Degradead
Live at Wacken and Beyond

So a DVD from swedish band Degradead, with a live show from Wacken, and beyond. A band with three albums behind them are releasing a DVD, feels a bit early. This DVD however is slightly different then your everyday obscure band releasing a DVD, it is focused around a documentary which follows the bands career in interviews and clips. It also contains a short live show from Wacken with what I think is seven tracks or something like that, added to that there is two music videos as additional material. So if you want to know more about the band, this DVD seems to be a good source of information, certainly better than the one review we have unless of course that CD is the only thing of interest because then our review is a better source. The band will release a new album during the fall of 2012 is also reported by the label, so until then this DVD perhaps?

Degreaded is a melodic death metal band of the Gothenburg style, but if you want to know most about their music I think the previous CD-review is better, it is linked in the discography. About this DVD: it is well put together I would say, in difference to the prior DVD I reviewed it was actually playable to begin with and I didn’t need to find another machine to play it on. The menus are well put together clear and easily navigated, in the documentary the filming in the interviews looks good, well lit and well focused and the sound is clear and audible as well. The interviews are then interchanged with live clippings and some other clips as well as some photos, there are some passages where they blast loud music which comes as a bit of a chock each time it happens as the difference in volume is rather big between the other parts and these. I would say that the documentary is well put together and the filmed material holds a good quality.

The live show from Wacken feels a bit like documentaries do on most band DVDs, put there just to be there. The sound is alright but not brilliant in any way but at least it works, the filming is not so good. The light is really poor and they have done nothing with shutter speeds, apertures or post-processing to adjust for that, the angles they have filmed with are rubbish as well most of it feels filmed from straight ahead behind the audience, the stage camera/-s do not add much to that. The clips are almost nonexistent and the filming feels very static which makes the experience of looking at the show quite uninteresting. The band seem to be doing well though with energy and actually seem to be getting the crowds with them slightly. So if the latest DVD I reviewed was a bit overambitious in the filming department, this seems to be other way around in the live show.

As whole though I would say that this DVD is geared towards those who are into this band already, they are not a big and well known band so the interviews and documentary will probably not appeal to that many other than the fans. I know I couldn’t care less, but then again I don’t care much about anything but the music in this department. The live show is probably too short and too poorly made to really win any new fans for the band, so I think it is safe to assume that this DVD is looking to find buyers amongst those who are already fans of the band so if you are not I think you could safely turn your attention elsewhere, perhaps towards their latest album.

So a well made DVD that is a product geared towards fans of the band is what it is, it is good to see a documentary about a band of this size that is so well made as usually those on DVDs tend to be really poor and feels like they are put there just to be there for anyone who could be bothered to watch. This documentary actually feels like someone has been working quite hard on to make it a good one to watch. So I think that if you are a fan of Degradead you should not miss this DVD because here you get to know them a lot more and they cover most of everything they have done since the beginning through this fifty minute documentary that I would think was well worth watching if I was interested in those aspects of a band, which I am not. But regardless of how much I care, it is still a quality product that should be present in the collection of anyone calling him-/herself a fan of this band.