United State Of Mind

I think like most people I was pretty eager for the arrival of the new Take Offense record. The band had I think, won most over with Under The Same Shadow the EP that was to be a taster for this release and it seemed they had really found a style/sound of their own. So I took the plunge and pre-ordered from the Reaper store despite this being quite costly these days.

Take Offense - United States Of Mind

 If truth be told that Take Offense sound has disappeared some what on this release, but then again there was a decent amount of time between the two records and I'm thinking there was a line up change in the mix too. This is a good offering from Take Offense but I do think it's side step rather than a leap forward for the band who seem to be exploring the metal-crossover aspect to their sound a lot deeper here. I've been that busy that this has only had a handful of spins though so that opinion could change massively.

 



This is the clear vinyl version of the record and also the rarest colour of the three pressings. Although I think the silver and green versions do look better. Surprisingly there are copies of this pressing left at the Reaper Records store and a lot of the other colours too. This also came with a nice big poster of the album artwork which is always nice, especially as the artwork on display here is pretty damn cool.

 

Obviously, ordering from the states meant I was gonna throw some other things in my basket too so I picked up another couple of Take Offense items.

 

Take Offense - Live At SoCal Slam

 

 

This is a pretty cool release from Reaper. I can get behind live releases like this when they are put together as well as this. More Please. 

 

 

This is the red vinyl version of the 7" which also comes on black vinyl. The pressing is of 500 in total but I'm not sure what the split between the red and black pressings is. 250 of each maybe? Once again great packaging on display here with a nice little booklet of Take Offense photos, tour flyers and the like.

 

 

Take Offense - Place Your Bet (flexi single)

 

 

So this I pretty much just added for the sake of it and also for the novelty of it being a flexi single. I'm guessing that was the thinking here from Reaper - novelty, as I have no idea why else you'd bother pressing this as a flexi single. 250 copies pressed.

 

This was a lot of Take Offense all at once from Reaper and I'm really wondering if the label was/is expecting them to really blow up huge with the release of USOM? Sadly, I'm not convinced that is going to happen.