WAKING THE DEAD - LIVE IN JAPAN 2005

The songs of this concert are drawn from the Anekdoten's third and fourth studio albums, which are my ultimate favorites from their discography at the time of writing. Also as the technical quality of this release is fine, and I was able to attend a concert of this same tour in Finland, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm really fond of this live record, which I found as vinyl copy with two LP's and a nice gatefold sleeves.

The A-side of the album starts up with the dynamic openers of their studio albums, "Monolith" and "From Within" and ending up to "Kiss of Life". Though these dramatic numbers are similar in arrangements as their studio versions, the Mellotron melodies vary creating new harmonies, and the long improvisational passage of "From Within" is interesting to listen. The B-side of the first album has then more darker moods in it, over eleven minutes long "Hole" and "SW4". The first one mentioned builds up from a very dramatic Mellotron intro (saw at Helsinki during this number slow moshing with half-minute hair sweep rates), a beautiful melodic part and a long lingering instrumental sequence leading back to the start mayhem. This is one of my most favorite tracks of the band (along with the final song of this album), suiting as a fine soundtrack for a depression disorder lifestyle. The second number has more worrying feeling in it, having some vocals from Anna-Sofi too.

The second vinyl opens with solemn Mellotron chords painting up improvisational pictures of "Moons of Mars", this vision morphing as instrumental "The Sun Absolute", which gave me associations of tension building sequences from some Dario Argento movies. Then we go back to their fourth album's material, "Ricochet" being another wonderful track full with passion and hope, featuring the nice way of building up moods with contrasting powerful parts with more quiet moments. "Gravity" relies also on very sad and strong melodies, lasting nearly ten minutes in running time. The final side of the album has the most interesting stuff, "This Too Will Pass" which is not released on any studio album, and it is an instrumental tune, sounding quite thoughtfully composed and being very beautiful too. The last number here (and also in Helsinki concert) is "Sad Rain", a really passionate and beautiful number, one of their best ones I think. It was originally written and recorded during the early days of the band, and it was released on the Japanese version of their first studio album "Vemod". I always wondered why it wasn't in broader distribution, as it's just so great composition (though I think it is available as mp3 from their official homepage). Luckily it was included to the repertoire of this tour, and is here available for the audiences.

I liked this later Japanese live recording more than their 1990's double-CD, mostly due in my opinion better songs and more experienced and firmer playing. When I attended a concert of this tour, I had few of my friends with me who are not very familiar with progressive rock, but they liked the show so much that they bought some of the band's albums after the concert. As the avant-garde destruction elements of the band changed to more dramatic and passionate mood buildings with interesting arrangements and space for free playing after the "Morte Macabre" record, which was half-Anekdoten and half-Landberk project, their music should appeal for both fans of prog and the larger audiences of more easier music too. At least here in Finland people are really minor key music fans. If you liked the albums "From Within" and "Gravity", this is a real must in my opinion.