I thought I'd throw my two cents in about this DVD, as I bought it earlier this week. I've checked out pretty much everything on it so far.
My overall impression is extremely positive, well worthy addition to my expanding music DVD collection. The obvious positives worth mentioning: TONS of content--you won't easily get through everything on here quickly. Because of this it has a high degree of replay value. The main concert DVD itself (DVD #1) is filmed in an absolutely stunning venue, the camera work is top notch and professional. Even the crowd and light work is done very well, which is not always the case on metal DVDs. The band has great stage presence which is crucial for a live DVD.. they look excited and hungry through each track. The addition of the on-stage chorus and string quartet is classy as hell and much appreciated.. it added heavily to the overall vibe.
The second DVD, which contains all the bonuses (videos, backstage footage, interviews..) has it's moments of greatness and everyone should be very appreciative that the band is so open in sharing as much material as they do--they don't hide who they are (which means being quite dorky and goofy..) and that demands respect from me. No false bullshit attitudes.
To bitch a little--it seems like there was /so much/ bonus footage that the band or those working on the DVD had to sift through that they really rushed everything together. The prime example is that the band talks in Swedish most of the time, so there was a need for subtitles. Well, the subtitles are hard coded on the video and done in a very amateur way. The size of the font used changes constantly (many times so small you can NOT read it), many things are not translated, there are typo's like fucking hell, some of the text runs OFF the screen, some doesn't stay on long enough to be properly read. That's frustrating. I wish more time was spent error-checking the subtitles and that they were done properly as an option in the menu so they'd display properly and consistently throughout. Also much of the footage is understandably amateur (shooting the band members with bright windows/lights behind them so you can't see a thing for extended periods of time)--and some of the editing (playing things in fast forward, replaying a dorky face a member makes over and over and over) are really just annoying to me. Although I admit that kind of goofy shit is common on metal DVDs.. I just don't particularly like it. Those are minor complaints however. OK I'll stop my bitching there.
OH--and excellent packaging on the DVD as well.
Congrats Evergrey--and thanks sharing all these video content spanning so many years. I wish more and more bands did this.. we certainly would like to share something like this in the future as well..