Marduk "Funeral Marches and Warsongs" DVD
[Regain]
I have to preface this review by stating that in general I'm just not a fan of live recordings of bands. It's never the same thing if you weren't there, and in most cases it's boring to watch a filmed performance as the energy doesn't transfer well over a TV screen at all. That being said, I'm not that wild about this DVD. I've seen Marduk live once or twice in my day, and I enjoyed it, but I've seen better, you know? So nearly two hours of live material from the band isn't really my cup of tea. First up is a show from Paris in April 2003. The picture and sound are okay, but nothing extraordinarily good. There's a lot of quick little between song banter, which is amusing, but it's a straight performance for the most part. You'll get some of my favorites like "Fistfucking God's Planet", as well as "Bleached Bones", "Blackcrowned", "World Funeral" (of course), and a handful more. The same goes for Poland, also recorded in April 2003. But the picture is admittedly way better, with lots of professionally shot camera work and a slightly clearer live sound. The setlist is absolutely identical to the French show, though... and that's definitely tedious. The last set, a brief four songs, was filmed in Germany in August 2003. It's the rawest of the three sets, but the song selection is a little better - including "Jesus Christ... Sodomized" and "Still Fucking Dead". Two music videos are tacked on for "Hearse" and "World Funeral", also recorded in April 2003 (apparently a busy month for the band), but I'm not into the videos. They're black and white, which is cool, but basically amount to the band performing straight to the cameras in full garb in dank basements or whatnot. It's almost embarrassing to watch, as the contorted corpsepaint faces make little sense with no maniacally behaving crowd anywhere in sight. Bonus features include a photo gallery, bio, and discography. If nothing else, I do like the artwork. The cover is pretty damn cool, and there's an eight-page booklet inside with tons of live photos and a complete list of the tour dates. It would've been cool had the bio and discography from the DVD been printed in the booklet as well, to make it easier to read, because the bio is actually really detailed. My final call is that if you're an absolutely diehard Marduk fan, you might enjoy this. But, to be honest, it might not be worth the money - especially if you've had the chance to see the band live with your own two eyes over the years. (5/10)
Running time - 2:00:00 (approximately), Tracks: 26
[Notable tracks: April 5th, 2003, Katowiche, Poland]
Regain Records - http://www.regainrecords.com

This review has been displayed 2685 times.