The DVD is by the Malaysian band ChthoniC, of which I also wrote an album review earlier. This DVD is entitled A Decade On The Throne, and that title is in my humble opinion quite suitable, because I don’t know of any other black metal bands in that part of the world, so logically they would hold their throne… This DVD consists of 1 DVD and 1 CD, which holds the audio tracks for A Decade On The Throne.

 

Enough mindless banter then, lets start with the artwork:

 

A black cradle, made of some kind of papyrus material and a lot of fancy crap. Red surroundings with Asian writings and the band logo and title of the DVD. It looks very black and very decent. The DVD unfolds like some kind of book, filled with kick ass live photos showing Asian people in corpse paint, in front of quite a large crowd. A lot of Asian gibbering is inside the cover art, which totally does not make ANY sense to me. It would be nice to have an English translation, but sadly, that part is missing. The only thing that actually is translated are the song titles. Well, except for the fact that I do not speak Malaysian, the artwork looks incredibly well done.

 

Graphics:

 

When I start the DVD I have the option to watch the entire show, or song select a part of the DVD. I chose the first, and am greeted with some incredibly ugly Asian dudes with a lot of leather and spikes, playing some superbly sounding tunes, which reminded me to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. I don’t care what people say about Cradle of Filth, but for me that was the first ‘Black’ metal I heard, and I was impressed by the vocal range of Dani Filth. This vocalist tries to do the same, but doesn’t have the live conviction to bring it the same. Nonetheless, he is doing an excellent job, and the audience seems to enjoy it too. The one thing is that there is a very nice looking woman on the bass guitar, and a dude playing some kind of electrical harp. Owh, and the chick does some vocals too! Now, the quality of the graphics is not bad and well selected. Frames aren’t blurry, all with all I like this!

 

Sound:

 

Yes, the sound. The most important factor for me on a live DVD, because I can’t really imagine anything with Graphics alone. I said earlier that this band reminded me to our European acts Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth. It would be suffice to say that Chthonic is the Asian version of those 2 bands. The quality of the sound is superb as well and doesn’t sound distorted when played loud. The mixing is fine, but I do not really believe the actual audio is recorded at the same gig. I think it’s the studio track that is thrown in montage with the visuals. Nevertheless, it does not do anything for the fun of viewing.

 

This DVD is somewhat narrowed, there are no bonus features and the only thing that you get beside the CD is a full live concert. The audio and video are totally alright, and nothing to add to that. The only minor discrepancy about this DVD is that there is absolutely no translation of the biography or anything else, except the song titles. Well, maybe it is enough all the same. True black metal fans perhaps will despise it, but the more commercial tended listeners will find this a nice collection. It certainly looks nice in your DVD-rack.