Reviewed: March, 2023
Released: 2003, MetalMind
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.
As most Metal fans know, Metal Mind Productions based in Poland is Eastern Europe’s largest, most successful Heavy Metal company. With many divisions they have a record label, a magazine as well as doing concert promotion and post-production. MMP has released many (over 50!) Heavy Metal DVD’s, with wide distribution, most of which are pro-shot concerts in Poland and/or concerts of their Metalmania Festival. This performance was captured in October 7, 2002 in Krakow as a special one-time event. This live concert was not part of the MetalMania festival but rather one of those ‘live-in-the-TV-studio’ productions.
The DVD itself is very decent. The booklet is very good, 8-pages with quite a long history essay of the band. The animated menus and background music is above average and there are quite a few bonus features as well.
The concert is a little short at just over an hour, probably so they could edit it down and air it on TV. There is a sizeable stage and some decent production values. The sound is clear and there are many camera angles and decent editing. It’s pretty hyper, lots of backlit strobe, which may not be to some people preference. Overall, the production value is very high.
There are lots of bonus features but as is often the case, these features which might have seemed neat at the time are outdated by modern standards. For example, desktop images and screensavers which probably won’t work on a mobile device these days.
There is an interview with all the members of the band. The band look tired and maybe even a bit bored. The camera is way too close as well! There is a bit of a language barrier as the Polish interviewer is speaking to the Norwegians in English but everyone does their best. It runs about 30 minutes.
What I feel is most valuable are six rare audio tracks. For Enslaved fans this is incredible. Four songs are from their ‘94 Demo, the pre-production for the FROST album and the other two’ Sleipnr’ and ‘Viking Metal, have never been released before. To the best of my knowledge, they are still only available on the DVD to this day.
To date, Enslaved, oddly enough, have only done the two home videos, LIVE RETALIATION being the first. This is mandatory for all Enslaved fans.
Line Up:
Grutle Kjellson -Vocals, Bass
Ivar Bjørnson -Guitar
Arve Isdal -Guitar
Dirge Rep -Drums
Track Listing:
1. Convoys to Nothingness
2. Jotunblod
3. The Voices
4. As Fire Swept Clean the Earth
5. Heimdallr
6. Loke
7. Queen of Night
8. Mardraum
9. Ridicule Swarm
10. Wotan
11. Retribution for the Dead (Autopsy cover)
12. Slaget i skogen bortenfor
Bonus Feature
Interview
Bonus audio tracks
1. Sleipnr
2. Svarte Vidder
3. Wotan
4. Gylfaginning
5. Jotunblod
6. Viking Metal
