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Dismember: Under blood red skies (DVD)

23/07/09 || Lord K Philipson

First of all, lemme tell you that this feature was initially meant to go up sometime in mid-August, simply becoz the writers on staff have made sure we have updates covered until then. Apparently something happened since it’s up now, huh? Well, hear me out, you Almighty Drinker Of Man-Piss, when the people behind the label itself actually beg us to put it up asap (becoz the DVD was just released), along with sending thousand dollar bills and used condoms, who are we to not come to the rescue? Sorry to whomever’s review got delayed a month since I had to switch places with it, but seriously – this is MY site and I do shit as I see fit. That, and I love my staff. Go fuck yourself. Not the staff – you.

So, let’s get to it, shall we?

I love the fuckers at Regain Records. They send absolute quality shit to us every now and then and I definitely believe it’s one of the strongest labels in the world of metal. Now they decided to ship Dismember’s latest DVD our way and this is no exception, “Under blood red skies” is a quality effort by all means and a must for anyone into these long-lived death metallers. From the hideously ugly/beautiful cover that reeks of death metal intoxication, to the ending footage of snoring people/bums – Dismember’s put together a fine fucken piece of what Dismember’s all about; fun, death metal and partying.

Not necessarily in that specific order, though.

On the first of these 2 discs we are granted a 2008 concert from the Party San Festival, held in Germany. We all know that Dismember’s a fucken killer live act who really seem to enjoy themselves on stage. We are not watching Slipknot here so don’t expect a tremendous visual live experience with a blazing lightshow or stage props that will make your jaw drop. Nah, but do expect an unhealthy amount of headbanging and synchronized formations of the rhythm section a’la Iron Maiden. Dismember move around quite well on stage (guitarist David winning the trophy for moving around the most – as well as the trophy for most interesting hairdo, with good competition from drummer Thomas) and though they are “just” a regular death metal band it’s not completely boring to watch them perform their tunes. We get the occasional pyro to spice things up but it doesn’t get more interesting than that. Still they pull off a great show (overdubs and whatnot included) and both the sound and picture leave little to complain about. I’m not the biggest Dismember fan out there, nor were I ever – but I absolutely applaud a band who’ve so stubbornly refused to change their style of music one fucken bit over the last 20 years or so. That’s how you keep credibility in the scene. They deserve it.

It amazes me how much better Dismember sound with “new” guy Thomas on drums. Fred sure was a huge part of Dismember being the main songwriter and founding member, but a fantastic drummer he was not. Thomas makes Dismember sound tighter than ever and he fires off some nice fills and keeps the timing. Good work, kid.

One thing that I’d like to see more of on this live show is greater interaction between Matti Kärki and the crowd. Basically just introducing the titles to the next tune all the time is not the most interesting concept out there. Alot of bands suffer from this disease, then again – maybe it’s the music that counts after all? I disagree. On an album – yes. In a live situation – no. These complaints aside, the live section of the DVD is fine and renders This Member a score of 7,5 out of 10.

The highlight of this DVD is the second part though, the “Death metal and more mental illness” disc. Here we get professionally filmed interviews with all the members and the cutting between them is ace – everyone comes forth to speak their mind about everything and nothing Dismember. The editing makes it feel like this is a band with no natural leader – they are a unit. Nice work on that, whoever cut this shit together. We get to hear about the bad luck that seems to follow Dismember, and still they keep going. Are you interested in how to achieve that special Dismember guitar tone? Watch this DVD as they explain the “mystery”. Wanna see the guys headbang out of the blue together with Trey Azagsnaggletooth as well as with statues and sculptures of elks, bulls, penises, Wayne Gretzky and whatnot? You have that too. You also get to see Matti putting down vocals in his underwear. A sight for sore eyes. There’s a bit of coverage about the “Masters of Death” tour that happened some years ago as well, and since I pretty much know each and every one of those involved in that tour I can just imagine how fucken much of a blast it must have been, no matter the shit organization.

Dismember, fucko Then there are the usual video cam clips from various gigs (and you all know how fucken interesting those are since the sound always suck) and more goodies that any Dismember fan will appreciate. Most memorable scenes: All the Gothenburg inside jokes and the one scene where 2 of the Dis-members play around with some stage props belonging to Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, accidentally destroys some of it and gets a furious faggy-looking member of that band half-running to them in a very Hitler-ish manner with his guitar strapped on him, yelling at them. Hahaha… Ace scene.

The guys all come across as very laid back fuckos with a complete love for what they do. They apparently don’t see themselves as legendary (or old) nor better than anyone else – and this attitude is a nice break from all ego-posts by Dave Mustaine on Blabbermouth. I think we will see Dismember continue to hand out their special brand of death metal for many years to come. I absolutely don’t mind one fucken bit.

Overall, this DVD gets a well-deserved:

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Regain Records
Website: Dismember MySpace
Band
Matti Kärki: vocals
David Blomqvist: guitars
Martin Persson: guitars
Tobias Christiansson: bass
Thomas Daun: drums

Party San 2008 setlist
Disc 1:
01. Stillborn ways
02. Death conquers all
03. Skinfather
04. Dark depths
05. Life – another shape of sorrow
06. Forged with hate
07. Under a bloodred sky
08. Override of the overture
09. Soon to be dead
10. Bleed for me
11. And so is life
12. Dismembered
13. Skin her alive
14. Sickening art
15. In death’s sleep
Disc 2:
Death metal and more mental illness (documentary)

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