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Amorphis – Forging the land of a Thousand Lakes (2010)

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Celebrating the band’s 20 year anniversary we finally get a live DVD from Amorphis, one of the best Metal bands to come out of Finland. And not only do we get one show, we get two full shows in a lush DVD/CD package (in the Deluxe edition). The shows presented on this DVD are a 2009 show from Oulu, and their Summer Breeze 09 performance, clocking over 150 minutes of pure unadulterated Amorphis.

If you never seen Amorphis live, you will be quickly hooked on the amazing energy and chemistry they present on stage. Tomi Joutsen helped the band come back from the dead (for some fans) with their 2006 masterpiece Eclipse, after a lackluster “Far From the Sun” and their terrible previous singer Pasi Koskinen.

Arch Enemy – Tyrants Of The Rising Sun - Live In Japan (2008)

While I’m not a big fan of Arch Enemy because I think their vocals are pretty bad, I do have to admit that they can put one hell of a live show, and this DVD is evidence of that.
The following list is the set list performed during the recorded presentation:
Drawn And Quartered – Assault Of Evil (2009)

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Drawn And Quartered for those of you who don’t know are a Death Metal band from the USA that focus on playing traditional Death Metal and they do a very good job at it.

“Assault Of Evil” was recorded during the 2008 tour of the USA, the main show on the DVD was filmed in Settle and Tacoma, WA. The best part of this DVD is that it features over 24 extra ‘bootleg’ tracks from other 4 different shows, as well as 3 of the band’s music videos.

Nightwish – Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places) (2009)

The DVD part of this release, features a documentary about the band on the road during their tour for "Dark Passion Play" and it's a must have for die hard fans of the band since they show an 'inside' look at the band. The documentary features Tuomas point of view for 90% of the time, it would have been nice to have other band members talk more.
Suicidal Tendencies - Live at the Olympic Auditorium (2010)

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Having an impressive career spanning almost 30 years (including the three ‘breaks’ the band has taken) Suicidal Tendencies are one of the most recognized names in Crossover / Trash Metal, and are considered by many the fathers of this genre.

The band did not start in this genre, but they made their start playing Punk and evolved into one of the most influential bands in the early Crossover scene. We have hear the band’s releases for years and while never getting completely into them, until you get to see them live.

Turisas - A Finnish Summer With Turisas (2008)

This DVD does a great job capturing the intensity of this band while performing live. Taking songs from several different perfomances, this DVD will make you want to see this band live. The costumes and stage makeup is great and provides an authentic feeling to this bands music. Century Media also included english subtitles during the performances so we can understand what they are saying (this is one thing that is neglected in many live DVD's that I've seen over the years).
Various Artists - Hellfest Open Air 2008 Live (2008)

I just received my DVD on the mail a few day ago since it took almost 1 month to get from France to the USA, but anyways, I was pretty anxious to pop it on my DVD player, which by the way the DVD says is region free, but PAL format, however my regular DVD player played it to perfection, so you don’t have to worry about it. The DVD contains the following recorded performances listed by day:
Within Temptation - Black Symphony (2008)

This in my opinion was the live DVD of the year (2008), it was recorded at a concert at Rotterdam's Ahoy Arena sold out months in advance. The band performed for 10,000 or so fans with the full Metropole Orchestra a classical choir, and with Sharon changing into several costumes.

I have previously watched the older Within Temptation live dvd’s and they don’t hold a candle to this one, production or content wise. The set list was as follows: