Hard rock/grunge icons Nirvana are releasing a 30th anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of In Utero, hailed as the band's seminal work and in retrospect, a bittersweet finale from frontman Kurt Cobain, who died by suicide just eight months after its unveiling.
In Utero came after a tumultuous period for the trio. Cobain had wanted to record a follow-up to their multi-platinum Nevermind as quickly as possible. However, the band's dissatisfaction with the final product sound-wise, the members — Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl — living apart and the imminent birth of Kobain's daughter with his wife Courtney Love, they reluctantly agreed instead to the compilation Incesticide at Christmastime 1992.
The Super Deluxe Edition of In Utero follows the remastered edition of Nevermind in 2021. However, this boxed set has been expanded to include not only the original tracks, but five bonus tracks and B-sides remastered from the original analog tapes by engineer Bob Weston, who assisted producer Steve Albini at the initial sessions.
While different configurations will be available — a limited-edition 8LP Super Deluxe box set, 5CD Super Deluxe box set, 1 LP + 10" edition, 2CD Deluxe edition, and a Digital Super Deluxe edition — the three Super Deluxe Editions will contain a total of 72 tracks with 53 previously unreleased tracks. Among the unreleased material, two full In Utero-era concerts, namely Live In Los Angeles (1993) and the band's final Seattle performance, Live In Seattle (1994), are included in addition to six bonus live tracks from Rome, Springfield, and New York.
Kurt Cobain in Seattle during Nirvana's 1993 North American tour
The physical Super Deluxe Edition box sets also boast a removable front-cover acrylic panel with the album's iconic Angel; a 48-page hardcover book with unreleased photos; a 20-page newly designed fanzine; a Los Angeles tour poster lithograph by hot rod artist Coop; replicas of the 1993 record store promo Angel mobile, three gig fliers, two ticket stubs for Los Angeles and Seattle, an All-Access tour laminate, and four cloth sticky tour backstage passes: Press, Photo, After Show, and Local Crew.
Nirvana recorded In Utero over the course of six days in February 1993 at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, MN with Albini. Those sessions — done in nearly complete solitude, with direction more from the band than Albini and mixed in five days — had the album nearly complete by the end of February. Launched on September 21, they would make an appearance four days later on Saturday Night Live (showcasing "Heart Shaped Box" and the controversial "Rape Me") and start their tour in October.
This timeframe also saw them add in the now legendary MTV Unplugged showcase in November and continue to Europe in 1994, where they played their last live performance with Cobain on March 1 at Terminal 1, Flughafen München-Riem in Munich. Cobain died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Seattle on April 5.
Available exclusively at online stores at uDiscovermusic.com and SoundofVinyl.com and limited to 3000 units worldwide, fans who buy either Super Deluxe Edition will receive a Nirvana acrylic stand to display their angel-on-acrylic panel included in both boxset configurations.
