Various Artists: Metalmania 2004 (DVD)

This is a great little DVD/CD package documenting the 2004 Metalmania event, which has been held in Poland since the mid-80's. With a full DVD giving a few songs from each of the bands playing on the main stage, and an audio CD covering the bands that played the side stage, this is a nice overview of the entire festival for US metal fans who only get to experience events like Ozzfest or Gigantour. 2004's roster is ultra heavy on death metal bands, with such acts as Krisiun, Trauma, and Soulfly rendering brutal sets to the Polish audience, and each band gets in a few tracks here on the DVD. The Kings of Nordic Symphonic Black Metal, Enslaved, put on a great performance here, and show why they are praised so highly in the extreme community with their adventurous and melodic sound. With three songs included here, "The Dead Stare", "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth", and the symphonic epic "The Crossing", Enslaved easily are the most musical and progressive sounding death/black metal band on this bill.

The legendary Michael Schenker and his band MSG were also on this bill as one of the few non-extreme groups to play the festival. As always, Mr. Schenker and his mates are red-hot, playing a smoking rendition of UFO's "Lights Out", as well as "Arachnophobic" and "Into the Arena". Other highlights include the gothic gloom and doom of Tiamat's "The Sleeping Beauty", and the groove laden melodic death metal of Moonspell, who perform three songs here.

While perhaps not as well rounded as past Metalmania festivals and including a tad too many extreme bands on this bill, Metalmania 2004 still has plenty to recommend as it has a few standout performances. MSG, Enslaved, and Moonspell fans should definitely want to include this DVD in their collections as it has superb performances from them.

DVD Track Listing

1. TRAUMA - Unable to React
2. TRAUMA - Hidden Seed
3. TRAUMA - Dust
4. ESQUARIEL - Requiem
5. ESQUARIEL - Timequake
6. ESQUARIEL - Pure Formality
7. KRISIUN - Dawn of Flagellation
8. KRISIUN - Murderer
9. ENSLAVED - The Dead Stare
10. ENSLAVED - As Fire Swept Clean the Earth
11. ENSLAVED - The Crossing
12. MSG - Lights Out
13. MSG - Arachnophobiac
14. MSG - Into the Arena
15. TIAMAT - The Sleeping Beauty
16. TSA - Proceder
17. TSA - 51
18. TSA - Kocica
19. MOONSPELL - Alma Mater
20. MOONSPELL - Vampira
21. MOONSPELL - Mephisto
22. SOULFLY - Prophecy
23. SOULFLY - Bring It

CD Track Listing

1. SPINAL CORD - Tears
2. BRIGHT OPHIDIA - Downer
3. ASGAARD - Mystery Ov Tzar's Visionairre Act 2
4. AROPHIA RED SUN- Nameless Rot
5. DEVILYN - Deceived Conscious
6. MUTILATION - Fear Came Over Us
7. HEDFIRST - Scars
8. TENEBROSUS - Lost and Forgotten
9. IMMEMORIAL - Day of Anger
10. THE CHAINSAW - Mechanism of Inspiration
11. LUNE AD NOCTUM - Avast!
12. CENTURION - Extermination
13. NEOLITH - 8

Added: September 4th 2005
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
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Language: english

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