Some time have passed between the release of this DVD and when I finally had a pleasure to watch it. First I didn't have a chance to buy it and when I finally did, my home cinema system has broken, so it's November 2011, when "Live Death Doom" destroys my building finally. And trust me, it does destroy totally. From the start to its end "Live Death Doom" delivers a blasting death metal feast.
Quick look on the cover - reminding me the artwork from "Crush the Cenotaph" MLP - and the feast begins. The whole DVD has three chapters and the first one is titled "Live". Well, you don't need to be smart to know what it includes. Yes, it's a live recording from the gig in Essen, when the release party of "Death... the Brutal Way" LP took place. Man, I absolutely love that album and in my opinion it's the best one in whole Asphyx career, so it's great to listen to some of the songs from it in live versions. But the whole show is perfect. The sound on it is just AWESOME, so damn brutal and full of energy that it really can blow out your speakers. I especially love the sound of guitar, which is more than excellent, and so is the way Paul plays all his parts. But well, the performance of each Asphyx members is absolutely top notch, they slash with best possible precision and professionalism, playing all the songs perfectly, but not forgetting about making the show, by banging the heads and interacting with the audience, who by the way react like crazy maniacs should (I may only not like those stage dives, which are so often, I never liked them on gigs... I don't pay to watch some fat asses jerking on the stage, but to watch and listen to the band!). Anyway, the interaction between the band and the fans is great here, you can see that everyone had so much fun and the maniacs not only have lots of respect for Asphyx, but also love their music a lot. Of course not all songs that I like have been played but come on - the gig is already almost 2 hours long (although some of this time has been taken by Martin's long speeches, sadly they're in German, so I can't understand a thing). There no "Crush the Cenotaph" for instance, I also think that if you play the so called retrospective show, you should put at least one track from every record, sadly there's nothing from "God Cries" and just one track from "Asphyx", which is an instrumental "Abomination Echoes" - and let me say this song just sounds KILLER, such a fuckin headbanger that it's one of my favourite parts of the gig. Sadly such songs as "God Cries", "Initiation Into the Ossuary" or "'Til Death Do Us Apart" are not here. From the other hand there's lot of material from the newest record; one which I just love and that's definitely a cool thing. All in all, the gig is phenomenal and belongs to one of the very best live DVD's I've ever seen in my life. Just play it loud and let it break the walls of your house.
But moving forward, there's also some bonus live material in the "Doom" chapter. And this part disappointed me a little. I expected to hear / see some more archives; even if the sound was weak, but it's always great to watch some very old live recordings. Here is one amazing old recording, from Göppingen / Germany, April 1990 with Theo as bassist / vocalist and I think Tony Brookhuis on guitar... There're two songs from this gig and trust me, it sounds amazing. The sound and vision quality are superb and it would even make sense putting the whole gig here, really! It would be damn cool. These two songs are just crushing, very obscure and morbid death metal. Then there's "Mutilating Process" played in Germany in 1991 and basically that's all as for the old archives. Shame there's nothing from other gigs and times, especially from the mid 90’s period. This section has also some songs from the reunion tour, which is OK, but it's basically the same thing as on the main live section of the disc. The only great thing here is when Asphyx plays "Ode To A Nameless Grave / Incarnation of Lust" and "Black Hole Storm", as we can see here the new bassist, Alwin Zuur, in action and he does play well and bangs his head as a maniac, so I have no problem with this mate, although it was a surprise for me, when I've heard that Wannes left Asphyx!
Finally the "Death" chapter. It's called "Hordes Of Disgust – Documentary" and that's something I always love to watch on DVDs and think it's necessary if the DVD was complete... Just like Dismember on "Live Blasphemies" DVD, At the Gates on "Purgatory Unleashed - Live at Wacken" or Behemoth on "Crush.Fukk.Create: Requiem for Generation Armageddon"... It was always a great thing to watch and hear the history of those bands from the mouths of the musicians involved, hear some interesting facts, see some archive photos or places they been rehearsing or playing. The same thing is here. There's a long story to tell and the Asphyx guys do tell it well, it's a low budget, but cool video, it even includes many words from Eric Daniels, which is great I think... So, yeah, many stories from the past, like that weird "Last One On Earth" recording session... It's definitely a great thing to watch!
Enough. Do I still need to recommend this DVD? Man, if you haven't seen it yet but think about buying at least one DVD to your collection, here's one for you. For me personally it is one of the three of very best DVD's I've ever watched. Abomination Echoes.
Final rate: 95 / 100
Quick look on the cover - reminding me the artwork from "Crush the Cenotaph" MLP - and the feast begins. The whole DVD has three chapters and the first one is titled "Live". Well, you don't need to be smart to know what it includes. Yes, it's a live recording from the gig in Essen, when the release party of "Death... the Brutal Way" LP took place. Man, I absolutely love that album and in my opinion it's the best one in whole Asphyx career, so it's great to listen to some of the songs from it in live versions. But the whole show is perfect. The sound on it is just AWESOME, so damn brutal and full of energy that it really can blow out your speakers. I especially love the sound of guitar, which is more than excellent, and so is the way Paul plays all his parts. But well, the performance of each Asphyx members is absolutely top notch, they slash with best possible precision and professionalism, playing all the songs perfectly, but not forgetting about making the show, by banging the heads and interacting with the audience, who by the way react like crazy maniacs should (I may only not like those stage dives, which are so often, I never liked them on gigs... I don't pay to watch some fat asses jerking on the stage, but to watch and listen to the band!). Anyway, the interaction between the band and the fans is great here, you can see that everyone had so much fun and the maniacs not only have lots of respect for Asphyx, but also love their music a lot. Of course not all songs that I like have been played but come on - the gig is already almost 2 hours long (although some of this time has been taken by Martin's long speeches, sadly they're in German, so I can't understand a thing). There no "Crush the Cenotaph" for instance, I also think that if you play the so called retrospective show, you should put at least one track from every record, sadly there's nothing from "God Cries" and just one track from "Asphyx", which is an instrumental "Abomination Echoes" - and let me say this song just sounds KILLER, such a fuckin headbanger that it's one of my favourite parts of the gig. Sadly such songs as "God Cries", "Initiation Into the Ossuary" or "'Til Death Do Us Apart" are not here. From the other hand there's lot of material from the newest record; one which I just love and that's definitely a cool thing. All in all, the gig is phenomenal and belongs to one of the very best live DVD's I've ever seen in my life. Just play it loud and let it break the walls of your house.
But moving forward, there's also some bonus live material in the "Doom" chapter. And this part disappointed me a little. I expected to hear / see some more archives; even if the sound was weak, but it's always great to watch some very old live recordings. Here is one amazing old recording, from Göppingen / Germany, April 1990 with Theo as bassist / vocalist and I think Tony Brookhuis on guitar... There're two songs from this gig and trust me, it sounds amazing. The sound and vision quality are superb and it would even make sense putting the whole gig here, really! It would be damn cool. These two songs are just crushing, very obscure and morbid death metal. Then there's "Mutilating Process" played in Germany in 1991 and basically that's all as for the old archives. Shame there's nothing from other gigs and times, especially from the mid 90’s period. This section has also some songs from the reunion tour, which is OK, but it's basically the same thing as on the main live section of the disc. The only great thing here is when Asphyx plays "Ode To A Nameless Grave / Incarnation of Lust" and "Black Hole Storm", as we can see here the new bassist, Alwin Zuur, in action and he does play well and bangs his head as a maniac, so I have no problem with this mate, although it was a surprise for me, when I've heard that Wannes left Asphyx!
Finally the "Death" chapter. It's called "Hordes Of Disgust – Documentary" and that's something I always love to watch on DVDs and think it's necessary if the DVD was complete... Just like Dismember on "Live Blasphemies" DVD, At the Gates on "Purgatory Unleashed - Live at Wacken" or Behemoth on "Crush.Fukk.Create: Requiem for Generation Armageddon"... It was always a great thing to watch and hear the history of those bands from the mouths of the musicians involved, hear some interesting facts, see some archive photos or places they been rehearsing or playing. The same thing is here. There's a long story to tell and the Asphyx guys do tell it well, it's a low budget, but cool video, it even includes many words from Eric Daniels, which is great I think... So, yeah, many stories from the past, like that weird "Last One On Earth" recording session... It's definitely a great thing to watch!
Enough. Do I still need to recommend this DVD? Man, if you haven't seen it yet but think about buying at least one DVD to your collection, here's one for you. For me personally it is one of the three of very best DVD's I've ever watched. Abomination Echoes.
Final rate: 95 / 100
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