review by: ~Eternus~

Recorded back in December, 2001, in Bitterfeld, Germany, this, Krieg's first official live CD, was a mandatory purchase for me, having liked all of Krieg's studio recordings thus far. Here we are presented with seven tracks all taken from various releases, beginning with an intro that was also the intro to The Black Plague album, and continuing with some of my favourite Krieg tracks such as "Coldwind Flame" and "End of Time."

I have two main problems with this CD: the first is that it's a soundboard recording, which kind of gets to me as I think it's good to hear the crowd and have band/crowd interaction, providing of course the music is clearly audible too. Second, Lord Imperials vocals don't come across nearly as well live as they do on CD; He growls his way through all the songs with very little variation in his vocals. Occasionally he screams, but his voice sounds strained and not commanding enough to pull it off as well as it could have been done. Having said that, Krieg do play exceptionally well, or rather the assembled session musicians do, particularly Butcher, who is exceptional at drumming. The pace rarely lets up, except on the occasional simple riff change, but mostly the pace is furious. The last track is a cover of a Von song called "Satanic Blood."

Overall, this isn't a bad effort. I've certainly heard much worse, and it beats the majority of bootlegs I've heard; it just seems to lack that extra something to make it essential to Krieg fans. (5.5/10)