DISMEMBER

Under Blood Red Skies

Regain
rating icon 8 / 10

Track listing:


"Party.San? Are you ready to bleed? Then you better bleed for me!" And that's exactly what the crowd at Germany's Party.San festival did for DISMEMBER when they launched into that slab of vintage Swedish death from the band's seminal debut, "Like an Ever Flowing Stream". A much better visual and audio display of DISMEMBER's bludgeoning sound and dominant stage presence than 2004's "Live Blasphemies" DVD, "Under Blood Red Skies" is two discs worth of death metal the way it was always meant to be: dirty, ugly, and uncompromising.

The biggest surprise may be just how well DISMEMBER delivers in a festival setting. I don't know about those that were in attendance, but the view from the recliner shows a band performing with the vigor of teenagers, the confidence and competence of veterans, and the enthusiasm of those with a complete dedication to the craft. This one is just plain death metal to the bone and every song sounds fantastic; the sound is that of an unapologetically live performance, yet the recording quality is fantastic. The guitar channels are clear and distinct, the bass is fat, the drums are tough, and Matti Kärki's gurgle-growl comes through loud and in your face. The solos sound great too. Visually, well, the band ain't pretty and Matti Kärki clearly hasn't been working out on the ab machine; DISMEMBER just has that certain presence and look that brings to mind decomposing corpses and Boss Heavy Metal pedals. It ain't rocket science, yet so many bands have failed to grasp the concepts.

"Documentary: Death Metal and more Mental Illness" is the centerpiece of Disc 2 and is a nicely edited collection of interviews with individual band members that covers a range of topics, but is not any kind of comprehensive historical look into the band. Rather it is more about the essence of DISMEMBER; everything from life on the road (with accompanying shenanigans) to the band's relationship with the fans to the trials and tribulations that come with death metal trench warfare. There are, of course, plenty of goofball antics that can be quite comical, especially coming from a bunch of guys that refuse to take themselves too seriously. The discussions about and clips from the Masters of Death Tour that packaged DISMEMBER with ENTOMBED, UNLEASHED, and GRAVE is particularly interesting. There is plenty of the obligatory bonus performance footage to round out Disc 2 as well.

It is quite simple; if you are interested in what classic Swedish death metal sounds, looks, and smells like, then "Under Blood Red Skies" was made just for you. If you are a DISMEMBER fan, then the DVD is a mandatory purchase.

Author:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).