- Apr 5, 2003
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Sentenced - Buried Alive
Century Media Records - 7987-2 - November 27th, 2006
By Brandon Strader
The only thing sadder than the death of Sentenced is a bag of drowning puppies, and there'd have to be a lot of them. They released their last studio album in 2005 entitled The Funeral Album, and here in 2006 we finally see the release of Buried Alive, a massive 2-disc DVD set that includes a live show filmed on October 1st, 2005, with a huge audience and a blistering length of 2 hours and 5 minutes, as well as the bonus disc with 3 hours and 6 minutes worth of bonus material. The bonus disc itself is worth getting the set for, as it has a massive documentary including photo, video, and signing sessions, and footage from the festival and club tours. Also included are a bunch of the band's music videos for the songs "Nepenthe", "Noose", "The Suicider", "Killing Me, Killing You", "No One There", "Ever-Frost", and last but not least, "Despair-Ridden Hearts." And if that wasn't enough to satisfy you, there's also 45 minutes worth of interviews making this a truly massive and impressive package. Everything about this DVD is sad, from the photo of the bandmembers in the DVD menu equipped with shovels and crows flying overhead, to the funeral procession performed at the beginning and end of the setlist.
Starting off the live set is the song "Where Waters Fall Frozen". This is a short, minute-long death metal peice with no vocals that really starts it up well. There are a ton of flashing lights, and the camera hops around to different people randomly so it is very hard to follow until the end of the song when there is a large crane-shot of the stage and all is calm. "May Today Become The Day" departs from the death metal style into a more catchy verse/chorus-based display of rock fundamentals. The work of these fellows is very touching at times, with nice use of pyrotechnics, a lot of lights, and a unique use of fog as well. There are tree props set up around the stage, so the fog almost makes it look like they are standing in a foggy forest that stretches on for who-knows-how-far, and the occasional burst of flame quickly floats upwards like a mushroom cloud in the middle-east. The sound is very impressive, and the mix is perfect. It does sound like a studio album, despite being a live performance, and I didn't notice any mistakes in their performances. Perhaps it is overdubbed and corrected in the editting process, or perhaps the band was incredibly talented in their performances: the world will never know. The singer gets very sweaty within the first few songs, which is probably due to the extreme use of lights, yet his performance seems to take a lot of effort as well as he always stays on key with his rough, gnarly rock vocals. The video quality is great, the audio quality is fantastic, and they have even included English subtitles on the concert for those of us who have no idea what the vocalist is saying during the short break between each song though sadly the lyrics aren't included in the subtitles! Some screams appear on "Bleed", yet nobody on stage appears to be performing them so the band must be using a backing track for some things....
Far into the set, they toss in a different vocalist for the song "The War Ain't Over", and the following four songs. The guy looks - and sounds - like some creepy dude you'd see sitting at the bar in a truck stop. He's also got a bit of Barney from The Simpsons in him, and a touch of Horrible Gelatinous Blob from Futurama; indeed, a very comical dude all around. His performance isn't nearly as good as the vocalist who had been performing previously... Luckily, that fellow returns on "Noose" by which time the entire set is more than half over. It's a really great set with plenty of material from the band's history, though the profanity used throughout is a bit dissapointing. It's sad to see Sentenced quitting after only releasing 8 full-length albums... I can think of many bands who have released that many albums and have not yet quit but probably should. Sentenced truly has been Buried Alive...
The video quality on the second disc matches that of the main show, and even starts out the same! The band carries the casket around yet again, this time around a snowy street while people stare on and one girl even giggles at them mirthfully. Then all of the bandmembers attempt to get inside of this casket, and it is too small for all of them! One of the guys even says, 'You couldn't even bury me in this!' to which one of the other folks suggests, 'Cremation....'. It's hard to tell who is actually talking, as they're all speaking a different language. Luckily, it is all subtitled in English! The guys laugh and joke around with each other which makes the news of the death even harder to believe; they seemed so happy during the filming of this material. I can imagine they probably get pretty fatigued carrying that coffin everywhere. When they can't walk with it anymore due to lack of land, they put it in a large canoe and the band is pulled by a boat while sitting tiredly with this coffin. The quality of the included music videos varies from which time period it came from, the older ones being a bit softer and a tad bit blurry. All of this stuff is extremely cool, so much so that it may be the best DVD pack of the year and will definitely make a great Christmas present! It's definitely one of the most polished musical DVD sets I've ever seen.
9.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Sentenced Website
Official Century Media Records Website
Century Media Records - 7987-2 - November 27th, 2006
By Brandon Strader
The only thing sadder than the death of Sentenced is a bag of drowning puppies, and there'd have to be a lot of them. They released their last studio album in 2005 entitled The Funeral Album, and here in 2006 we finally see the release of Buried Alive, a massive 2-disc DVD set that includes a live show filmed on October 1st, 2005, with a huge audience and a blistering length of 2 hours and 5 minutes, as well as the bonus disc with 3 hours and 6 minutes worth of bonus material. The bonus disc itself is worth getting the set for, as it has a massive documentary including photo, video, and signing sessions, and footage from the festival and club tours. Also included are a bunch of the band's music videos for the songs "Nepenthe", "Noose", "The Suicider", "Killing Me, Killing You", "No One There", "Ever-Frost", and last but not least, "Despair-Ridden Hearts." And if that wasn't enough to satisfy you, there's also 45 minutes worth of interviews making this a truly massive and impressive package. Everything about this DVD is sad, from the photo of the bandmembers in the DVD menu equipped with shovels and crows flying overhead, to the funeral procession performed at the beginning and end of the setlist.
Starting off the live set is the song "Where Waters Fall Frozen". This is a short, minute-long death metal peice with no vocals that really starts it up well. There are a ton of flashing lights, and the camera hops around to different people randomly so it is very hard to follow until the end of the song when there is a large crane-shot of the stage and all is calm. "May Today Become The Day" departs from the death metal style into a more catchy verse/chorus-based display of rock fundamentals. The work of these fellows is very touching at times, with nice use of pyrotechnics, a lot of lights, and a unique use of fog as well. There are tree props set up around the stage, so the fog almost makes it look like they are standing in a foggy forest that stretches on for who-knows-how-far, and the occasional burst of flame quickly floats upwards like a mushroom cloud in the middle-east. The sound is very impressive, and the mix is perfect. It does sound like a studio album, despite being a live performance, and I didn't notice any mistakes in their performances. Perhaps it is overdubbed and corrected in the editting process, or perhaps the band was incredibly talented in their performances: the world will never know. The singer gets very sweaty within the first few songs, which is probably due to the extreme use of lights, yet his performance seems to take a lot of effort as well as he always stays on key with his rough, gnarly rock vocals. The video quality is great, the audio quality is fantastic, and they have even included English subtitles on the concert for those of us who have no idea what the vocalist is saying during the short break between each song though sadly the lyrics aren't included in the subtitles! Some screams appear on "Bleed", yet nobody on stage appears to be performing them so the band must be using a backing track for some things....
Far into the set, they toss in a different vocalist for the song "The War Ain't Over", and the following four songs. The guy looks - and sounds - like some creepy dude you'd see sitting at the bar in a truck stop. He's also got a bit of Barney from The Simpsons in him, and a touch of Horrible Gelatinous Blob from Futurama; indeed, a very comical dude all around. His performance isn't nearly as good as the vocalist who had been performing previously... Luckily, that fellow returns on "Noose" by which time the entire set is more than half over. It's a really great set with plenty of material from the band's history, though the profanity used throughout is a bit dissapointing. It's sad to see Sentenced quitting after only releasing 8 full-length albums... I can think of many bands who have released that many albums and have not yet quit but probably should. Sentenced truly has been Buried Alive...
The video quality on the second disc matches that of the main show, and even starts out the same! The band carries the casket around yet again, this time around a snowy street while people stare on and one girl even giggles at them mirthfully. Then all of the bandmembers attempt to get inside of this casket, and it is too small for all of them! One of the guys even says, 'You couldn't even bury me in this!' to which one of the other folks suggests, 'Cremation....'. It's hard to tell who is actually talking, as they're all speaking a different language. Luckily, it is all subtitled in English! The guys laugh and joke around with each other which makes the news of the death even harder to believe; they seemed so happy during the filming of this material. I can imagine they probably get pretty fatigued carrying that coffin everywhere. When they can't walk with it anymore due to lack of land, they put it in a large canoe and the band is pulled by a boat while sitting tiredly with this coffin. The quality of the included music videos varies from which time period it came from, the older ones being a bit softer and a tad bit blurry. All of this stuff is extremely cool, so much so that it may be the best DVD pack of the year and will definitely make a great Christmas present! It's definitely one of the most polished musical DVD sets I've ever seen.
9.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Sentenced Website
Official Century Media Records Website
