Search - Aborted: The Auricular Chronicles on DVD

Not bad, but could've been even better

Robin Solsjö Höglund | Skellefteå, Sweden | 08/11/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'd rate Aborted's "The Auricular Chronicles" 3.5 at the moment, and 4 if it weren't for a few factors.

First of all, the artwork and packaging deserve a nod for the great design. Simple, striking and keeping thematically with the music - even the DVD menu is creepy, with custom music that'll make your spine tingle. Included is one complete concert from Paris, with Aborted literally plowing through 13 songs in less than one hour - they hardly give the audience a second to breathe (except for a short intro before "The Saw & Carnage Done"), constantly churning out riffs and headbanging like wild animals (Sven has the fastest "windmill" I've seen yet). It's a shame it doesn't last too long, as it's a good and brutal concert, with sound and cameras right in the middle of the action (meaning the cameras are sometimes among the crowd, but most of the time in good spots).

As bonus features you get nine extra live performances; four from Wacken (which is definitely the best of the extra bunch, and even that looks pretty dodgy quality-wise), three from the Domination Tour in Rome (which is basically just a bootleg shot with a single camera - yuck), and two from Montreal (also a bootleg, shot with a single camera from the crowd - which is not worth spending your money on).

Best of all the extras are the three music videos, which surpass the quality of all other special features.

There's also a "documentary" included, which consists of interviews with a few members of the band in a somewhat noisy little club/arena (it's a shame they never talked to Olivia Scemama though). It doesn't touch upon anything particularly interesting, but the interviewer seems to know what she's doing, so it's at least pretty decent.

I'll still recommend "The Auricular Chronicles" to any Aborted or death metal-fan, but if it were a bit more polished, it could've been as good on the inside as on the outside."