December 31, 2008.

Lacuna Coil : "Visual Karma (Body, Mind and Soul).

Rating: 4
I've seen LC twice over the last couple of years, once inside a small venue about ten feet away from them, which was incredible, and once at Ozzfest about 100 yards away from the stage. Needless to say, the live offering at Ozzfest was kind of weak in my opinion, I didn't feel as if they were prepared for taking on the so called "big stage"...

My how they have grown!! Let me tell you, they handled Wacken like it was taking place in their own backyard!! I wasn't a huge fan of the setlist here, {because Karmacode is my least favorite release}, but I must say that in a live setting, those songs come over very strong, and work very well for them here. They manage to maintain a high level of power throughout the set, and they keep the crowd involved as well. All in all, I was very impressed with this performance. They look / sound great, and on a stage as big as Wacken, they took it by the horns!!...

Cristina really shines live!!! She's the coolest Metal chick I've ever seen since Doro came along in 80's...

The 2nd DVD isn't what I was hoping for. I wanted to see more footage of the band enjoying life on the road, and behind the scenes, that's not really here in any of it's raw stages / forms. It seems like this 2nd DVD was just thrown together last minute as a small bonus. They didn't need it in my opinion....

4 STARS - Finally!!! A LACUNA COIL LIVE DVD!!!!....

December 29, 2008.

Ehhhhh...great show but for some reason I'm not obsessed.

Rating: 4
Standard practice for me with concert DVD's is to watch it about a billion times till it makes me sick. In other words, I obsess, cuz its that good. Now don't get me wrong I love Lacuna Coil, they're the first band I ever saw live, and they also put on a great show. The DVD is great too, good concerts, great set lists. I don't know why, but for some reason I haven't even been able to force myself to watch it a second time. I do strongly recommend it for all fans though, I did enjoy watching it a lot, but the experience was somewhat lacking. ehhh...

December 10, 2008.

Great DVD.

Rating: 5
Both Wacken and LoudPark performances are non-stop pleasure. Great dynamics and drive, great sound, great camera angles. Cristina absolutely owns the crowd. I like her and Andy voices interplay. They show CriZ at work on drums quite a bit - very nice. I really liked their more aggressive but precise Senzafine live version, and now I have HalfLife back in my car.
Second DVD - Cristina movie is the best - her voice in Rezophonic is great (and probably the best part) and is different from LC. Is it a glimpse into the style of their 09 album?
They were doing live show in my town 2 years ago and I didn't know about them then - I feel like such an idiot - hope for their 09 tour will pass close by.

One of the best bands performing today - live or in studio.
Buy, no question.

December 09, 2008.

Great Live Concert DVD.

Rating: 4
This DVD set (2)is a retrospective of all things from the band's "Karmacode" album cycle. The main DVD features concerts filmed at Germany's Wacken Festival (2007) and at the Japanese Loudpark Festival (2007). It also includes 4 videos from the Karmacode album namely (1)Our Truth; (2) Enjoy the Silence; (3) Closer; and (4) Within Me.

The Concert listing is as follows

Wacken 2007:
"Intro"
"To the Edge"
"Fragments of Faith"
"Swamped"
"In Visible Light"
"Fragile"
"Closer"
"Senzafine"
"What I See"
"Enjoy the Silence"
"Heaven's a Lie"
"Our Truth"

Loudpark 2007:
" Intro/To the Edge"
"Swamped"
"Closer"
"Within Me"
"Daylight Dancer"
"Our Truth"

The live stuff is an absolute killer and consists mostly of the popular stuff. The band sounds tight and Cristina and Andrea sound great. The movie is not edited too much (unlike some other DVDs where the camera moves from one shot to another ad nauseum) and gives you a feel of being right there.

The bonus DVD is ok. It has a few band-related clips shot by the respective band-members themselves using camcorders. They range from tours around Milan (Andrea) to discussing their hobbies (Criz). Honestly, I found them all to be boring except for Christina's. The making of videos features could have been better if it had some commentary by the band. Also I would have loved to see all the older videos...swamped, heaven's a lie etc.

But overall, well worth the money.