Immolation "Bringing Down The World" DVD 2004
Taken from the Cradle Of Filth European tour. The Heineken music hall, Amsterdam/Holland-18th of April 2003. Packing an audience of 4200. The band claim it is the largest audience they have played to and that the tour is their finest to date. (In my opinion, cradle of filth had one hell of an act to follow during this tour.)
A 45-minute set with 9 songs.
5 from 'Unholy Cult'
2 from 'Close To A World Below'
Plus 'Christ's Cage' and 'Those Left Behind' from previous albums.
From a sound point of view the bass drums and cymbals were a little too quiet in the mix. In death metal the bass drums are a crucial part of the driving force behind the overall sound and should therefore have careful attention paid to them to ensure they are prominent in the mix. This small oversight however did not in anyway spoil the experience for me. I’m just a bit picky with drum sound, as I am a drummer myself. Ample camera time is given to the drummer 'Alex Hernandez', one of the very top in his genre. Alex gives us a ferocious; thundering, no holds barred assault of super fast double bass and blastbeats, often fragmented to form complex patterns and frequent lavish fills. You can never get bored listening to this drummer as he avoids the monotonous drum patterns that so many in his field would settle comfortably into. The overall sound is clear without losing the raw underground feel.
Ross Dolan's bass is clear in the mix. I’ve found with most recordings in general that the bass sound is more often than not, inaudible. So it’s nice to hear it cutting through. Ross’s vocals are ever powerful with a booming undertone and cutting mid range, combine this with Ross’s angrily animated, highly confident, battle stance and you have the big brother of rottweiler like frontmen. Consistently accurate in both his fields.
From the guitars come a Mixture of flat out riffing and staccato picking, with impressive shared leads between Bill Tayler and Rob Vigna who demonstrates his skills and his unique, manic stage presents with rocket fuelled enthusiasm.
As a listener, an excellent insight into the highly professional world of the extreme death metal genre. As a musician I found it to be a highly influential piece of development material. An absolute must for immolation fans.
Bonus material:
A very generous collection of bonus tracks including:
2 tracks from 013 Tilburg Holland - Best sound and clear picture as good as the main gig.
6 tracks from the key club L.A. June 2003 - Featuring a stand in drummer, Steve Shalaty from Odious Sanction whom apparently had just three 3 days to learn the tunes for that tour. Alex Hernandez not being present due to having surgery for a hernia. The recording has a good sound though the picture is grainy.
6 tracks from the Locomotive Paris - Amateur recording, use of a camcorder up on the balcony to the right of the stage. Although it captures a frenzied crowd and is a good representation of how insane some immolation club gigs can be. The front row is just a mess of arms and legs.
Photo Gallery:
Professionally put together gallery of live shots from various gigs. The camera pans and zooms, shifting smoothly between shots at comfortable pace instead of flicking from one to the other after 5secs, as seen in many other DVD photo galleries.
Video Clip:
Simply, 'of martyrs and men’ taken from the main show with a more polished sound and subtle camera effects.
Interview:
With Rob Vigna and Ross Dolan. Clear, intelligent, informative. True professionals, true to the underground
Overall:
Great value for money. Clear, concise, easy to navigate menu layout. High quality transparent case featuring live pics layered with ‘Marshall’ artwork. Effort has been put into this DVD. A well presented high quality product.
Contributed by: James on the 05/04/05