Purchases and acquisitions

[perennial_quest]

Elder: Reflections of a Floating World -2LP (Sea Foam Green/EU version)
Klabautamann: Merkur -LP
Miles Davis: Freedom Jazz Dance (Bootleg Series Vol.5) -3CD

Klabautamann: Our Journey Through the Woods -CD
Klabautamann: Der Ort -CD
Klabautamann: Merkur -CD
Klabautamann: The Old Chamber -CD
Klabautamann: Smaragd -CD
I had never heard the band until a month ago and I bought their entire discography. I guess I was really impressed with Merkur!
It might be too soon, but Smaragd is very likely a contender for album of the year imo.

Klabautamann are excellent. Check out Valborg as well. Some of the same guys as Klabautamann, but a more Celtic Frost sort of vibe.

Any Valborg album in particular you recommend?

Iron Maiden: The X Factor -2LP (EU pressing)
Iron Maiden: Virtual XI -2LP (EU pressing)
For the sake of completion, of course, but I won't bother with the live albums. Did they really have to include 4 live albums?

Yes they absolutely needed to include those 4 live albums :-)
Lots of fanatic Maiden fans out there (myself included) and I don't see it going over well had they skipped the 4 live albums.
Actually, I've already seen a lot of complaining about "A Real Live/Dead One" and "Live at Donnington" not being included...

Oh, I'm not saying they shouldn't have made them. I think that they should have made a separate box for the live albums to put them all together, including Live After Death, so that hardcore fans like you can get them and fans of the studio albums can get a box with just that. Kind of like what Genesis did with their reissues back in 2008-09. I'm just not a huge fan of live albums unless they bring something totally different from the studio experience (King Crimson and Gentle Giant are the kind of bands I'm talking about), and in the case of Maiden, I prefer to watch them live than just hear them live.

And I totally agree with you, where the hell is A Real Live/Dead One and Donnington? If there is one live album I would have bought on vinyl, besides LAD, it's Donnington. But what I would really like is Beast over Hammersmith, the BBC Archives and a complete B-Sides compilation that includes Massacre. I can always dream...