Wax Vessel

08/11/2025

Happy Monday!

ICYMI: Mensis is on the docket! “Preorders” (these go on press next week) go up on Friday. All sigs! 250 copies only! Ah!

I know we had a chance to go through the art a bit, but also WOW Zach did an incredible job on the audio. Bandcamp is up now if you’re not familiar or want to give it a listen!

Additionally, stay tuned for Trichomoniasis pics tomorrow? Wednesday? They’ll be going out this weekend too!

5 track album

08/10/2025

Last post on the art I swear! I think instead of just doing crazy draft dumps, I'll just do "first draft vs. final" - i think the behind-the-scenes look is always fun. Not sure if anyone cares but I think the journey on all these releases is interesting! Thanks again to Lab 13 for always allowing me to have 100000 revisions on everything, haha.

All the interior panels get *weird* as well, and I'm sure you can visualize where the variants are going with this one, haha.

Orders go up Friday at 1:00pm CST! 250 copies - see ya there!

08/09/2025

Just wanted to take another minute and highlight some of the panels that Edmund Dantes created for this Mensis project. I think they're very high impact with how they are presented in the context of this packaging, but also worth seeing in their original color scheme!

I'm out on instagram and other art sites all day just lookign to be inspired. Doing the art on these truly is one of my favorite parts, and this is just a great example of something cool that I would have never thought would have worked as a "core" album cover. I also think its such a crazy testament to how good Lab 13 is. Like, we always have soem back-and-forth, but I really do think Kai and I are on the same wavelength and always get it where we need it!

08/08/2025

Another bit of fun here! Can you believe its almost been 10 years?? As a Chugpilled Corecel I’m always leafing through that discography for little treats to share - and after Mugshot, I was finally able to make the case to Connor that we should do Mensis . “Do you think anyone will care?” Well, I know I do and by extension, I think you should to! If you’re a fan of Mugshot, but felt that the lyrical themes were mean ands direct enough then boy do I have the project for you!

Mensis is my favorite type of “great band has a side band that is very similar but maybe better in a lot of ways” type of band. It’s all the vocal aggression of Mugshot, but like, even more over-the-top. The music itself is like, if Mugshot was a bit more “hardcore” - embarrassing to say, but! This came out almost 10 years ago, haha. We were deep in the Facebook beatdown era, and there was a whole cache of bands on Chugcore who were tweaking it a little about. “Life is a Nightmare” is one of those cases where you have somethign that immediately registers as “core” but as you listen, its not just big breakdowns? It’s kind of like how Culture Killer is certainly a deathcore adjacent band, but so much more than that. There eis some riffage here. Like its some actual musicianship, and not just “lets go slow to leave room for the vocals” (even though they could have tbh. This vocal performance is just so ago lmao).

It has that vocal inflection that a lot of bands had early 20teens, but the production is just SO huge. It’s a vocal-first band, but it wouldn’t be the same without the musicianship behind it. I guarantee you that in 2025, if. You’re a fan of Mugshot and haven’t heard Mensis, you’ll listen to this EP and come away probably liking it more than Mugshot, haha. It’s got a pinch of like, thrash crossover but really is a hardcore record with metal core vocals. It’s more Warspawn than Mugshot - albeit with an even more distinct vocal performance.

NO band has bigger callouts. NO band hates womanizers more. Its my favorite type of thing in the whole world - a rock slide 15 minute EP. One and done. Here’s the Mensis experience. 100% vision, executed perfectly. A beautiful single-sided EP that doesn’t have a slow moment in its entire runtime. Liek not to be an old man but I think the EP is so vastly underrepresented in current year - its a descent in to singles and padding out stuff to be an LP. No nonsense here - Mensis just tells you what your win for in about half a song, and then rides that for the rest of the length. Most cohesive EP I’ve ever heard tbh I don’t even know haha.

I guess the big thing I’ll say is just go listen to it. It’s such a fun little aside for everyone that likes Mugshot. A cool little time capsule of some dudes breaking the mold in the midst of the downtempo boom. Lost to time - a footnote on the scene. I think it deserves to be exalted a bit and I hope you’ll all come away from this EP thinking of it as fondly as I do!

From a WV process standpoint, this was also such a fun one. This was a classic case of “art waiting for the realease” - I’d been following Edmund Dantes for a long time, just absolutely enamored with his art. IT’s insane, but SO specific haha. I never thought I’d get an opportunity to use it for something. Lo and behold, we have the Mensis conversation and how else was I supposed to adapt this art? Truly just serendipity. YOu’ll notice all of his art is very colorful and bold, but where you invert the image, it hits those blues and blacks perfectly. Took. Few tries, but this whole packaging and presentation is just chocked full of awesome panels from Edmund.

As usual, Kai over at Lab.13 did an insane job on the layout on this. Took some really big risks that I htink you’ll enjoy. And Zach did some magic on this audio. Just such a polished presentation throughout - you’re goign to love it!
This one time pressing is presented across 250 copies:

50 Judas Cradle (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Frat Boy (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Tryhard (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Castrate Rapists (Wax Vessel Signature
50 Unlovable (Wax Vessel Signature)

All of this housed in:
1.5x thickness Matte jackets
Double sided matte full color insert
Black polylined innersleeves
Gold foil numbering
Stuffed into polybags
Hype Sticker’d
Custom WV Mailers
Matching WV Album art sticker

Really want to thank Connor again for trusting me with this material, its been a treat to get to work with him again! Orders for these go live on Friday, August 15th at 1:00pm CST. These are an “in hand” in the sense that they will ship in the next 30 days. They enter production in the next two weeks. Didn;t quite get to sync it up, but they’ll be out the door before August is up I think! See ya then!

08/05/2025

Hello! Just a little process/infrastructure update today. Not that it's terribly urgent, but it always feels liek there is so much going on and at the same time nothing going on, haha.

So we're about to hit 45 days on Trichomoniasis, which is "fine" but also I hate! All of these in hands were placed in 2024 (generally about a year ago) and sometimes it doesn;t line up just right. But I don;t want to skip them and just do one drop a month, otherwise it blows my whole release calendar. Such a hard juggling act and even though for the most part it has lined up, these three (Trich, Lifeforms and the next on this Friday) have all been impacted.

Trich is shipping this weekend, so I'm not too concerned with that. Lifeforms will go out August as well. I just want to decontextualize that "in hand" for the purposes of these drops means "in like a month". The good news is, with September being the way it is (just one drop) it should allow me a lot of time for things to catch back up. So I think everyting will stabilize for the remainder of the year here.

So as always, thanks for the patience. Next thing up is getting all this merch out, haha. It's always insane over here but I don;t claim to be the world's fastest label, haha. I think you're really goign to dig what is goign up on Friday!

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08/04/2025

Happy Monday!

We've got an exciting week this week! Not only is Greatest Hits starting to hit mailboxes (keep an eye on your email for those shipping notifications) but we'll have full set pics up for Trichomoniasis in the coming days, with that shipping this weekend. Weeping is on press this week as well, and will ship in August (as will LIFEFORMS).

Tower of Rome merch is still running, and will be up until Friday night! And speaking of merch, anniversary merch is wrapping up and should be shipping out momentarily. KSD isn't far behind at all either. I think all outstanding merch (sans TOR) should be shipped out in August here. Plus there is a BRAND NEW BAND with a BRAND NEW DEBUT ALBUM dropping later in August, and that will have some merch too.

Other than that, I have a VERY exciting "in hand" going up this Friday as well. It's a little 250 run "side project" of a WV band from earlier. Peak Chugcore. I think you're really going to dig it! Really gave me an opportunity to get weird with the art (take a look at this lil teaser here). Lotta cool stuff in August coming down the pipe!

It will be pressed in August, and *maybe* ship by end of month. Certainly a less than 30 day turn time! And with September the way it is, it'll give me a month for the instas to actually get back in hand - thanks for the patience!

07/31/2025

TGI Thursday ladies and gents! I have a double dose of good news! Greatest Hits™️ has been delivered, and will start shipping NOW. Some lucky people might have them on Saturday or something, who knows! I just ask that when you get it, just keep the surprise for a little bit!

Additionally, Trichomoniasis is also done and in assembly. Should be shipped out tomorrow? In which case, they’ll be out next weekend! Lifeforms and WEEPING are on press next week as well! Ah!

07/30/2025

Ok ladies and gents! You can finally stop messaging Tower of Rome for merch! In celebration of the 5-year anniversary of the first ever WV merch drop (that was TOR) we’re back with another limited run! No excuses this time!

We’ve got plenty of stuff that’s pretty openly available, as well as a limited dad hat and flag.

Preorders will be up for a week! Whatever gets sold is what’s printed. Who knows what the next 5 years will hold - do you really want to risk it??

I expect these to be done and ship in like, 8 weeks from the end of preorder. Maybe longer! Who knows! It’s been 6 years and hundreds or garments at this point, I promise you’ll get it. If you feel the need to message the band about merch shipping updates I will just cancel your order please be cool!

This all goes up NOW! www.waxvessel.com

07/29/2025

All Is Lost

Tomorrow at 1:00pm CST

07/27/2025

It you haven’t been paying attention, we are now past the halfway mark for the year! Six months of 2x a month - exhausting! Expensive! But I have some reprieve!

There will be no new band announcement this week. No drop until August 15th. That should give me plenty of time to make sure I am fully caught up on all outstanding stuff. I want to make sure Trichomoniasis and Lifeforms have shipped out before I drop this next insta!

Greatest Hits in finally en route. It literally took three separate complete reprint of the jackets. Since they are so few, Nick is just going to ship those out over this coming week.

I’ve been told that trichomoniasis finished up over the weekend and should be in assembly Monday or Tuesday. My goal would be to have them shipped out this upcoming weekend, but who is to say. In any case, I should have everything shipped out before this next in hand goes up. Thank you for the patience on these, it’s such a hard moving target to hit - I placed all these orders like last year off of a schedule that I made two specific Fridays to fit in 2x drops a month, and sometimes it gets a bit squirrelly!

I think my goal is to get all of that plus the next in hand plus weeping out in August. Maybe Casket Dealer too. We shall see!

Merch is going at the pace that it always does. Anniversary is wrapping up. KSD to follow after.

And speaking of merch, in lieu of a drop this coming week stay tuned for the triumphant return of an OG10 and some sick merch! Long overdue!