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Fields Of The Nephilim

2012-03-03
Titel / Title Ceremonies 
Label EMI 
Web www.fields-of-the-nephilim.com
 
Gesamtspielzeit
Total run time
CD1 53:00, CD2 55:00 
Vö/Release5.3.2012 

Many fans have been waiting for this one - Fields of the Nephilim live, and from an era that begins with the numbers "20-" ... all those other releases do have their status in music history already, not only because of their release dates. The real “living legend” in the Goth/Dark Wave / Dark Rock genre has always been this formation around mastermind/singer Carl McCoy, and not “those others”, ya know...

And to make one thing clear right away – here you get indeed value for money. A double CD plus DVD (which will be reviewed later) for the price of a “normal” CD. The other aspect is the song selection, a Best-Of that brings tears of joy into the eyes of fans - "Psychonaut" and – hold-your-breath - "Celebrate", the most brilliant and evil “ballad” on this planet/in this universe, in my opinion, for the first time in live-version... what can I say, it´s X-mas, Eastern, birthday and Vappu celebrated all at once :D

Apropos celebration – for those who want to become fans and/or make up for the huge mistake not to know the band yet: the title of this package is no coincidence... CD1 features younger songs and introduces with the sinister “Shroud”a certain mystic-mysterious atmosphere (which also works nicely even in bright daylight, as witnessed at M´era Luna and Tuska-Festival), and even summer heat does not prevent you from gooseflesh attacks when hearing From The Fire or Shine. It´s a pity that Penetration and Trees Come Down are a bit weak on the riff-side, but that is probably the price to pay for getting this clear brilliant sound, you can even understand the lyrics. However, it´s exactly those songs that underline Carl´s charisma as magic singer / master of ceremonies, who displays this raw power no matter if clear /clean, extremely low register (Pete Steele and others might have learned from him) or growls. Moreover, he still looks pretty much the same as “back then” - incredible... One big flaw of the ancient “Visionary Heads” live release - the vocals way too distorted + “in the background” - was not repeated. Wail of Sumer, And There Will Your Heart be have this ceremony appeal, songs that beam you to the Cthulhu parallel universe – just like the already mentioned classic Psychonaut as final track.

Which is a nice transition to CD2, which focuses on old stuff, introduced by the legendary Ennio Morricone Harmonica Man. Preacher Man, Moonchild are the classics not to be missed at Fields-gigs, but the following tracks with e.g. Requiem or Xiberia come as surprise – well, it´s high time that such a great song like Mourning Sun received a proper live-treatment. As well as Celebrate – mentioned above... Zoon also features some disharmonics, but that shows it´s indeed a live recording and not studio-magic – which makes this release even more appealing.

In short: epic, brilliant, important, a MUST-HAVE.

CD 1: Ad Mortem
1        Shroud
2        Straight To The Light
3        From The Fire
4        Penetration
5        Shine
6        Wail Of Sumer
7        And There Will Your Heart Be Also
8        Trees Come Down
9        Psychonaut

CD 2: Ad Vitam    
1        Intro (Harmonica Man)
2        Preacher Man
3        Moonchild
4        Requiem
5        Xiberia
6        Zoon (Wakeworld)
7        Mourning Sun
8        Celebrate

DVD:            
1        Shroud
2        Straight To The Light
3        From The Fire
4        Penetration
5        Wail Of Sumer
6        And There Will Your Heart Be Also
7        Trees Come Down
8        Moonchild
9        Psychonaut
10      Mourning Sun

Klaudia Weber


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