Soul in a Hole

Excellent dvd from this obscure Norwegian act. It does not excel in any ways, but the music, which I find the most important part of a live dvd. The camera work is strange, mostly balcony shots from both sides intercalated with stationary front-row cameras at the sides and very few frontal shots, this is what we could call a pro-shot low-budget dvd. The guy who edited it made the most out of the filming and the end result is excellent. Sound is excellent too only downfalls are that the overall volume is somewhat low and a bit lacking in bottom end, both of which are easily fixable quirks if you have a reasonably powerful amp, and ideally also a subwoofer.

The performance is out of this world though. This is an industrial metal act, but if you expect Rammstein clones you will be disappointed. This is much more underground and original, may I say groundbreaking ? I stumbled upon this DVD almost by chance; the versions of these songs, on record, are not as heavy, and are way more ambient-oriented. The band decided to go full industrial/darkwave metal for this live gig.

The singer/frontman performs in a sort of bizarre elf costume and mask -which I find amusing- and there are two lead guitarists, one on each stereo channel -no fancy 5.1 ON this product- whose instruments are perfect an evenly panned which is not very frequent on dvds. They play massive, in-your-face riffing that demolishes your speakers. There is a good live drummer and the band play over DAT-recorded keyboards, samples, and triggered effects that together with a smoke-filled and dimly-lit stage, contribute to a dense, gloomy atmosphere.

Vocals vary from very low to shouted in the mix and are sort of recited as opposed to sung like on their studio record counterparts. They are presenting material from their last two records only which are the heavier ones and the guitars are given a dual-attack prominence you -again- won't find on the studio records, which frankly never appealed to me in the first place.

The package is well rounded with lots of extras like 4 excellent video clips and an interesting,half hour interview and the inevitable video gallery and a nice, glossy but pointless booklet, since it has only some weird artwork and very little info.

Well worth any darkwave/industrial, and even black metal fans' time and money.