Paradise Lost - The Anatomy of Melancholy (DVD)

As the band is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, this is the perfect point in time to release this recording. It is entitled ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy’ and is available in several formats. The edition I received contains both the 2 DVDs and the 2 CDs containing the concert. Already the packaging is way beyond the ordinary and comes embalmed in a precious digi book. The artwork was again designed by the Greek artist Seth, who also created the illustrations for ‘In Requiem’. The figure on the front cover seems to be an abstract form of an anatomic model with two faces, maybe to visualize, the melancholy’s more than just one facet. If we fold out the digi, there’s a b/w picture showing the band at the concert. I think the decision not to use a coloured one instead was very wise. It just appears more precious in my opinion. The inside also reveals more beautiful illustrations and a detailed booklet with liner notes to every track by the band, giving some interesting insights.

The track list contains 21 tracks in total including one additional which is not mentioned and obviously wasn’t planned to appear on it but I’m glad it did after all. Songs from almost every album the band has ever released, landed on the list, starting with the live premier of ‘The Enemy’ over ‘So Much is Lost’ and ‘No Celebration’ to such classics like the beautiful ‘Gothic’ and ‘Forever Failure’.

Let’s have a look at the visual part now, which is especially important for such a release, because when the recording and therefore the picture is bad it can spoil the whole fun of watching a concert DVD. In case of the PARADISE LOST DVD, there’s nothing to complain and I really took a closer look at the picture but it always remained sharp and clear, especially important as the picture’s often dark and some encoders tend to make the picture grainy in such situations. The cuts during the concert are not too fast, so you really get the chance to see what happens before the camera skips to the next perspective. As for the performance: The joy of playing on the band’s side is really sensible and it’s just great fun to watch them treating their instruments. Nick delivers a remarkable vocal performance and while performing ‘Gothic’ he almost grunts as deep as he did on the same-titled album back in 1991 and it was a big surprise for the fans as well as the band hasn’t played this one live in years.