|
Gorgoroth: Black Mass Krakow 2004 (DVD) Black Metal Metal Mind Productions June 9th, 2008
- Bonus features: Photo gallery, biography, discography, desktop images, Weblinks, and logo. - Bonus video: Live At With Full Force Festival, Leipzig, 2000
| ||
|
Review
Black Mass Krakow 2004 came with a hefty price tag, but considering that it was one of the most infamous bands in black metal, Gorgoroth, it was damn well worth the money to see if this concert, shot four years before it ever found it's way to DVD, would actually be worth it. Fears of another Deicide Doomsday L.A. release lingered, hoping this was shot professionally and not with a cheap handheld camcorder or the earliest prototype of a cell phone camcorder. Thank Satan that it wasn't, as this is not at all a performance that should be presented in any raw form. First of all, the DVD packaging is pretty nice, as it comes in a metal case that happens to be just too small to fit the artwork booklet included, which sadly only contains images from the event and no real information aside the set list and credits on the back. Luckily it fits over the spine of the case so the booklet isn't bent. But aside that, the performance on this DVD is amazing, and the production quality on the DVD is just as great. The video quality looks like it was shot, or later upconverted given the year of the concert, in HD, and also has some excellent sound quality. The camera's get some great shots of the stage, the band, and the crowd, as well as the set. During the first song, "Procreating Satan", Gaahl turns slowly to the camera, and it just looks menacing as they cut away and back to the shot. The set itself is very interesting as well, as there are not only impaled sheeps heads all over the front of the stage, but also what appears to be three nude women and one nude male, or a fourth nude woman with a very bad shave job that creates the effect of an existing penis. A few songs into the show, however, it's clear that one of these girls faint, and then shortly after seeing the body limp on the cross, she is miraculously gone. As stated, the performance itself is amazing. Basically, when Gorgoroth starts, they pretty much don't stop. They have a small pause, maybe five seconds at max, between songs, and it seems that Gaahl uses this time to observe the crowd and enjoy the chants while the other members get into position for the next song. Once in a while, like with the first two songs of this set, one song will just bleed right into the other without any warning. The nice thing about this is that that song titles appear at the lower left of the screen for those too lazy to pick up the case, and those who aren't die hard "I know all their songs by heart" Gorgoroth fans. The only song that seems to be introduced on this DVD is the song "Revelation Of Doom". The DVD does offer some bonus features that are just nice to have. The actual concert on this DVD is so great that it just blows by, leaving you wanting more, so included is two songs performed at the Leipzig "With Full Force 2000" concert. These two cuts are the "raw" videos, shot with a simple hand held camera, but the person handling the camera tries to get different shots in from the one angle, makes good use of the zoom function, and the audio is muffled, but not too badly, you can still hear everything well enough. This performance is nowhere near as impressive as the main performance on this disc, though. The rest of the features on this disc are just standard. You have the text Biography and Discography sections, a photogallery, a section that lets you download exclusive background pictures for your computer's desktop, some links you can access with your computer as well, and, easily the worst sections, a logo section which is just the band logo, album title and decent photoshoppped effects in the background that plays on a loop, and an artwork section with three images you can't select, only see, with one atop the other at an angle. The only real let down of the main performance on here is the camera on the drum kit. In the kit, there is a camera facing up towards Kvitrafn as he plays, but the quality of the video is pretty awful compared to the rest of the footage. Luckily they don't use that shot that often, only once in a while they will break away to it. Aside that, this is an impressive performance by Gorgoroth, and one that any black metal fan simply needs to have in their collection, or have viewed at least once in their lives. Granted it's not something that will change your life, but it's one hell of a performance that you soon will not forget, and will revisit on more then one occassion.
|
|||
