Live Apocalypse

 Before putting out a first DVD of live material and extras, any band could take a page from Arch Enemy, because the Swedish metal giants followed every principle of making a quality audio-visual package to the letter on the double DVD Live Apocalypse.

The second you pop the disc into the player, you can see the main menus are clean and clear, and they offer a pile of live material, music videos, interviews and a peek backstage, and you feel the energy that keeps them at the top of the metal heap. Fitting, considering that in ten years they’ve piled up enough material for a journey of over 240 minutes through a rich history, all unfolded in this double DVD package. The first DVD serves up live footage from the London Forum on December 17, 2004. A racing set of eighteen songs puts modern-sounding death metal in its proper light. Thanks to a brilliant, confident performance and a tightly built stage show, which doesn’t lack hair-flying headbanging and just the right amount of egging on an already fired-up crowd of a thousand-plus black-clad fans, Arch Enemy earned their rep as skilled destroyers of the myth that metal is dying. You could indeed conclude that they’re somewhat archaic, since in the meantime we’ve heard a heap of successful and less successful sonic experiments even in metal’s lairs, but they’ve got strong aces up their sleeve that kept them from running out of freshness. For instance, the guitar virtuosity, technicality and precision of Mike Amott and now ex-guitarist Christopher Amott. We already got to know those back in Carcass’s golden days. The rhythm section, a machine made up of the precise and fast drummer Daniel Erlandsson and bassist Sharlee D’Angelo, doesn’t lag behind by an inch. And one last reason: the guttural vocals that have been slicing into the peace and quiet of clinically dead crowds for a couple of years now belong to a young, sexy fury named Angela Nathalie Gossow, who needs no other introduction than the fact that she can outdo many a growling poser. With her stage presence too, where she makes it clear she has the stage under total control, she commands unconditional obedience. The hellish look in her eyes can inspire, and the steel-solid bond with the audience is magical. Let me leave something to your judgment too and move on to the DVD tech specs…

Besides the 80-minute show at the Forum, we can also check out the vibe of their gig at Academy 2 in Manchester. There they string together songs from all the albums, and the setlist is, in the fans’ opinion, exactly right for a potential ‘The Best Of’ album. Both sets are solid and sound focused, though you can’t overlook that Angela’s voice cuts out for a moment a couple of times during the Forum show. Uncompromising screaming takes its toll. The first disc already has a few live extras, too. At the Academy 2 show you can see how Fredrik Åkesson fit into the band after replacing Christopher Amott.

There are more extras on the second disc. What life was like for the band on a grueling tour is shown in a half-hour feature-style documentary that also takes us to Japan and Australia. Then come the interviews and, among other things, the option to watch how the cameras chased individual members during the shows.  If you like, your eyes can rest on the statuesque Angela for the entire concert, while for music purists it’s probably better to watch Michael’s guitar exhibitions, which the crowd at the Forum got to enjoy.

And now we’re at what draws people in most: the music video section. Here you can watch four: ‘Nemesis’, ‘Ravenous’ (the oldest video on the DVD; they didn’t have a big budget yet, but in a pinch the devil eats flies…), ‘My Apocalypse’ (no shortage of cash here, so singer Angela’s extravagance is more pronounced and more visible) and ‘We Will Rise’ (my favorite).

Production duties on this DVD were handled, among others, by Andy Sneap, who did a phenomenal job. You hear every member crystal clear and bombastic, which isn’t exactly something you get on live recordings very often. The picture from the shows in question is also of above-average quality. Only at moments is the sound too distorted, but you can’t go completely without technical hiccups. All in all, this is one of those releases that will end up, if it hasn’t already, on the shelf of every true death metal fan.