Reviewed: March, 2023
Released: 2001, Nuclear Blast
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: JP
Back in March of 2020 I was laid-off because of the pandemic and I spent my free time writing a series of 50 DVD reviews called the Covideo Chronicles. It was fun and productive! What comes around goes around and in February 2023 I have been laid off again! Over the past three years I have accumulated another stack of about 25 DVDs to review. Additionally, it has long been a personal goal of mine, and Metal-Rules.com, to review every Hard Rock and Heavy Metal DVD on the planet. Over the years we have reviewed hundreds of stand-alone DVD’s, more than almost every other Metal webzine. So instead of sulking and/or wasting my time I’m going to review as many as I can in the month of February. It’s cold outside here in Canada so it beats going outside and/or looking for work! Feel free to enjoy all the reviews in this feature.
REMIND is Crematory’s 10th anniversary celebration. The band signed very early on in their career to Nuclear Blast Records and were extremely productive and prolific. They put out seven full-length albums in eight years not to mentioned a few EP’s and live albums. In 2001 the band released REMIND, a collection of videos from the first decade. It was also paired with a Double Live album with the same name and cover. Speaking of the cover art is pretty dull, classic Crematory style, but dull. There is no booklet either.
This is my favourite kind of DVD. It’s not ‘just’ a concert or ‘just’ a collection of the promo video singles. It is a mix of videos, interviews, candid stuff, live footage and more. It is all encompassing. It is also a good value clocking in at two hours long.
With brief inter-clip segments, we are taken on a journey across the ages of Crematory. We start with some footage for a TV show circa 1993 and it looks…painful. The audience is a bunch of young people in sweaters (they look like fans of Duran Duran) as they sit down on the floor in front of the stage and look bored as the band does their best to run through a version of ‘The Eyes Of Suffering’ complete with German sub-titles for the audience at home.
The video clips from JUST DREAMING were neat to see for the first time but pretty low black and white quality. As we progress to ILLUSIONS the video quality gets higher and higher. You could tell the budgets were getting bigger. I thought it was neat to see these little 15 second TV commercials (they call them trailers) for the new albums. It blows my mind you could turn on the TV and see a TV commercial for a new Crematory album. That just would not happen in North American except for the very largest pop-artists. Most of the ‘making of’ videos were just clips of the film crews, people getting make-up put on, behind the scenes stuff.
There are also clips of the band backstage and on tour. The usual stuff, warming up, eating, sound checks, walking around the various towns, making faces for the camera and the obligatory drunken hi-jinks. It’s all spoken in German which makes it bit hard for me, a non-speaker, to be fully engaged.
By the time we get to ACT SEVEN and BELIEVE the quality is very high the videos are big productions, loaded with special-effects and it is neat to see and hear the evolution of the band over the years.
My only wish is that there was perhaps some narration to take us on our journey or maybe an interview or overview. We are let on our own to explore the very visual collection without any frame of reference. However, it is probably only Crematory fans who would buy this and at the end they refer you to the web-site for more information. Beyond that very minor complaint, this is a great 10th anniversary celebration!
Track Listing:
Transmigration Era
1. Intro
2. The Eyes of Suffering – TV Showcase
Just Deaming Era
3. Shadows of Mine – Videoclip
4. In My Hands – Videoclip
Illusions Era
5. Trailer
6. Tears of Time – Videoclip
7. Tears of Time – Making Of
8. The Beginning of the End – Live
Crematory Era
9. Ist es wahr – Videoclip
10. Ewigkeit – Live
Awake Era
11. Trailer
12. Studio
13. Temple of Love (The Sisters of Mercy cover) – Videoclip
14. Temple of Love – Making Of
15. For Love – Videoclip
16. Away – Videoclip
17. Backstage
Act Seven Era
18. Fly – Live
19. Backstage Part I
20. The Holy One – Live
21. Backstage Part II
Believe Era
22. Trailer
23. Fotosession
24. Studio
25. The Fallen – Videoclip
26. The Fallen – Making Of
27. Endless – Live
28. Backstage
