Search - Black Mass Krakow 2004 on DVD

Pretty decent live dvd

Amy | outer space | 07/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The release date on this kept getting pushed back, so I was surprised when it actually showed up in my mailbox after having it pre-ordered since forever ago. Apparently this caused a scandal in Poland due to obscenity charges involving all the naked crucified people and sheep heads on stakes.

My first reaction upon putting it in the DVD player was that Gaahl sort of sounded like crap on "Procreating Satan." The rest of the band is sounding pretty good in general here. The stage setup and lighting is fairly amusing, with barbed wire, sheep heads, people covered in blood hanging from crosses, giant pentagrams, a lot of red light, and fire. The camera people make too much of this sometimes though, and there are countless shots of band members framed by sheep heads. This would be okay if it weren't done every three seconds.

As with the first time I saw the video for "Carving a Giant," something that initially struck me was that nudity and black metal just don't go together. Granted, it's naked people covered in blood and on crosses, but it still seems a bit incongruous.

This was also the first time I'd heard them doing certain songs that had Pest on vocals originally, and this occasionally shocked me, especially in the case of "Blood Stains the Circle," which is one of my favorite Gorgoroth songs due to the weirdness of the vocals on it. I feel like I'm nitpicking too much, and I realize Gaahl sounds different (and I like Gaahl's voice), but hearing this song done like this sort of disappointed me, it felt like it was lacking something. The vocals were just kind of flat and boring. Thankfully Gaahl does sound good on "Profetens Aapenbaring" and most of the rest of the songs really, but here and there I couldn't help but thinking that he has sounded better.

The camera movements sort of irritated me, too many zooms and pans across the stupid sheep heads. Also, "Destroyer" opens with a shot of Gaahl from crotch-level, and I really didn't need to ever see that. Sound and video quality are pretty decent though, which redeems it to an extent. It's a fairly good live DVD though. The special features include a couple more songs live in Leipzig (2000), a biography, discography, photos, links, and desktop images. My favorite part was actually that the usual DVD warning not to copy it when you put it in had Infernus and a giant pentagram in the background, which was a nice touch, as if to say, "don't copy this, or Infernus will eat your soul!""

Bad quality but still worth it......

darkmoon | oakland, ca | 01/08/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a huge Gorgoroth fan and I was really excited to get this dvd even though I'd heard it wasn't very good. Indeed there are a few problems:

1. With all the stage crap in the front (sheep heads, metal grates, etc) and a giant swath of space for cameras to run along, the audience is too far away from the band for a show that size. I think it affected the energy level of the crowd, they don't seem very excited to be there.

2. The band members don't ever look at each other and except for Apollyon and Kvitrafn they all seem totally uncomfortable on that big ole stage. King tries to make eye contact a couple of times with Gaahl and Infernus but sort of sheepishly (lol) and with no response. Poor little sensitive King, he needs to go back to teaching elementary school and playing in a pop band (that was totally uncalled for, King is phenomenal in all his projects and wrote the last 1-3/4 Gorgoroth albums). For some reason he's just really easy to make fun of. I digress.

3. The camera work is poor. The sweeps are always the same speed- fast. There are way too many cuts. The viewer is never allowed to focus in on and engage with what the band is doing. This makes it boring and actually a little irritating to watch.

4. Finally, and most importantly, is that the audio quality is terrible- it's like someone stuck a microphone under the stage and then threw their jacket over it and that's how they got the sound for the video.

There are some big disappointments, like when they build up to the epic guitar riff in Bergtrollets Hevn- Infernus is so muted you can hardly even tell that he's playing. That sort of thing happens a few times. There are moments where Kvitrafn seems to have trouble keeping up and somebody keeps playing out of tune. A lot of Gaahl's vocals sound like an angry little bee. I don't know, maybe he just isn't much good live, but it seems like you could also blame it on the awful audio quality.

Okay, now that I've ripped it apart let me say how much I love this dvd. This is powerful, dark, complex music and there are some beautiful moments where they these guys play super tight. They're all extremely talented, even if not totally connected to what the other is doing. Infernus's guitar work is inspiring. And though some of Gaahl's vocals are indeed bee-ish, he also lets out a couple crazy shrieks that actually made my spine tingle.

I haven't seen them live and probably never will see this particular version of Gorgoroth :( since they split into warring factions, so I'm very happy to have this video. If you have a good system you should be able to overlook the flaws and enjoy it. I just plugged in my big headphones and sat directly in front of my tv and it was 10 times better.

Whew. All that said...if you like black/death metal and can't deal with crap quality production, you should get The Rebirth of Dissection. Brilliant band, brilliant dvd.

"

PULVERIZING !!!

JUAN MARTIN GABASTOU | Weston Hills, FL United States | 05/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Filmed at the same polish TV studio in which Behemoth recorded his debut dvd just 4 years before, this gig captures Gorgoroth at their prime, raw as always albeit introducing some subtle harmonies....in a brutal way,that is to say . With an extra guitarrist to beef up the already insane sound, and THE most blasphemous mise-en-scene in the history of rock music; naked crucified people, both male and female, barbed wire, sheep and pig heads on poles and piled up on stage and gallons of fake blood and tons of smoke darkening an excellently-lit stage will make sensitive or religious people turn their stomachs LOL ! Only downfall is that the concert is only 55'long but that's way more than your ears will be able to take if you play this like it deserves: MEGA LOUD .


BTW this is the best-sounding metal dvd I've ever watched and I own several hundreds !!!. To think some reviewer here stated that it sounded as if the sound had been captured by a single mike under the stage and wrapped in a jacket !!!! Man this DVD has the most detailed, powerful and dynamic sound this experienced listened has heard before !! The kick-drums kick your head and EVERYTHING, even the bass guitar, the cymbals, which are often critical in this type of music is heard and if a chord is played , you hear and you SEE it. That good. These guys produce a wall of sound not heard since Discharge.

The extras are your usual bootleg tracks, bio, discog photo gallery and desktop wallpapers for your PC, not really worth mentioning but WTF I don't need anymore !!

Get this or rot in hell !!!"