Reissue

 

First edition is first edition, every edition released after the first edition that can be clearly identified from the first edition in some way is a reissue. Examples when a release is reissue:

 

- All releases that are fully remastered are without a doubt reissues. Remastering is usually done years after the initial release date.

    For instance Nightwish's debut album Angels Fall First was originally released in 1997 and remastered in October 2002. 

 

- Most of the old releases that contain bonus tracks, like all the Metallica's Kill 'Em All album releases with Am I Evil and Blitzkrieg, are reissues. 

    Am I Evil and Blitzkrieg were added to many editions of Kill 'Em All in 1988, especially to US editions, but Kill 'Em All was originally released in 1983.

 

- Some manufacturers leave the manufacturing date or manufacturing year code on the CD matrix or vinyl runouts. If this year or year code is not the year the

    release in question was originally released or the year before the release year (vinyl can be mastered in December and be released in January the next year) 

    then it's without a doubt reissue. For instance Rock and Roll All Night Long from a Finnish band called Hurriganes was originally released in 1973 but there

    exists many 80s pressings with 83 on the runouts. This 83 means the lacquer was cut in 1983 and all editions with 83 on the runouts are reissues. 

 

- Different manufacturer of two CDs or vinyl releases usually means other one of them is a reissue, this is especially true for old releases and for small market

    releases like Finnish releases. However, for big markets, like US, a release can be made simultaneously in different parts of the country by different

    manufacturers which can make the identification of a reissue difficult. For instance Warner had two major factories in the US: Specialty Records Corporation

    on the east coast in Pennsylvania and Allied Record Company on the west coast in Los Angeles, California, they both made many records simultaneously

    and, especially in the late 80s, often from the same cut. Metallica and Iron Maiden albums in the mid 80s are a good example. 

 

- CDs of releases originally released before the 80s. CDs weren't made before 1982, at least not in significant amounts nor commercially, so if an album

    was originally released in the 70s or before a CD version of it is without a doubt reissue. For instance, a Finnish album Roadrunner from Hurriganes was

    originally released in 1974 but the first CD edition wasn't released until 1988. The first CD album of any Finnish artist released in Finland was Eppu Normaali -

    Kahdeksas ihme which was released in 1985.

 

 

For major artists like Iron Maiden or Metallica the identification of an early reissue may be VERY difficult due to the HUGE number of copies made of their releases.

 

 

Nowadays it's common that an album released in different formats (jewel case CD, digipak CD, vinyl and limited first edition with special packing, extra tracks or whatever useless extra stuff for instance) contain different bonus tracks. These are not reissues, only the same album in different formats. However, in the old days the tracklist usually remained unchanged for years or even decades, which makes it much harder to identify early reissues from first edition. Also, I don't consider different coloured vinyl releases to be reissues if they were released simultaneously or within short period of time from the original release date.

 

 

Repress

 

Generally speaking CD and vinyl masters are stored for a certain period of time for future repressings. If these represses are made, they usually contain only slight variations in the CD matrix or in the vinyl runouts or possibly no changes at all. 

 

 

Vinyl pressed from the exactly same cut as one or more older editions is a repress. Vinyl runouts must be identical or nearly identical to at least one older edition but the center labels may have slight or very clear differences to the older edition(s), the same applies to the cover. For labels that are known to have changed their vinyl center labels periodically (like Virgin and US Warner Brothers) the identification of repress may be very easy but identifying a vinyl repress may sometimes be very hard. At least Baarn factory, EMI and Record Service Alsdorf made vinyl are known to carry light stamper indicator numbers on the vinyl runouts but they are sometimes very light and therefore very difficult to notice. Usually the earlier the pressing, the smaller the stamper numbers are. Nowadays vinyl are pressed in so small amounts that some plants don't change the runouts at all. At least Optimal Media seemed to operate this way leaving vinyl colour, vinyl weight, center labels and possibly some extras like ads the only ways to ID repress but since around mid 2014 some light stamper IDs appeared on Optimal Media pressed vinyl. 

 

 

CD represses are much harder to distinguish than vinyl represses unless the manufacturer uses some clear way to distinguish their stampers. Stampers are usually made in running order which means the earlier the stamper, the earlier the pressing. For example, the EMI Uden factory in Holland used clear and simple etchings for stampers making it easy to ID the first edition from the 1-1-1-NL etching. After the EMI Uden plant was sold to Mediamotion, Mediamotion continued to use similar etchings but without the dashes or NL suffix, At least one US CD manufacturing plant uses M#S# scheme in which M# means the mother stamper number and S# the pressing stamper number. In this stamper scheme M1S1 means the first edition.