Review by Carl on May 4, 2026.

Geez, that is some ugly-ass cover artwork. It looks as if the opening credits to the first Star Wars film got drunk and were then banged by the layout of "Kiss Alive II", and this is the unfortunate offspring of that inebriated game of 'hide the salami'. We all know that one of the books and its cover, so how does that hold up here? Let's dig in and find out.

It's off to a rocky start with New Zealand's Demoniac, who deliver a serving of blackened thrash metal, or at least that is what I make of it, because the sound here is atrocious. It instantly becomes abundantly clear that the band indeed does feature a vocalist and a drummer, because that's pretty much all that comes through here. Well, that, and the thinnest slice of guitar sandwiched in between the raw screaming and clattering percussion. I only have their debut album on the shelf here, and that one doesn't sound quite like what I hear on here. Where "Prepare for War" was pretty run-of-the-mill fast black metal, the tracks featured here have more of a thrash vibe in the vein of the early works of Bathory and Destruction, going, at least for as far as I can make out. The bit of guitar I make out is indeed pretty thrash-infused, with the screeching vocals and straightforward velocity providing the black metal angle. Because of the meagre sound quality and iffy playing at times, everything comes across as pretty unfocused and messy, and thus falls into that lamentable category of 'the bad kind of chaotic'. Nah, I don't care about this at all.

Up next, it's Dellamorte delivering their brand of crustcore meets old school Swedish death metal, and they do it with conviction and gusto, even if the sound is, again, of questionable quality. The band's Anti-Cimex-meets-early Dismember (or Uncurbed-meets-early Entombed, early Disfear-meets-Desultory, you get what I mean, right?) attack sounds pretty raw, with the vocals and percussion again pushing the guitars into the background, although not as dramatically as with Demoniac's part. It has to be said that Dellamorte's style is one that actually benefits somewhat from the unpolished sound, and despite the guitars playing second fiddle throughout, the band's music does manage to emanate some of that primitive and savage power this simple kind of death-flecked punk metal simply needs to. The rough, roaring vocals do balance a bit on that fine line between gruff and out of tune at times, and more guitar would certainly not have hurt dealings here, but I can dig this for sure, surely more than what Demoniac had to offer. Dellamorte offers us a burly dose of crude and certainly unrefined metallic hardcore punk/thrash, heavy on effectively simple riffing, roughly barked vocals and straight-forward pummeling percussion, which is something that always manages to pull my heartstrings just right.

The following band to follow is Swordmaster, a grouping of (then) youngsters who combined Swedish black metal-isms with big chunks of Kreator-like thrash, making for a pretty riveting concoction. The band alternates tremelo-picked, blastbeat-driven velocity with more intricate, old-school thrash-fueled riffing and hints of Dissection-like melody and solos, neatly topped off with a raw-throated vocal approach. Yet again, the sound quality isn't all that, but the curve seems to be rising somewhat. As before, the vocals are very up front, but the guitars are more audible throughout, which in Swordmaster's case is certainly no bad thing, being the thing that drives their black/thrash forward after all. Although they seem to be plagued by feedback monitors and the occasional fumble here and there, the band really sells what they're doing, reminding me that I need to put on their "Postmortem Tales" debut more often, because these guys were a truly great band. Too bad that this doesn't shine through to the fullest on this recording due to the unbalanced sound mix and pretty thin recording quality.

From there, it's on to Bewitched, the first band on this live compilation that I don't really know all that well, apart from some samples here and there on the net. They were a band that was really ahead of its time by being way behind the times in the 90's, if you catch what I mean. What all these retro speed/black/thrash/... bands of today are trying to do, and are doing, Bewitched did almost 30 years ago. That being said, I never really got into them, honestly. They always sounded too controlled and nice to my taste. In their music, these guys nodded to the glorious 80's and the bands populating the metal scene back then, such as Venom, Whiplash, Destructor and early Bathory. There's lots of speedy guitar riffing and straightforward pummeling percussion involved in the simple yet very effective songs the band has on offer, with a raw-throated demon dog vomiting the vocals on top of that. Throw in some pointy guitar leads and hook-filled choruses, and there you have it: blackened speed metal attack galore! The raw live sound gives these energetic recordings a suitable old-school vibe, upping the nostalgia vibes significantly. Because of these raucous live tracks, I decided to give Bewitched's studio material another go, and ... I still didn't care all that much for those. Guess I'll have to keep it to these live tracks then. Which are damn awesome, in case I wasn't clear enough.

A switch of discs later, double CD, you know, and we have arrived with the two bands that were the headliners of the whole World Domination shebang back then in 1998 (I think), with Enslaved opening up proceedings here on disc 2. Now, when I was 14 years old, Enslaved's "Frost" album was, together with Immortal's "Battles in the North", the absolute pinnacle of the Norwegian black metal back then, for me personally. It was also the most recent Enslaved release I owned until very recently, when I decided to give "Eld" a go, and I wasn't disappointed. Good thing that I did, because the four offerings Enslaved have going here are from those two releases. Yay.

As before, and I'm getting a bit tired of typing it, the sound is pretty raw, which, in the case of a fast-ass band like Enslaved, was back then; this sounds a bit odd here. The atmospheric instrumentation from the CDs is missing, the guitars sound kinda thin, and the screaming vocals are pretty much centre stage. It makes a band so reliant on tremelo-picked, blastbeat propelled velocity sound kinda chaotic in places, not helped by the at times sloppy transitions by the musicians. Despite these shortcomings, the performance itself actually rocks pretty hard, even if the, for Enslaved, so important, atmospherics are missing. The band ploughs through their tracks with lethal amounts of gusto, making me remember exactly why I loved their early stuff so much, even if I had to listen twice to some of the versions here to make out where the band was in the music. Kudos to the rabidly hammering drummer, by the way. He may miss some of his beats and tempo changes, but the dude goes like a jackhammer on a sewer cover in the fast parts, making the music ooze this demented kind of energy throughout, which is so friggin' awesome! I can dig these live recordings for sure, especially when viewed as alternative versions to the studio ones, and that frenzied energy that Enslaved emanates here, that simply can't be beat.

And so we get to the stars of that one evening in 1998, and the second band I have only the merest knowledge of, Dark Tranquillity. These guys were part of that whole 90's melodic death metal thing, which honestly is why I've never bothered with them. Sure, from what I hear on these recordings, these guys nail everything in glamorous fashion, doing this with near spotless execution, but still, this style is something that never attracted me. Here, the band goes through a style of death metal with influences of melodic black metal and ye olde heavy metal, alternating speedy sections with more mid-tempo ones, sprinkling around solos, sweeps and precise riffing throughout. Musicianship is spot-on, providing a solid base for the gruff vocals to play out on, and I couldn't care less, you know. I'm not going to say that this is bad, which it certainly isn't; it just does nothing for me. Especially not when oddly experimental passages such as the hollering vocals and the plinky-ploinky parts in "Punish My Heaven" or "Insanity's Crescendo" come sailing around the corner. Yeah, these guys are just too, well ... musical for me. Ironically, this is the only band where the sound quality is actually on the agreeable side, showing for the first time something of a (fragile) balance between the different instruments. Oh well ...

In the end, I have to admit that, despite its flaws, this is an interesting collection of live recordings. The sound is kinda mediocre for most part, with one leaning over to outright bad (guess who!!), but even then, this album sounds like a lot of fun was had that evening, and you can hear that vibe on this collection, and if you happened to be there that night, chances are that this one holds way more value to you than it does for me, probably. Viewed as simply a collection of live songs, I guess that this one is primarily interesting for those who are into (some of) the acts involved, because the quality offered here is just that bit too shaky to add a lot of value to what was already out there of the participating band's output. As is the case with a lot of live albums, now that I'm thinking about it.

Rating: 7 out of 10