conversation with Hugin another promotional-only version of this release exists, which is actually referenced on the W.A.R. Productions blog pageas WAR036, bearing a fourth and different cover illustration. This proposed release was scheduled for 2006 in an edition of 12 copies but never was formally issued. Hugin is adamant that he's sent the copy to the Castle Nazgul collection and he's almost certainly right - for once, the Castle library filing system has failed, however, hence there's no accompanying picture to show you! Suffice to say the Castle monkey is hard at work scouring the shelves to identify this lost gem and restore it to its rightful place.
So - as this is quite a short post, let's get some thoughts from the mighty Hugin himself on "Destination: Hell" and other matters in a timely mini-interview:
Nazgul: Why did you choose to re-release this album again on Smell The Stench?
Hugin: I thought it's time because a lot of people were asking about it and I still think it is one of the best Bonemachine tracks so far, it has such a creepy atmosphere! This is again a very small run, so I think the best chance for people to get it is still the "Erste Rotation" DoCD!
The cover art on the latest version is very cool - can you tell me anything about it?
I like statues a lot and I think they fit well with the whole Bonemachine concept – this one especially fits great with the satanic “Sympathy For The Devil” lyrics I've used on that track!
Do you think the song still reflects musically what the Bonemachine project is all about, given it's 14 years old?
Yes, I'm also thinking about doing music again in that vein for Bonemachine – the other day I found sound F/X I used for this recording and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun to play with such F/X again after such a long time!
Are the days of Bonemachine songs lasting 77 minutes a thing of the past...?!
Who knows ... Bonemachine is always good for a surprise!!!!
Are there any new Bonemachine releases to come?
So far no, but since I found these F/X and I definitely wanna use them again!!
