SORCERY - SINISTER SOLDIERS Gatefold vinyl--Original press

$

53

Excellent, obscure 1978 prog/psych/doom/metal album recorded at Q&R Studios, Evanston, Illinois & Northwest Studios, Barrington, Illinois. Double album. This album looks to be an original, below is a description from a site that helps explain it.

Listed below is information for original pressings of this album. To the best of our knowledge, and this guide, this looks to be original.

Cover:  
On the original pressing gatefold covers there was no printing on the spines, and there was no copyright/year information on the back cover.  On many of the copies in circulation, the band had taken titles/info that was printed on little pieces of paper and pasted them onto the spines and back cover.  So, originals can either have nothing on the spine or back cover (if they didn't get stickered), or they will have these strips of paper glued on there.  

On the glued copies there will be two 'stickers' on the spine, one at top that says "45854 Sorcery/ Sinister Soldiers"  and one at the bottom that says "©1978 Century Records, Inc." and then on the center of the back cover it will have another 'sticker' that will also say "©1978 Century Records, Inc.".  So this is a good way to identify, because there was NEVER an original edition with the title/copyright info printed on the actual covers, those are the bootlegs.

One other thing to look for which is pretty easy to identify is that most originals have a "black bar" that runs across the top of front cover where the artwork shifted down some during the cover printing process.  These were 'chip on' covers, so the cover art was glued onto cardboard (not printed on it) so that's probably how this shift occurred.  The bar is about 3/16" wide, you'll see it mentioned in some listings/auctions for original copies.  However not ALL the originals had this "black bar" flaw, there are copies where it was pasted on properly and centered.  However, none of the bootlegs have the black bar, so if you see/have one with a black bar it's probably an original.

Labels:  
On the original LPs the labels are a darker red, and the "Century Records" stickers do not cover up the title of the LP.  That's the biggest and easiest way to identify the bootlegs, is that on them the "Century Records" stickers are too big and cover up some of the "Sinister Soldiers" title.  There's also something that's been mentioned to me about the edges of the labels on originals being flat (and not beveled), but I haven't been able to identify this difference in person since I've never had the orig and boot side by side.  

Matrix/vinyl:
There are definitely differences in the original vinyl too, but most of them are pretty subtle and hard to explain.  Like the fact that there is different amounts of "dead wax" at the end of each side of the LP near the label.  This is because the bootlegs were obviously not pressed using the original pressing plates, so it had to be remastered/plated, and of course it came out just a bit different.

The matrix #'s on the originals are very faint, and they have some differences too- like the fact that on the bootlegs they added "side" information into the matrix.  See the bootleg page for detailed explanations and photos of that, but here's info for originals.

Matrix info:  The matrix numbers on originals are hand written, and are:

Side 1: A CH 79 V 45484-1
Side 2: A CH 79 V 45484-2
Side 3: A CH 79 V 45484-3
Side 4: A CH 79 V 45484-4