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Band: Fields Of The Nephilim
Album: Ceremonies [Live]
Release date: 9 April 2012
Label: Transcend Music Group
Tracklisting:
Disc I [Ad Mortem]
01. Shroud
02. Straight To The Light
03. From The Fire
04. Penetration
05. Shine
06. Wail Of Sumer
07. And There Will Be Your Heart Also
08. Trees Come Down
09. Psychonaut
Disc II [Ad Vitam]
01. Intro (Harmonica Man) [Ennio Morricone cover]
02. Preacher Man
03. Moonchild
04. Requiem
05. Xiberia
06. Zoon (Wakeworld)
07. Mourning Sun
08. Celebrate
Disc III [DVD]
01. Shroud
02. Straight To The Light
03. From The Fire
04. Penetration
05. Wail Of Sumer
06. And There Will Be Your Heart Also
07. Trees Come Down
08. Moonchild
09. Psychonaut
10. Mourning Sun
It's difficult to write something new about this truly legendary band. Beside that they influenced and given inspiration to countless bands from many different genres, Fields Of The Nephilim are also known for their impressive live sets, which a lot of people claim to be among the best live performances ever, and Ceremonies is the testimony of their live performance. Carl McCoy, the main figure in the band with his iconic occurrence and one of those people that are most appreciated in goth fields beside Andrew Eldritch, Robert Smith, Peter Murphy and some others who were responsible for the evolution of the genre since early 80's till now, but McCoy is absolutely the most respected among those also outside the gothic terms, as it be in metal or industrial fields, even if he's not so popular as Smith for example.
Ceremonies shows the band in magnificient form and it's one of those live recordings that deserves a special place in your collection. It's divided into two parts: Ad Morten and Ad Vitam, it contains live recordings from their 2008 shows in Shepherd’s Bush Empire (London) one performed on 12 July and the second day after. I believe that it was quite a lot of work to make a right mastering and post production that it took almost four years since the material was recorded, but it was worth! Double CD and DVD consists of the songs from their whole discography and it's really enjoyable to hear the songs from 1984 like "Trees Come Down" or from their first full lenght Dawnrazor released in 1987 "Preacher Man", going through classic gothic rock hits like "Moonchild" or "Psychonaut", sounding the same as "Straight To The Light" or "Xiberia" from Mourning Sun released in 2005. We can witness the timelesness of those songs Fields Of The Nephilim made throughout their long career. Once you get emerged into the special atmosphere of epic ambiental combo "Wail Of Summer"/"And There Will Your Heart Be" or similar in mood trans rendering "Requiem" you can just wish to be present on that show, that's even more vital when "Penetration" strucks with it's full force or perhaps when transcendental "Mourning Sun" takes you with it's flow. There is nothing to add about the song selection, of course, anybody could find some that weren't featured and we can wish to be (in my case "She" from Mourning Sun or "Love Under Will" and "The Watchman" from The Nephilim), but what the heck, as in that case we could have four or five cd's. McCoy shows that his voice hasn't lost anything of it's depth and charming addictive hypnotic hoarsing tone, also all other instruments sound fantastic, almost like on their last studio effort Mourning Sun with obvious live additions. Truly an epic live recording of 17 tracks plus on some special releases bonus of classic atmospheric highlight from The Nephilim album "Last Exit For The Lost". The DVD on the other side contains visual testimony of what was going on, but not with all songs featured on CDs as it contains only 10 of them. I was little sad because of this, but in a way I can understand why, cause I don't know who would like to watch constantly those shirtless guys making the crowd surfing being lifted up by bunch of other guys, sometimes forming the real piramide, although this is kind of unique thing on their shows is kind of distracting in this case.
Anyway, Ceremonies is the prime live testimony of one of the best bands around and it's an absolute must for all the fans to have this product on their shelfs. I have eased my impatience while waiting for a new studio recording from Carl McCoy and co. with this and so I consider to you all.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 9/10
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