Yoko Takahashi, Megumi Hayashibara – Evangelion Finally

the first vinyl (side A/B) from my copy has a strong curvature with a very noticeable wave. The mass is quite noisy, but the sound quality is not bad. too many low frequencies

Picked this up from Amazon recently and found SIde B to have a tonne of hiss/noise on the right channel. I had heard that was a potential risk. I also tested on another turntable to make sure it wasn't my setup, and it was the same deal.

Returned it and got a replacement. This time Side B was fine but Side A had that right side hiss/noise.

I didn't even bother listening to C or D on either LP. Not sure that I want to roll the dice again.

They've done Eva dirty.

The sound quality is quite fair. Mine has quite a bit of surface noise. 7/10

My copy sounds and looks fantastic. I'm glad they didn't make it a dumb gatefold. This fits my sleeves perfectly.

Amazing pressing and amazing music. the vinyl is dynamic and looks beautiful. Packaging is meh, shoulda been a gatefold. the records also come in cheap paper sleeves. highly recommend this

5/5

Pretty good sounding vinyl, mine is fine except for track C12 where these is a low hiss on the right channel.

A disappointing press for sure. Disc 1 has a pretty offset center spindle hole, and static/hiss sounds in the right channel are audible throughout on both sides.

Ordered the pink splatter direct from Milan, and even after getting a replacement for my defective copy, the same issues are present; if there's any improvement at all it's fairly minor.

Disc 2 doesn't have these problems, it at least sounds fine. But that doesn't offer much consolation since Disc 1 has the songs I'm looking for (Komm, Susser Tod, what have they done to you?). It may be worth waiting out future Milan presses to see if there are any issues first after my experience with this one.

Finally indeed. Its been too long since we had any Evangelion on vinyl.
Most song choices are not the ones closely tied to the series however, this is more of a collection of highlights on Disc 1 and rarities on Disc 2.
As for the sound its certainly not bad. I do find Disc 1s older tracks slightly tonally dark, not with much extra bass mind you. On the other hand this helps some of the brighter tracks like Komm Süsser Tod. One of my favorites that was usually on the border of harsh, but not here and Im having no sibilance issues anywhere in this set using my 95ML. Its decent in the separation but the Stereo feels a bit underutilized, it becomes slightly monophonic at times, or its just that slight muffling paired with a lack of highlighting in the left or right that creates that sense for me.
Newer tracks, mostly found on Disc 2 are a step up. Maybe its because of less elements being used, or the more modern production, but it sounds very good with hefty bass, accurate tonality and great spread to the soundstage. The only issue for me here was some distortions on Side D when the choir or orchestras kick in heavily on The Image of Black Me in particular.
Im assuming thats due to the pressing which despite that is quite good for me. There are very few clicks or pops and the only concern would be the light surface noise which intrudes only in a few places like B3 and D1. Which is not strange since this cut is not the loudest and requires some volume raising Id say.
At this point Im unsure about trying a second copy for the distortion.
One thing that did leave me quite disappointed was the sleeve. The image is nice and I like how it ties in with Rei singing the last track. But I did automatically expect a gatefold cover since its a double LP set. Its a pain to store these properly without developing ringwear and the paper inners do not scream of quality, but the insert is a nice touch.
Only thing left to do, is compare Cruel Angel's Thesis, which this shares with my 2015 Eva series LP set...

When I said I would compare the 2021 Eva Finally against my 2015 Series soundtrack one of the only tracks they share, I was sort of mistaken. Its the same song, but slightly different. The 2021 release does not feature the guitar solo at all, its just missing strangely enough but adds some backing vocals absent on the 2015. Besides this they are the same track as I can tell, but oh boy are they dissimilar sounding.
The 2015 is clearly louder and if you wouldnt level these fairly there would be no contest. But even after some normalizing its still clear to me that I mostly prefer the 2015 Chris Bellman cut. Yes, it is less dynamic but compression is not always a bad tool, and the people at Grundman Mastering know how to use it correctly. Many aspects are more appreciable and highlighted on the older release, bass is tighter, the lead vocals come to life and some background performances are more distinct.
The parts where I felt the newer release might win out are aspects such as those added backing vocals which create a nice atmosphere, the choir segment in the middle, where those dynamics, reverb and an extra spread in the stereo feels more impactful.
Overall the new cut is more reverb drenched and slightly low end EQd which loses some of that in the room presence which Bellman brought.
With these almost seeming like different mixes altogether its hard to be fair in a comparison, however I feel more lies in the 2015s favor, and with the omission of the guitar solo, I can not declare it the winner for me.

Update:
With my second copy the distortion issues on side D are gone entirely so dont settle if you have such issues on a quality setup.

Equipment Used:
Technics SL-1210GR Turntable with ATVM95ML Cartridge
iFi iPhono 2 RIAA
Cyrus 2 Amplifier
System Fidelity SF-3050 Tower Speakers

My A-side is so facked all the way + the 3rd song on the b-side. I will return mine for sure.

Received my copy from amazon a few days ago. Like others have experienced, mine has some surface noise, but I really only noticed it during the intro to the first song, and in between the first and second songs. Once the music got louder, if it was still there, it was inaudible. Seems mine is not nearly as bad as others have reported.