Finally! After years and months of waiting, my (legally bought and shipped through normal channels!) copy of the Paradise Lost Special Edition has arrived a few minutes ago! It came as a total surprise, since I had only expected it at some point during the next week.
So now I can finally solve the mystery of what is on it and what is not.
Since it is not the 26th of June yet, I expect the rules about not reviewing the CD are still in place, so I will not do that until then, but I will talk shortly about the contents of the DVD and the digipack itself. I hope that is allowed.
It is the special edition from SPV and InsideOut (I don't know if there is any other special edition, but I thought I mentioned it for completeness) and it comes in the special digipack that could be seen in the promotional video already. The image inside the digipack that surrounds the CD and stretches its tentacles into all four directions of the expanded digipack is continued on the CD and the booklet (which is in a tray at the bottom of the opened package) and is just a cool view. I have to admit, though, that the image on the inside is not as cool as I'd hoped (it looks a bit too artificial and with a too well defined outline around it's parts - I had hoped for a more chaotic, natural approach, like on the back of the CD), but not to be mistaken, it is still a very cool image and a cool idea to have a digipack like that!
The booklet is: WOW! On the outside it is not looking like much, but on the inside there are more quality images like the cover image on almost every page!! Very good work!
One other thing that caught my eye was that the music for all but one song was solely written by Michael Romeo (the one exception being Paradise Lost, which is written by Romeo and Pinella). The lyrics for each song but one are written by Russel Allen and Michael Romeo (except The Sacrifice, where the lyrics were written by Russel alone).
Okay, so much to the booklet. Now on to the bonus DVD:
The DVD itself is included in a strange way into this otherwise very thought out digipack: It comes inside a cardboard slipcase that is just glued to the back of the digipack (the image from the back of the cover with the complete tracklist including the DVD tracklist is printed onto this slipcase, so the view is not in any way disturbed by it). It really looks like an afterthought, but it doesn't take away much of the impression of an otherwise well designed special edition package.
So, what is on that bonus DVD?
The tracklist says:
"1. King of Terrors (Paris)
2. Out of the Ashes (Paris)
3. Dressed to Kill (Tokyo)
4. In the Dragon's Den (Tokyo)
5. Inferno (Milan)
6. Evolution (Madrid)
7. The Odyssey - Part II (Hollywood)
8. The Odyssey - Part V & VI (Hollywood)
9. Smoke and Mirrors (Hollywood)
10. Of Sins and Shadows (Gigantour USA)
These video clips are 'home movies' from the bands archives. The quality of some is better than others. Enjoy!"
From what I saw by looking at the start of each music video very briefly, this sentence is to be taken quite seriously. The quality of the videos is sometimes more like a better youtube video with overdriven sound. Some of them are better than that, but as the cover mentiones: They are home videos from the band - so don't expect clear sound or good video quality (but at least it is steadycam most of the time)! Still it's very cool to have some complete live footage from them....increases the hunger for a real DVD-release (maybe with orchestra?
).
There is no sign of any making of material or of a new acoustic song, though (which was rumored from other sources).
So, finally I am happy to have it in my own hands and I will now listen to it like it's the first time 
Edit: Oh, and the DVD is region 0 - NTSC...
So now I can finally solve the mystery of what is on it and what is not.
Since it is not the 26th of June yet, I expect the rules about not reviewing the CD are still in place, so I will not do that until then, but I will talk shortly about the contents of the DVD and the digipack itself. I hope that is allowed.
It is the special edition from SPV and InsideOut (I don't know if there is any other special edition, but I thought I mentioned it for completeness) and it comes in the special digipack that could be seen in the promotional video already. The image inside the digipack that surrounds the CD and stretches its tentacles into all four directions of the expanded digipack is continued on the CD and the booklet (which is in a tray at the bottom of the opened package) and is just a cool view. I have to admit, though, that the image on the inside is not as cool as I'd hoped (it looks a bit too artificial and with a too well defined outline around it's parts - I had hoped for a more chaotic, natural approach, like on the back of the CD), but not to be mistaken, it is still a very cool image and a cool idea to have a digipack like that!
The booklet is: WOW! On the outside it is not looking like much, but on the inside there are more quality images like the cover image on almost every page!! Very good work!
One other thing that caught my eye was that the music for all but one song was solely written by Michael Romeo (the one exception being Paradise Lost, which is written by Romeo and Pinella). The lyrics for each song but one are written by Russel Allen and Michael Romeo (except The Sacrifice, where the lyrics were written by Russel alone).
Okay, so much to the booklet. Now on to the bonus DVD:
The DVD itself is included in a strange way into this otherwise very thought out digipack: It comes inside a cardboard slipcase that is just glued to the back of the digipack (the image from the back of the cover with the complete tracklist including the DVD tracklist is printed onto this slipcase, so the view is not in any way disturbed by it). It really looks like an afterthought, but it doesn't take away much of the impression of an otherwise well designed special edition package.
So, what is on that bonus DVD?
The tracklist says:
"1. King of Terrors (Paris)
2. Out of the Ashes (Paris)
3. Dressed to Kill (Tokyo)
4. In the Dragon's Den (Tokyo)
5. Inferno (Milan)
6. Evolution (Madrid)
7. The Odyssey - Part II (Hollywood)
8. The Odyssey - Part V & VI (Hollywood)
9. Smoke and Mirrors (Hollywood)
10. Of Sins and Shadows (Gigantour USA)
These video clips are 'home movies' from the bands archives. The quality of some is better than others. Enjoy!"
From what I saw by looking at the start of each music video very briefly, this sentence is to be taken quite seriously. The quality of the videos is sometimes more like a better youtube video with overdriven sound. Some of them are better than that, but as the cover mentiones: They are home videos from the band - so don't expect clear sound or good video quality (but at least it is steadycam most of the time)! Still it's very cool to have some complete live footage from them....increases the hunger for a real DVD-release (maybe with orchestra?
).There is no sign of any making of material or of a new acoustic song, though (which was rumored from other sources).
So, finally I am happy to have it in my own hands and I will now listen to it like it's the first time
Edit: Oh, and the DVD is region 0 - NTSC...
