I’m not a huge fan of live material, with maybe Iron Maiden’s Live After Death and a few Manowar CDs and DVD’s in my collection that are live stuff, that being said, I’m very impressed with this live CD and separate DVD from Canada’s symphonic, melodic black metal act Blinded By Faith.

With only and EP and a debut under their belt, Blinded By Faith released these two separate efforts as a pre-emptive strike for their forthcoming Weapons of Mass Distraction album, and both the DVD and CD contain a new track from that album, so fans get little glimpse of the new material. However, what really impressed me about this young band how damn good they sound live on the CD. Quite honestly, this is so crisp and clean, if it wasn’t in the title, the crowd noise or for the French in-between song banter, I may have not known this was a live effort, particularly singer Tommy Demers, drummer Julien Marcotte and keyboardist Danny Émond. Demers screams and growls with out barely missing a breath, while Marcotte and Émond tightly carry the music.

For those unfamiliar with the band the music is a very familiar yet well done styled of Cradle of Filth/ Dimmu Borgir/Anorexia Nervosa/Stormlord –ish symphonic black metal/melodic death metal. So that means lots of sweeping synths, bombastic riffs and atmospherics. Most of the material is from the Under An Occult Sun release, but two of the better tracks “Behind the Placid Mask of the Starlit Cosmos” and “Reptilian Shudders” from the Veiled Hideousness EP are rendered with perfect live intensity. An unreleased track (“The Dead Don’t Talk”) and an impressive new track (“Finger on the Trigger”) flesh out the well played and, as I said, superbly rendered material that’s above average for the genre.

The DVD is a as high quality as the CD, as it’s the same show, so has the same 11 songs and same sound. The picture quality is good and there’s the usual array of bonus features like behind the scenes, extra live footage and such, amounting to about 140 minutes. Not a must have, but a nice little packages where you can see the bands tight live show, as well as hear it.

Personally, this would have made a nice CD/DVD combo deal, rather than two separate releases, with maybe the DVD as a bonus disc as it doesn’t offer anything more than visual accompaniment of the show. Still, both should appeal to fans of the band as well as well done live offerings.

[Visit the band's website]

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