Top 5 Rarest Albums I Own

Welcome to the end of September fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

Okay, so it’s not quite the end of the month. It’s just that I wanted to get something out before October, and I needed at least a little bit of time to play out what I wanted to do for spooky season. However, I didn’t want to just put out some random piece of trash, and wanted something a little special. So, to have a little fun, I wanted to show off some of the rarer albums in my collection. 5 of them, to be exact. The records I’ll be talking about here I’ve talked about in the past in some way, but never talked about how hard it is to find these (As far as I know). Also, if you happen to like this post, I may bring it up again as a new series if anyone is interested, so there’s that. Anyways, here are 5 of the rarest albums I own. Let’s begin!

5) Septicflesh - Revolution DNA (1999 Release)(Song)

So, I’m kinda cheating with this on.

Septicflesh’s only Goth-Industrial album got a re-release back in 2016, and it ended up being my least favorite out of all the re-releases the band put out. I may have mentioned this that year, but it was basically a re-release of a re-release. The funny thing about it was that I bought the original 1999 release a few months prior to that, and it was through sheer dumb luck that a copy wound up on Amazon for sale. It was rather expensive ($66.66.....make your own Satan joke), but was in shockingly good condition for being close to 2 decades old at the time. Unfortunately, this edition is incredibly difficult to locate. I’ll probably be repeating this throughout this list, but you best bet will be a 3rd-party music store, yet it’s still not a guarantee given how old it is.

4) Korn - Untitled 2007 (Deluxe Edition)(Song)

I lost the CD for this one.

I’m so mad that I did, and it was for a stupid reason also. I was borrowing my Mom’s CD player at home, was listening to the album in question, and had set it down someplace. I don’t know what happened, but the player went missing with the CD, and I haven’t seen it yet. In the decade+ since then, I kept looking for it, until finally I gave up. I probably should have found another Deluxe Edition, because it’s almost impossible to find now. Outside of a few used copies on Amazon, it’s practically impossible to locate unless you go to 3rd-party music stores. It’s a shame, since the band’s 2007 release wasn’t half bad looking at it in hindsight. In comparison to their 2002 & 2005 releases, it’s one of the most Nu Metal records of Korn's time in the 2000s, with Take A Look In The Mirror not that far behind.

3) Devin Townsend - Infinity ~ Christeen + 4 Demos (Song)

True story.....I got this one by accident.

Well, sort of by accident. I did request my Dad to grab this for me thanks to some housework I did all the way back in 2015. It took a odd amount of time to arrive, and once I opened the package I understood why, as my pops somehow got the Japanese Edition of it. There’s no real different between it and the original version as far as I know, but it’s home of origin is the first reason why. The other reason is availability, and while it was more likely to be found in May of 2015, there are only 3 used copies of it on Amazon as of me typing this up. Once again, 3rd-party music stores are you best bet to get the original North American edition, and it’s worth it if you somehow find the thing!

2) W.A.S.P. - Still Not Black Enough (Song)

Once again, this was a case of sheer dumb luck.

I had almost given up looking for this when I first discovered it back in 2018, and was going to save up money to import it from Japan for an exceptional price. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, some guy out in California I think had put up a used copy on Amazon for sale. It was fairly priced, coming in at $29.99 without factoring in shipping & tax, and was in great condition when it got here. Sadly, Still Not Black Enough is an example of being rare for the sake of not being popular enough. Unlike the rest of 90s W.A.S.P., this release didn’t catch on quite as well as it’s brethren from that decade. Not only that, but the few remaining used copies you can find are over in Japan, but even the least expensive copies can still hurt your wallet. 3rd-party music stores will be your best bet in the United States to get it, but given how it wasn’t as popular as everything else from the 1990s, don’t get your hopes up a ton.

1) Rammstein - Reise Reise (Japanese Edition)(Song)

You can’t find this one anymore. At all.

Okay, maybe that’s not true. Kinda like Revolution DNA, this one got a re-release as well. This iteration was originally released in Japan in March of 2005 if I recall correctly, and it was certainly something special. Thanks to certain....controversies (Read here for details), the band changed the album artwork, took out any offending audio, and put in 2 remixes. The end result was an experience that was new to Japanese listeners, but oddly familiar to those outside of the country. In 2009 it would be re-released in Japan with the original album artwork & audio (Along with a DVD), and as such it would leave the 2005 Japanese Edition in the dust. I got this back in December of 2010 as a Christmas Gift, and back then you could find it fairly frequently on Amazon. Nowadays is basically impossible to locate. Even CDJapan doesn’t have the 2005 edition available for purchase, and that website has a lot of Japanese Editions of western albums to buy. At this point, downloading is the only way to get your hands on this exceptionally rare release.

And those were the 5 rarest albums I own. Like I said above, if any of you read this & liked it, let me know and I might keep it going in the future. Well everyone, I got the last week of the month to plan out what I want to do in October.....but there might be a particularly unique band making their first ever appearance. See you soon!