[avatar =”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]
Some of you may be wondering why a review of this is coming out now. The thing was released in 2003, I hear you cry. Yes, but this is a vinyl rerelease with new artwork so that’s reason enough for me to review this rather nice album.
A unique feature about this album is that it features Damnation (Which was rereleased last year having been remixed and remastered) played in its entirety. Given that Damnation is one of my favourite Opeth albums, I honestly loved every second of those songs. The performance given is almost identical to how it’s played on the album. You honestly wouldn’t think it’s a live album aside from the points where the crowd makes a bit of noise. But even then, it doesn’t detract from the music at all.
All the nice calm of that album is shattered completely when the behemoth that is “Master’s Apprentice” comes in. If you thought this track sounded heavy on the album, it’s a whole other level on this album. I’m not overly sure on how they recorded them, but the guitars have so much meat to them that you could make 20 beef patties from just one of them!
The latter half of the album features some of the more ‘traditional’ Opeth material such as “Deliverance” and “The Lepper Affinity”. Both of which are two of my favourite tracks my the band. The only real downside of the album is that they didn’t play “Blackwater Park”. But barring that small insignificant thing, the rest of the album is just as epic as the first half is.
There’s not really much else I can say about the album other than this… If you have a Vinyl player then I encourage you to get this album. It’s a worthy addition to any Opeth fan’s collection. If however you don’t have a vinyl player, then get the concert they did at the Royal Albert Hall (In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall). It’s just as a good an album, but it also features Blackwater Park ;)
Rating: 9/10
