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Iced Earth: Alive in Athens

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Here an awesome review!

Iced Earth: Alive in Athens (DVD)

Join me for a little Heavy Metal time travel as we go back to the year 1999 to find Iced Earth as they record their first concert performance ever. The album would be done in Athens, Greece in front of a comfortable but still sizable audience and be called Alive In Athens. If you are one of the many Metal bangers that own the triple CD set already, then you are well-aware about this concert and just how excellent it was in capturing the best songs that Iced Earth had to offer the world at that time. The recording found the band in tip-top shape and holding a solid footing in their quest for Heavy Metal dominance. Our return from this trip to 2006 will lead us to the news of an old archive being discovered and inside this would be a long forgotten filming of this concert. The footage would be raw and was shot by a three member video team present at the event. Conversion to a more reliable format using the technology available was a smart thought and the decision to share this with the legions of Iced Earth fans became an immediate one. The audio was given some remaster treatment and soon it was ready to be unleashed on the public. It was a great find for Metal as fans everywhere are scooping up bootlegs at conventions and people are posting their own recordings on mediums like MySpace or YouTube. As a concert itself there are moments in the film that make you feel as though you are watching from the balconies while others place you on the stage looking out to the crowd. There are no dynamic effects and instead it's just a sparsely decorated stage with the band members doling out the Metal in excellent fashion. The three cameras do a great job and while some might balk at the limited amount of videographers at least we got something from this monumental show. Recent interviews have found Schaffer himself displeased with the idea of this videos release but it is the only way to see a full concert with the former singer Matthew Barlow; a performer that a majority of the bands fan base misses very much. Sonically and visually I found nothing wrong with this release and totally recommend it for Iced Earth fans old and new. The amount of full concert footage from Iced Earth is currently limited to this release and if you find yourself wanting a show with this line up you need to look no further than here to get it. Twenty eight songs and running 2.5 hours you cannot go wrong with it. Iced Earth has had a number of lineup changes over the years and Schaffer as founder, remains the only constant of the musical vision. Everyone else in the band for this film has moved on to other pursuits in music and life by this time. This video finds the membership roster as Jon Schaffer (guitar), Matthew Barlow (vocals), James MacDonough (bass), Larry Tarnowski (lead guitar), Brent Smedley (drums) and Rick Risberg (keyboards). As a Metal fan that got into this band later than I should have I was happy to find this video released as it is a musical education in the bands back catalog. Favorite tunes are "Melancholy", "Burning Times", and "Walking In Stygian" among many others.

Bonus features include Jon in Athens and backstage footage. A booklet is included and loaded with photos, song lyrics and cool graphics that the group was known for. This is a must have for any Metal fan.

Song Listing

1. Intro

2. Burning Times

3. Vengeance Is Mine

4. Dark Saga

5. Last Laugh

6. Cast In Stone

7. Last December

8. Pure Evil

9. Desert Rain

10. Dante's Inferno

11. The Hunter

12. Melancholy (Holy Martyr)

13. Angels Holocaust

14. Stormrider

15. The Path I Choose

16. Watching Over Me

17. Diary

18. Blessed Are You

19. When The Night Falls

20. My Own Savior

21. Travel In Stygian

22. Violate

23. Stand Alone

24. Brainwashed

25. Disciples Of The Lie

26. I Died For You

27. Prophecy

28. Birth Of The Wicked

29. The Coming Curse

30. Epilogue

Reviewer: Ken Pierce

I haven't written a review for a long time and basically stopped doing them. Then I bought this dvd. I read Jon's comments about this dvd and that stopped me from ordering this when it came out. I was a fool! This was at a time when the band was arguably at their best songwise as well as line-up wise. I live in Pittsburgh where metal is basically dead. I will never see Iced Earth unless I travel far. The chance to hear and now see this band perform live is just so, so wonderful. I can't think of a better word. I couldn't stop smiling through the first 7 songs when I first played this. I didn't have the time to sit through the entire thing at one time but this is just great. This is a rival to the classic Iron Maiden concert release "Live After Death". The 3 cameras are a blessing, not a negative as from what I have read from other reviewers. I want to watch the guitarist play a solo or watch Jon play a riff or Matthew sing the song. The trend in videos for the new millenium is to have the strobe light editing effect where a person is shown for less than a second and a continue barrage on the senses. A concert is never like this and sitting at home should be a plesure, not give you a headache. Maiden continues to do this and therefore will never have another great concert video. This shows a great band in concert and you as the viewer get to have a front row seat for the entire show. The power these guys had, this is a great snapshot in time when Iced Earth mattered. This is for THE Iced Earth fan and anyone who loves metal. I remember buying the 3 CD set of these shows and that is great. This is for the eyes as well. Anyone looking for perfection should maybe look elsewhere but tell me who has released the perfect concert dvd? Iced Earth live in 1999. Get It. Not a bad price either.

It's true that this is not the elaborate production we would all hope for. Only three cameras were used, and there were three songs cut because of crew changeover. So what? This is not hard to watch at all and it is much better than the 02 San Fransisco bootleg I own. I am just happy as hell to have a decent video representation of that lineup and all of those awesome songs. The bonus footage is great, especially the band being interviewed individually by the local press before the show. Kudos to Century Media for finally releasing it and I look forward to that DVD promised after the next tour.

After all the ranting that Schaffer has gone through, I decided to purchase this to see what was all the fuss about. Well, it turns out that everything he said it's not completely true. Yes, it is not a high definition dvd and it was just recorded with three or four cameras but kudos to those guys for doing a great job with the small amount of technology they had available. The footage is more than appropriate and the sound is excellent. It is a blessing to see this lineup perform these legendary songs before our eyes and the band is in top form indeed. The extra material does not deserve any details really but the live footage more than makes up for it. If you are an IE fan, I really don't see where you can go wrong by purchasing this DVD. Schaffer it's been talking about filming a DVD worthy of the fans on the next tour but the fact is that he cannot erase the legacy left by this lineup and especially Matt Barlow. Huge props to CM for releasing this material and a thumbs down to Jon for trying to keep it in the dark for so long.

A killer DVD. The sound and picture are excellent. The video shots are professional and well done. I am not sure what Jon Schaffer was complaining about. It is a real treat to see this classic line-up of Iced Earth. Well worth the purchase.

Been listening to the audio version of this for years and rate it as some of the best live metal ever. I could never understand why the video of the concert was never released. Schaffer's comments regarding this release are understandable upon watching this DVD. It has none of the flashy camera angles and jittering production that ruined Machine Head's Elegies DVD. Not much of a light show and rather poor editing.

Having said that, it shows the band exactly how I would want. None of the crap you get with other releases. None of the caffeined up editing that can't concentrate on something for more than 2 seconds. You get to see the riffing, the solos, the awesome vocals up close. It's truly metal heaven!

Travel in Stygian brought a tear to my eye it was that good.

....there is a major defect with this DVD.

For those of us who appreciate the superior quality of DTS over Dolby, you will be annoyed. Less than 4 minutes in the first DTS defect rears it's ugly head. The entire fron spectrum of audio completely cuts out, leaving just the ambient rears audible. Last for about 10 seconds.

It happened again about 4.5 minutes more into the DVD. At this point I switch to the inferior Dolby Stereo track.

I surely hope Century Media offers replacements soon. Rhino was great about this when a similar situation happened on Dream Theater's "Live at Budokan" DVD.

all i have to say is wow. I bought this DVD knowing that the band did not want it released because of its less than perfect angles and production. and, as a DVD being released in 2007, it is slightly lower quality than would be expetcted, but not by much. the songs all sound 100% like they do on the album. this DVD is perfect. any fan of iced earth will be completely happy with buying this DVD, they play so many damn songs it's unbelievable. John schaffer even sings one of the songs, but i wont say which =p

buy this.

you will like it.

The concert footage is great but the editing is terrible. About half way through the show the sound goes waaaaay out of sync. It is almost like they took decent quality bootleg footage with multiple cameras, and tried to sync the sound from the CD. Its cool for the die hard Iced Earth fan to have the concert footage, but be aware that the production is not very good. Most people should buy the CD instead.

Well, what we got here is a very special visual document of one of the greatest moments for heavy metal ever. After 7 years of constant listening to the magnificent Alive In Athens album, the time has come for one to confirm (with the eyes) that those two nights at the Rodon in athens were a glorious display of power. Yes, it was recorded only with three cameras, but, who cares? That situation only allows the viewer to see what was actually happening on the stage. One can focus on each band member for longest time of periods than, for example, nowadays Maiden's style of show editing.

For a regular person this just a low budget recording of a concert, for any Iced Earth fan is the band at the top of their carreer (With the greatest line-up) captured on tape for eternity.

I just love it.