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Awesome concert with bonus padding materials.-
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| Sinister: Prophecies Denied (2011 Reissue) |
Death Metal
Metal Mind Records
November 2006
- Intro 1 - 1:30
- Bleeding Towards the Wendigo - 3:13
- Epoch of Denial - 3:28
- The Grey Massacre - 4:28
- Sadistic Intent - 4:14
- Into the Forgotten - 3:45
- Men Down - 5:44
- Barbaric Order - 3:59
- Intro 2 - 1:11
- Enslave the Weak - 4:49
- Altruistic Suicide - 5:18
- Afterburner - 4:48
- Intro 3 - 1:27
- Cross the Styx - 4:57
- To Mega Therion - 5:09
Bonus Content:
- Angels of the Apocalypse (Documentary)
- Men Down/Enslave the Weak (Kset, Zagreb, Croatia)
- Afterburner/Cross the Styx (Up From the Ground, Gemunde, Germany)
- Sadistic Intent/Afterburner (Winternachtstraumfestival, Arnsberg, Germany)
- Bleeding Towards the Wendigo/Epoch of Denial/The Grey Massacre (Obscene Extreme, Trutnov, Czech Republic)
- Animated Menu
- Interview
- Biography
- Discography
- Photo Gallery
- Memorabilia
- Desktop Images
- Weblinks
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
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| Review Information |
Release length: approx 160 min.
Review posted on April 4th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 9/10 |
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| 2011 Reissue Score: 9/10 |
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| Review |
Sinister formed back in 1988. Since then, the group has put out a good number of albums, starting small with some demos, EPs, and splits. In 2003, the group broke up, and in 2006, the band returned. Upon their return, the DVD Prophecies Denied was issued through Metal Mind Productions, feturing an entire live set, as well as some bonus live footage, documentary, and some other generic DVD googies thrown in. This makes for a good companion piece to the group's Afterburner album, as well as marks the band's debut DVD/VHS release, taking the group a total of eighteen years before any officially licensed live footage woold be released. And, given that time span, this DVD makes up nicely for that lost time.
The main draw to this DVD is the live concert. The live concert itself was filmed at the Stodola Club in Warsaw on August 24th, 2006, only a few months after the band's reunion album Afterburner was released. So, of course, the album does feature some new material from Afterburner, but the set list is a nice little history lesson of the band, as every full-length CD seems to be represented here with at least one track. Sure, there are some songs that have been omitted, but given the set list and how long the performance actually is, it's understandable and bound to happen. However, it appears four tracks from Afterburner are on here, and while those are great songs, replacing one or two with more recognized material would have been a huge plus.
The camera quality if great, having the standard DVD but high definition or high quality camera action going on. The live set itself is rather colorful, utilizing a great deal of stage lights that really cast the band into a "big name act" spotlight, while looking rather impressive on the DVD, giving it the visual of an early Death Metal concert, but on a much larger scale thanks to the varying hughes including the large amount of blues and yellows used. The audio seems to be a little on the raw side, and it's hard to figure out if the music was directly recorded through the soundboard or not, as the vocals sound like they were recorded through the speakers thanks to how distant in the mix they sound, as well as the echo that just sounds more raw then anything. However, they recorded it, the audio sounds raw, period, and with that it sounds great. Some songs that were good on the CDs but not all that impressive are now greatly enjoyable with a little more energy behind them.
The biggest plus is that, unlike many Metal DVDs, the production crews know how to handle this DVD. Surely the pre-production team did a lot of planning with the band, and when the concert went on, the team went ahead and got some fantastic footage. There's plenty of great shots of the band performing from steady cams and moving cams, nice zooming and movement, as well as crane shots of the crowd at the appropriate times. Couple that with the lighting, and this DVD becomes a feast for the eyes. Even the post-production team was on top of things and put in plenty of nice transitions that look fantastic for a live DVD, and don't jerk around like a little kid with ADHD after each a bowl of sugar with sugar frostings. Most DVDs will cut away in a split second, trying to change with the beat of the faster music, but even with the slower music, this team keeps a steady, consistant, and professional changing of shots, focusing on the guitars during solos for a decent amount of time, drums when they become vital to the music, the vocalist when he's putting a lot of energy into his performance, and plenty of shots from further back when the mood is right, and practically every one of those shots have it when the mood is right. It's like watching a professional music video, again fromt he early days of Death Metal, but by the people who know how to make it look kick ass.
The entire concert is executed with ease too. The band flawlessly goes between one track to another, either by briefly talking to the crowd, or just hammering into it after a few brief moments after thanking the crowd. The only time the band takes to breathe are during the interludes "Enslave the Weak Intro" and "Cross the Styx Intro", which cast the set to darkness and prepare the crowd, and band, for the next set of songs. On top of that, the band is clearly loving it and having fun. Sometimes you can catch the band, while pretty much always serious, having a little fun with it by throwing an odd face or two, or clearly just having a smile on their face. "Enslave the Weak" has the vocalist giving the crowd a somewhat funny face and smiling afterwards, and then smiling again later in the track before returning to a headbang. Of course, he's not the only one, but the bassist's face, for the most part, is essentially covered thanks to his long hair and constant headbanging, and the guitarist appears hidden on the side of the stage, headbanging his heart out, but most of the time that's just a trick of the camera, and he's typically at the front of the stage. Sadly, the only complaint is that there often isn't a strong focus on the drummer, as he sometimes appears to be left out of the footage for wide gaps of time.
The audio to the recording is great as well. Aside the fact that the material sounds raw thanks to the way the sound is brought into the recording, the DVD brings it all together nicely in a Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. This causes the music to sound much richer and more lifelike then anything. And, when you tack that onto the more raw audio experience, it makes it seem more like you happen to actually be at the concert then with most DVDs of concerts today. But, this all solidifies the live concert portion of the DVD, and this release is much more then just the concert.
Prophecies Denied is more then a live concert thanks to some of the bonus material. There is an additional interview you can check out on the DVD, which isn't anything all that special, it's just a discussion of the band, their history, and their current progress, and it does help you better understand the band and where they have come from, and what's going on in their life now, but it's basically a few cameras for different angles, the band talking in front of the camera, and the interviewer behind the camera but next to the microphone, causing him to be a little louder. That's about it, it's not the most engaging of videos, but it's an interesting interview none the less. You also have the "Angels of the Apocalypse" documentary, which really isn't a standard documentary like you would expect. The documentary of the band feels more like the interview as they give a history about the band. This comes off more as a behind the scenes from the band, recorded on a standard camcorder, starting at the band getting together to go to the practice space, discussing their instruments and what they use on stage when you get there, which goes into a recording of part of the band's practice until the end of the segment. So, if you honestly expect a documentary, you'll be let down, but seeing the band in their practice room is actually rather entertaining to watch for what it is.
Next up, there's some bootleg live recordings of performances. If the main DVD wasn't raw enough for you, then these clips definitely are raw enough for you, as they are videos of the band performing on stage and shot by various people in various ways. The first bootleg video of "Men Down/Enslave the Weak" finds the cameraman being in the audience and shooting the band at the start, but showing the newly formed circle pit and the crowd, then zooming in on the cleavage of two girls hanging out against the wall to avoid said circle pit, thus bringing these raw videos into a whole other category of "raw". Horrible pun aside, "Afterburner/Cross the Styx" is actually shot from the side of the stage, again with a simple handheld camcorder, so the audio isn't as direct towards the speakers and makes it a little clearer. "Sadistic Intent/Afterburner" are also shot at a larger venue for part of a festival, and the footage is professionally shot, but it looks like something one might expect to see on MTV back in the eighties or early nineties. Of course the last set, "Bleeding Tpowards the Wendigo/Epoch of Denial/The Grey Massacre" is another raw video shot from a fan in attendance of a festival, and it's cool to see, but the audio on it is horrible and washed out, making it rather rough to listen to. However, the footage is of Sinister roughly a month before the band shot the live footage for the DVD, so it's still interesting to watch.
The rest of the bonus features are traditional things mostly. The biography is just written biographies about the current line-up. Memorabilia is simple images of various press/band passes for many shows Sinister had been a part of. Photo Gallery is essentially the same thing, but just various photos of the band by two different individuals. Discography is, again, a text-on-screen description of the band's discography, but only the full-lengths and Bastard Saints EP are included. There's four cool Desktop Images in here as well, and the Websites links are literally what you expect, linking you to Sinister, Nuclear Blast Records, Metal Mind Productions, and Matelopolis. Finally, Logo is simply just the band's logo against the background of the menus for twenty eight seconds. These additional filler bonus features wouldn't be bad if they used music outside the clip from one of Sinister's songs including a spoken word audio sample over slower music over and over again. It also plays at the Bonus Material screen of the menu, as well as other areas including the Discography section. It's a great spoken word piece about war, but it's frustrating to hear it again and again since it's maybe ten, fifteen seconds in length if that.
| 2011 Reissue |
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Prophecies Denied is the last disc in the Altered Since Birth box set. Really, it's just an additional disc tacked on to make the box set complete, and honestly, it's great to have. There really isn't anything new to the DVD, or altered in any way. The disc contains all the original source material, but this time comes in a similar digipack as the other discs, and is missing a booklet with it, though the information is in the ninety six page booklet that comes with the box set. As a stand alone piece it's great to have, but if you have the original there's no real need for the 2011 reissue outside of completing the box set. |
Basically, if you're a fan of Sinister, and you haven't seen this DVD, you're missing out. The live concert of this disc is what sells Prophecies Denied, being a nice mixture of raw and modern audio and visuals. The rest of the DVD, however, it's interesting to have and great to watch at least once, with the raw footage really being the more important aspects of the bonus features, but past that first time, you probably won't watch them again unless you want a refresher course on the band's history with the interview, discography and biography sections. Of course with the 2011 reissue, much of the filler bonus material becomes pointless thanks to the large booklet that comes with the box set the reissue is a part of, which gives much deeper detail. Either one is great to have in your collection though, and should be considered a purchase whenever you come across a copy (since the initial pressing is limited and numbered).
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Physical review copy of this release provided by:
Metal Mind Productions.
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