ALIVE

This is easily one of the most stunning live performances I have seen on DVD. The video work is great, a much better improvement from the choppy Nothing DVD. Meshuggah plays atleast one song from every album except for Catch 33, which would be a negative thing if the other material wasn't so awesome anyways. Everything played here is loud, perfect, with creative solos from Thordendal. The sound of the band tends to alter from album to album, and you can see how their current live sound fits most with their latest, Obzen. It is absolutely crushing. Jens Kidman's voice is as deep and developed as ever before, which adds a new dimension to the other material.

The special features in the DVD are a highlight. In the video itself, there are a bunch of 'meet the band' videos and biographical insight. It also features a drum and guitar tour, and a 'making of' the Bleed video, as well as the music video itself.

The first live release from Swedish Meshuggah is a mandatory purchase for fans of the band, and may also be good for newbies to start with. Alive consitsts of 105 minutes on DVD and 65 minutes on CD. It is packaged beautifully in a digipak, with a booklet of cool images. The cover is a funny parody on the Alien film poster. Nerds ought to know this already.

The DVD is part road movie, and part live music. The movie is very beatutifully filmed in black and white, and shows a bit behind the scenes, and the band members give interviews and stuff. It was mainly inspired by Led Zep's The Song Remains the Same movie according to the director. The live songs are executed perfectly, but still not just stiff copies of the studio versions. Perpetual Black Second is now much more energic and speeded up, and in Lethargica the clean section is replaced by some cool trippy guitar droning. The solos, that are improvised as always, are great, and you can actually see Fredrik playing them, unlike on the Nothing DVD, which also has a lot worse camerawork than this.

The songs are placed randomly in between the film, but on the CD they all come in the order they were played to keep the continiuty, wich is a big up. The material is from 4 shows (small club in New York, large arena in Tokyo etc). The picture quality is mostly great, but from the Japan show wich was a bit darker the picture is at times a bit grainy. The production otherwise is great, but one very major minus is that the soundtrack is in stereo only, no surround sound. I was greatly excpecting to hear Meshuggah in surround for the first time ever, but no. However this is a tremendous release by one of the leading metal bands right now, you buy it!

Alien movie poster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alien_movie_poster.jpg

Recorded throughout the tour of their latest album release at the time(Obzen) in 2009 and released in February 2010 on Nuclear Blast which could be the best description of this extreme metal bands music style. Uncompromising,frantic,pounding and hardly a normal guitar solo too be heard, just the scream of the chords played. Drumming as fast and as tight as you can get it. Tomas Haake knows how to keep time and not easy would that be in this outfit. Dick Lovgren on Bass is simply as good as they come in Metal. Jens Kidman of course with his growl style of vocals fronting the band with his own distinct sound.and the two guitarists Fredrik Thorendal on lead guitar and and Martin Hagstrom on rythmn guitar.

The majority of the songs are from the albums "Obzen" and "Nothing" which make up nine of the twelve tracks with two from Chaosphere and one from the EP None.

"Perpetual Black Second' is first up with the lyrics pertaining to a second of violence and with the intro of the guitars and the drums the song quickly takes us into that rapid style with the twin guitars, with the drumming not really providing support but stating its own time.Of course we get Fredrik's Thorendal approach to a guitar solo which is such an important component in the bands own sound.The only track within the album that does not seem to gel is Lethargica with its off kilter rythmn but that is more personal taste as the song as usual is tight and played spot on."Bleed" which is one of my favourites off the album Obzen is given the treatment and what a blast it is. The version on the cd is from Montreal whereas the dvd is in New York due to better footage I would guess as the venue and audience provide great material for the clip used. Special mention must go for the version of "Rational Gaze","Pravus","Straws Pulled at Random","Stengah","The Mouth Licking What You've Bled" but others who are fans of this band most likely will have their own list from this great live album.

With over twenty years of experience the band shows exactly that with its extreme and original approach to modern metal and one very tight outfit is the result.Fantastic full on live album even a bit more so than their studio recordings and masters of the extreme they have become. The dvd also provides footage in between songs off the band on the road.Shot in black and white and it gives a nice feel to the down time the band has. Also you get a drum kit and guitar tour as a bonus. The cd song order is not the same as the DVD

Four stars but in 12 months I may revisit this review to update this to Five.