The vinyl sounds great; it'll make a hi-fi system rumble like the mighty Kraken arising from the deep. I don't know if it was recorded analog or not but with how real the drums sound it seems like it is, and they do sound great on here. The mastering seems a little different than the MP3 versions, the vocals are more prominent and the electronics seem a bit less loud overall. Also, I should note that the packaging is a nice matte cardboard, not a tip-on sadly, more along the lines of what Back On Black uses but much thicker. Standard black sleeving on the inside, and a little annoyingly the labels on the records don't actually list which side is which, only the runout grooves do. PS: My copy came with some gunk stuck in the lead-in groove and the beginning of No Able Fires. Doesn't seem to come out. Anyone else have this problem?