Customer Reviews

At the Pulse of Kapitulation: Live in East Berlin

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all Andy Sneap is the BEST audio engineer! I mean, who can take an 18 year old recording and make it sound like this. My two favorite bands are Kreator and Nevermore and I am lucky he works with both bands, his talent for mixing and producing makes recordings timeless.

Now for this video.. I remember seeing the Extreme Agression tour in Cincinnati (Coroner was the opener). It was so cool how this video captured the power of Kreator, they are just unreal live and this video does not dissapoint. You can imagine how cool it was for the fans of East Germany with the wall just coming down, most seeing Kreator for the first time. It is a must have!

I understand how the other reviewer felt as to the video not having anything from Coma on it, but there were so many great songs dropped from Kreator's set during that tour, it just proves that they have such a huge catalog of great songs.

Now that King has a bad back and Kreator will not be back in the US for a while this will have to hold me over until a Jan 09 when they are looking to possibly putting out a new album. Oh, and when Mille say's that they are working on new songs and they are BRUTAL, you can take that to heart, it's not like Larz saying the new Metallica album is going to sound like Puppets haha..

KREATOR rules and I look forward to seeing them in the states.

At first, it seems like this release is another way to prolong the time between the release of 2005's Enemy Of God (which was then reissued as Enemy Of God Revisited) and now. But picking up this dvd/cd set, you know why Kreator had to do it. The concert filmed back in 1990 (orignally on VHS, now for the first time on dvd and cd) was one of the first since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it's no coincidence that the mood is captured perfectly. German metalheads celebrated seeing one of their favorite bands like it was Christmas, and the energy of the music and lyrics captured the feeling of freedom that was endured. Enough rambling. The concert is excellent. The audio was remixed by legendary metal producer Andy Sneap (also worked on Live Kreation, Violent Revolution, and Enemy Of God) who captures the old vibe of the performance using todays recording technology to make it sound almost like the old is new again. My only complaint is that there's no songs from Coma Of Souls, but since it was recorded before the album, I can't fault it. Extras include the short documentary The Past And Now which chronicles the fall of the Berlin Wall and the effect of it to today, and that fateful performance in East Berlin, as well as the band's popularity to this day. Also included for the first time on dvd is Hallucinative Comas: the short, artful horror piece that was inspired by the Coma Of Souls album, now a director's cut which is complete without the interview footage that was said to have disrupted the flow of the orignal.

So, if you're a fan, chances are you've probably been looking for Live In East Berlin when it was on VHS. First time fans should also check out Live Kreation, and Enemy Of God Revisited.

Kreator are a very important band in the Thrash Metal story, one of Germany's biggest ever bands and a bone fide classic act for metal overall.
This DVD is a fantastic reissue of the historic Live In East Berlin Concert, (which comes in Cd and DVD form here)with a documentary and an amusing horror video called Hallucinative Comas.
The Tracklisting is amazing, containing all of their classics such as `Toxic Trace,' `Flag of Hate,' `Tormentor,' and `Pleasure to Kill.'
The Band's performance is energetic and exciting; singer Mille interacts with the crowd on a regular basis. Ventor gets a Drum solo and also performs lead vocals on an excellent rendition of `Riot of Violence.'
Kreator blast through songs like `Some Pain Will Last,' `Awakening of the Gods,' and `Under The Guillotine,' furiously, performing the technically challenging and incredibly fast material with ease and flair.
Most important is the sound; for such an old concert the sound is amazing, much better than other dvds of similar era concerts. The material is brilliantly mixed and availible in 5.1 or stereo; with clear drums, chunky `full,' guitar sounds and totally audible vocals.
The documentary is pretty interesting, describing the difficulty East German fans had even getting access to metal music, magazines or t-shirts; how the concert came to be, and the impact it had.
For a Kreator fan this cannot be recommended highly enough, the wonderful sound and excellent tracklisting make this one of the best Thrash Metal dvds money can buy. If you want to hear music from the `Terrible Certainty,' or `Extreme Aggression,' albums played live then this is the DVD for you.

This Dvd/cd combo is a very good package for starters. The live performance was great, all songs are done so well live that sound even better then the studio recording. First time I seen it, it sent shivers down my spine! The live performance is the main event of the dvd and it is remarkable I'll not deny that and it should be the reason the buy this. The extra's on the Dvd however, are ok. The Hallucinative Comas section was good but don't let the "Directors Cut" label fool you into thinking its extended because its not! It's been cut by about half of what it originally was, so if you're buying this for Hallucinative Comas, you will be disappointed. I honestly don't know why they did but its like that, but I did like what I saw. The Past And Now documentary wasn't very interesting but I did learn a thing or two from it, although I would've found it much more interesting if they members of Kreator at the time were there to talk about it. The audio CD great because the performance was so remarkable, and the packaging was cool. I expected a regular dvd case but I got this cool fold out with a slip-on on top.

And now for technical things that I didn't like very much. Things you should know before you buy it:
*Although this dvd is remastered in "widescreen", its really not. There's not actual widescreen mode, only standard 4:3 Mode, so if you have a widescreen TV, the picture will be stretched with those annoying black bars. You can always zoom which is a quick solution to that.

And probably the most annoying thing I have on this is that its slightly OFF SYNC!! towards the end of the set the audio and video started to be out of place and I found it very frustrating and annoying.

Bottom line: This package is great for every hardcore Kreator fan that just wants to hear the old, raw and fast stuff. I wouldn't buy it for the list price though, I would get it from one of these fine sellers who sell it at a lower price, I would say its worth about 20 bucks at most.

The Good
To tide fans over while the German thrash legends take a long deserved break, Kreator reaches into the vaults to re-vamp an earlier VHS release. What makes this performance so memorable is that it took place just after the Berlin Wall came down. East and West Germany were finally able to become one. Kreator may draw from early albums for this fifteen song set, but with the 5.1 mix, they sound more vibrant than ever. "Extreme Aggression" [sample] is in your face with its driving riffs and blood curling vocals. Not to mention the bludgeoning drum work. "Pleasure to Kill" gives false hope for something mellow with it's orchestral beginning that gives way to pure fury. I don't really need to go much into the music that much because the intensity speaks for itself, right to the very last song "Tormentor." There are no sissy ballads here.

As far as the show presentation goes, you're not getting a DVD show from today with multiple camera angles and a crystal clear picture. It's 1990 for God's sake. The picture is a little grainy and the shots are a little further away, but the final output is exceptional for the time. There's not much going on stage except some average lighting and energetic heavy metal. Kreator must have been hurting after putting on such a draining set.

Also on the DVD is the long form video, or "Kreator Horror Movie," Hallucinative Comas - Director's Cut. It's pretty much an inter-weaving of song performances with a little movie plot built around the lyrics. It has been released prior, but this time around there is added footage, deleted footage, and a few more extras. One of the highlights of this DVD release is a documentary that features interviews with the audience about Berlin in 1990 and Berlin today.

For those fans that want to take this killer show with them, Kreator includes a bonus CD with every song from the live show.

The Bad
I'm sure the drum solo could have been edited out and no one would have noticed.

The Verdict
Kreator has always been one of those bands I've heard of but never experienced. I can now say that they are one of those bands I MUST hear more of. Kreator has all the intensity of early Metallica, the political fury of Megadeth, and the dark ominous feel of Venom. With this 1990 performance, they unleash the very best of all they encompass.

This DVD is great. It has great sound and despite certain lack of ability of the director to edit it is worth the bucks invested.
It shows a great gig after the Berlin wall end. There are great songs from the best era of Kreator (I would have appreciated if they had played "pestilence")in dolby 5.1 or stereo.
There is an interesting documentary which shows the reality of the bangers at the other side of the wall.
The only defect come when it starts to say that Kreator is almost the cat's whiskas... and the horror movie where they try to match the videos with those videos that have nothing to do.

This is thrash metal at it's best. Kreator puts on a great show. Dvd extras are great also. This is one of my favorite metal dvd's I own. Kreator rules!

This DVD/CD is excellent in terms of audio and video and I really don't have much to add to the posted reviews, rather than confirm them. I'm really writing this review, apart from obviously recommending it to any one who's into good thrash metal from the german pioneers Kreator, to inquire with others who already purchased it to confirm if at the beginning of the DVD concert when the band is announced before starting with "Some Pain Will Last" the screen is totally black and you can't see anything until the lights come dimly up when the first cords sound or if it is a flaw in my DVD. I'd appreciate any comment.

This DVD/CD blisters with awesome songs, riffs, hellish vocals and pure real musicanship. Kreator rule! Great translation.