it’s definitely not an obi strip sadly, there were more images of this posted on merzbows bandcamp and you could see the gatefold closed with no obi on the front of it. it would also definitely be mentioned in the item description. obviously it’s not a huge deal but man that black bar is pretty ugly

but fair points otherwise, i actually think the relapse reissue color variants are really tacky (i hate splattery transparent rainbow stuff and i don’t feel like it fits this album at all). much prefer the black vinyl for this second press

not sure what you mean by more authentic tho, both are official presses. if anything the bloodhoney is more authentic as it is the first press, lol.