Boy do I love me some Death Angel, but I’ve never been much for live albums – I’d rather be there, or simply listen to the studio disc. Live recordings usually sound pretty terrible, and even if they don’t, the set list and songs included almost always leave something to be desired. It’s pretty much a guarantee that a couple favorites will be missing, or songs are included that leave you wondering why.
This particular live CD is the audio only version of the live DVD Nuclear Blast just released of the same name. In the DVD version, there are two sets included, the first is from the Rockhard Festival in 2007, and the second is from Adelsheim in 2008 after the releases of their last studio album Killing Season, which was an awesome album. Unfortunately, this CD focuses on that first show from 2007, so it’s devoid of any new tracks.
On the plus side of the set list, it’s rife with songs from The Ultra-Violence and Act III, including “Seemingly Endless Time”, “Voracious Souls”, “Mistress of Pain”, “Ex-TC”, “Disturbing the Peace”, “Stagnant”, an abbreviated version of “The Ultra-Violence”, and an extended version of “Kill As One”. All are performed well, but the recording is a little rough. From Frolic Through the Park we get two of it’s better tracks in “3rd Floor” and “Bored”, and from their comeback album The Art of Dying there’s “Thrown to the Wolves”, “5 Steps to Freedom”, “Thicker Than Blood” and “Devil Incarnate”. For me personally, I could’ve done without a couple or tracks from The Art of Dying in favor of some newer stuff, but if focusing on what was written in 2007, “The Organization” or “Discontinued” from Act III or “Thrashers” or “Evil Priest” from The Ultra-Violence would have been nice additions, but that’s just nitpicking, because the selection of tunes already present is pretty good for what they had at the time of the show.
As far as individual performances go, Mark Osegueda sounds just as good live as he does in studio – a testament to the mans vocal capabilities, and I’ve witnessed this for myself first hand – a truly remarkable frontman. Everyone else sounds pretty good as well, but as I mentioned before, the recording quality doesn’t do much justice.
All in all, this is a pretty accurate representation of Death Angel live, at least as accurate as you’ll get without being there, because a simple recording will never capture the energy that this band pours out in a live setting – it needs to be witnessed first hand.
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Very nice review, I have been getting into the Live recordings more and more over the last couple of months, due to the outstanding Behemoth and Paradise Losts releases, both of those have some excellent sound.. I was curious about this Death Angel one and you pretty much cleared up alot of stuff for me. Great review!!
on Aug 27th, 2009 at 06:31The recording is pretty good, i thought it would be a little rough, but this is really fun for Death angel fans. Great review. If you can, get the import Cd/DVD version. the price is good and worth it.
on Aug 29th, 2009 at 10:52