Mayhem - European Legions Live at Marseille

Rating:
Summary: Not Too Bad...but...
Review: Mayhem is a band like no other. Thier music is heavy and frantic but very listenable for a black metal band. If you are familiar with Mayhem, you know their history. I knew the band's history when I bought this DVD. I was expecting a very crazy show but it wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be. Maniac is one of black metal's best screamers but he is somewhat boring on stage. This was the first live footage I had seen of the band so I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would have been a little more wild. The rest of the band, however, was a delight to the eyes and ears because they played very well. The sound and picture is great and the DVD has a couple of extras. Personally, I like this DVD and if you are a fan you will too. I just wish Maniac was more charasmatic. He sounded great but I think he needs to take a couple lessons in fronting a band. I suggest that he watches some footage of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and Cronos of Venom. Statues are not fun to look at for to long. Maniac needs to loosen up! He needs to get the crowd going! The DVD is worth buying for hardcore heavy metal heads. Mayhem is a classic act and one of a kind. The musicianship in this band goes beyond a lot of other black metal bands.

Rating:
Summary: Mayhem ... ALIVE !
Review: First of all i have to say that i highly recommend this DVD.this one of the greatest live shows i have ever seen.you can see all the band members playing alive!
they play very well ,almost like the tracks you hear in their cds. blasphemer ROKCS.this DVD also includes an interview part.there is also a part witch you can see a fan that asks maniac to put an autogram on her hand with a blade ! pretty Bloody!during the show you see some wild stuff like : Maniac cutting himself ...a big cutted pig head in the middle of the stage and ...
in this DVD you can see what a maniac ,Maniac really is !!!

Rating:
Summary: Good and bad and funny
Review: I enjoyed this DVD. I enjoy Mayhem's music and they sound great live, so I enjoyed that. They are more interesting live than say, Dimmu Borgir (BORING!), but aren't too wild. The problem is...they are very very cheesy. I don't take any thing too seriously, so I was able to laugh in stride, but other more...let's call them metalhead...fans might not be able to do so. In all reality, they'd probably think all the things I laughed at were down right cool, but if you ask me, Maniac acts like he's seen one to many Kiss concerts. He makes so many goofy 'evil' faces and devil horns with his hands that I couldn't control my laughter. For the most part, he's very tame, though, marching around stage like any other singer really, but cutting him self from time to time on the barbed wire on his mic stand. He also stabs a pigs head, which he later throws into the crowd. I thought that was pretty cool. The bassist, Necrobutcher, is pretty funny too, but from what I understand, he's the funny one of the group, so it makes sense. He makes a lot of silly faces like Maniac, but he doesn't appear to be serious. He just seems to be having a good time. He also jumps around wildly every time he does a solo. I found that very amusing. Hellhammer was pretty dissapointing. He's so good at what he does, he makes it look way too easy. I was really excited to finally see the great drummer play, and he's good, but he blasts out his frantic beats with such ease it left me a little bored.

The bonus footage is fun. The short behind-the-stage stuff is...interesting. Necrobutcher summed it up perfectly when he said "and on top of every thing, we cut beautiful women." The interviews are good as well. Maniac isn't as pompus he appears on stage, but he isn't totaly humble either. He says a few interesting things, and a few funny and uber Black Metal things, too. Every one seems very tired of comments over the suicide and murder, but who can blame them? Blasphemer seem's the most agitated on the topic, and also the most full of himself.

All in all, it's good audio, good video and at the least, a humorous performance. I think any fan of Mayhem would enjoy this DVD, weather they take their music totally seriously or not.

Rating:
Summary: Boring annoying ear ache of a DVD
Review: This band is not fun to watch, and not fun to listen to. I have to be fair and say I was not a fan prior to buying the DVD, however I like a wide range of black metal bands like Cradle of filth, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, old mans child.
Everyone mentions how good the sound is, I didn't think so. The music is over the singer, the singer has a harsh foreign accent, and the singer screams like a girl. You combined all these elments together and what your left with is an indecipherable mess. The musicians also make no effort to move around, the singer is boring. The quality is ok, but its very bootleg and not up to current DVD standards. I am giving it an extra star for production, because I have seen much worse DVD's coming from underground bands (ex: bad luck 13) with much worse picture and sound. This is a very average DVD. Hohum...good thing I found a way to get a good trade in on it.