I think this DVD shows well the face of death and black metal: they dress in black, have raucous voices, play loud and fast, but in the end there is quite a lot of aesthetic and melody in their works. The pictures, which are part of the art, are very interesting. Thy Disease’s pictures that you can see on the jacket and in the contents are beautiful. There are two pretty nude bodies. But only when you look closer at them you see how horrible the picture is. Systematically, the beauty is lashed by blood and skin peeling, mouths kept shut, bent bodies.
Listening to the lyrics is a bit of the same (or rather reading the lyrics since it’s pretty hard to understand them when shouted) but the other way around. The first noticeable thing is that they mostly talk about death, dominion, lust, curse, etc. It seems that many songs just talk about death as this is the favourite subject of death metal. But secondly, reading the text of some songs, you realize the author is quite upset about wars and conflicts in the world. There is some criticism about it.
It’s not obvious at first sight, but you can notice this band wish the world were better even though they dress all in black and shout like beasts.

Thy Disease’s music produces atmospheres that are mysterious, inspire well-being and call for nice pictures. Unfortunately, there are no pictures or videos behind the stage.
The show brings this same atmosphere though. The musicians stand on the stage, surrounded by smoke and light. Still, it is very casual for this kind of band. The lights are beating in synch with the music, but nothing special for one song or another. Also the band attitude is quite basic for this style’s standards: shaking their huge hair in synchrony, playing very fast with faces hidden behind their hair.
The normality of the show can be resented in the way it is filmed. The video is simply showing the guys playing their instruments. But it will be very interesting if you haven’t seen a death metal band performance before.

The music is mostly interesting at the electronic keyboard level, which is at the origin of those atmospheres. There is also a lot of guitar solos that might remind you of the 80’s heavy metal bands.
This is rather a personal opinion about death and black metal, but well, my feeling is that they play guitar and drums very fast. It is mostly the same feeling I get most of the playing time. It’s pretty difficult for a newcomer to recognize different guitar scratchings when they are played so fast. It’s mostly technical music playing.
So in the end, it seems to me that the music is an alternation between fast rhythms and nice melodies rather than a whole beautiful thing.

The DVD features Dolby Digital Surround sound. Most of the surround mixing is quite standard but some guitar and keyboard solos have been “surrounded” very well, resulting in nice effects.
If you have a bass booster, you might have problems with your neighbours though. The drums, bass guitar and voice make your booster boost quite a lot. That’s how it is with death metal!

As I stated before, the concert in itself is a nice show but it is not very special as a death metal show.. The band does not have extensive contact with the public. The singer announces the songs and that’s mainly about it. The video does not show any feedback from the public.

To me the interesting part is the sound – especially for the keyboards – and the multimedia packaging. The DVD is a very nice product. The menus are very well designed and they are very personal. They are part of the band’s work. They all have graphical backgrounds with incrusted videos and they are always accompanied by some musical noise performed by the band. Only one drawback: I had difficulties clicking on the menus, not wanting to break the atmosphere…

didier@cinetrange.com