i wanted to open this thread to give my views and hears yours on the DVD for Alive in Athens.

i finally got a copy of it and i have not stopped watching it, even now while iam typing i have it on my tv blasting through my speakers and waking up my sister every 10 minutes.

First i want to answer Jon Schaffer "kinda" on his posts and comments of not wanting this to be relased becaus eof the bad quality and number of cameras recording.

well i would say this: the set is not anything like LIVE SHIT BINGE AND PURGE the set is small typical Iced Earth and the set is even indoors. the whole stage is about 20 meters width and 10 deep. so i say to jon what do you expect man ... 20 cameras to cover this set and the fans.three or four cameras would be more than enough and it is. i did not see anything wrong with the recording or the sound. actually i compared the sound to my cds and by god they are very close if not exactly the same.. i even faded out form time to time to see if could see any difference and didnt except for some places not found on the cd, like Dantes Inferno intro, which is THE BEST METAL SONG OF ALL TIME. (yes i do that cause i have time and i worship iced earth )

i wonder what the hell was jon thinking when he decided to release this on cd and not think about releasing it on dvd/vhs back then. i mean iced earth have been live for many many years and i have been a fan for a long time now and belive it or not this is the first time i see them playing live or even SEE them. (i live in the middle east and metal is kind of a taboo here)

staying on the SEEING part, i was jumping up and down wheni saw Barlow wave his hair to the music, and see Jon calling the fans to go crazier ever few secs. my god iam in heaven now.it is like iam there but iam not. DAMN i wish barlow would be back

now on to the version i have.

i am not going to lie to you all and say i bought this dvd i couldnt, it would cost me 50$ to get to lebanon and that is if they let it in through the customs without extra charge. so i did the next best thing and downloaded it from usenet. the ISO file and dvd file is 4.6 gigs so it is complete to my knowledge BUT i read on websites it has extra scenes (backstage, interviews and so on) and also that there is actually a menu like normal dvds?

for those hwo bought it (you lucky bastards) please post how the origional dvd is and what else it has.

the copy i have is simply a few mins of people walking into the stage, a band hype moment and then the concert and simply people walkking out and thats it.

anyway. lets see what you guys think before y next post

"Jon is a god, Barlow is the Master of the metal voice."

Well I hawnt seen it but I hawe ehar this album, if there are same songs its IMO great and one of best 3 live CD in Atenas amd I realy like this album, its like small best of and good album, about DVD I had seen one Opeth DVD and I haw eno DVD player, and I hate watch that stuff on PC, realy hate it if I get some DVD I woud listen it not watch, I ned Tv

But this well maybe I het copy Im not shore but probobly I gonna love it

Damn I wanna see ''Birth Of The Wicked''

I would like to see it. Although I heard the quality isn't that fantastic.

I'd like to check it out though...

please keep this discussion regarding the DVD and not the cd.

Iced Digger, take it form one huge fan to another, anything live for iced earth is worth getting. this dvd quality is very very good.... the image is very clear and the sound is perfect. yes there some moments that the sound change (in between songs) for osme reason but you hardly notcice if youonly want to listen tot he songs.

as for the video quality. it is as best as a 4 camera can get, you wont see jesus walking on water with a firey effect behind a lamp shade of ghosts (whatever all that emans) but you willsee barlow BLASTING his voice and JON burning the strings. THAT IS WORTH IT.

Anything live from Iced Earth is worth getting indeed, I still watch one (completely awesome) bootleg show from time to time.
Nice thread Sethulhu since I was wondering what people think of this DVD since Shaffer said what you wrote before, I'm glad you've found it decent and really enjoyable, I'll be getting it probably next week!

Written by SETHULHU on 06.12.2006 at 23:20

"Jon is a god, Barlow is the Master of the metal voice."

Ha, you've found another one sharing this statement.

i still haven't got it, but I'm hoping to get my hands on it as soon as possible. I had also heard that the quality wasn't very good, but I think they were just rumours as I've heard many people say that it's really not all that bad. The album was money well spent, so I'm sure the DVD will be too

@Eternal Flames, the video quality is not exactly DVD quality, but you dont see any jitters, boxes, dithers, spots or whatever like if you got a BOOTLEGED vhs from a cinema release, you know.

over all the video QUALITY (and not production) is 8.5/10, the production ,taking into consideration that this is a small set, indoors, 3 or 4 cameras at most, taking all that into consideration the production imho is 8/10 also.

overall, dont expect to be watching this dvd becasue you have nothing to do all day and want to waste time, this is a "i turned off my cellphone, home phone, msn, yahoo messenger, tv, lights, no food, no cigarettes, no drinks (except beer) and closed the door with a big sign on it saying (KNOCK AND YOU DIE)" kind of dvd to watch.

you will start headbangning unknowingly and try and keep your eyes on the screen to see barlow give you the high note.

This is one of the best concert dvd's I have ever seen. Who cares if it was shot using only 4 cameras it's the music that matters anyways right? And the music and set for it are amazing. Sure the video could have been better if there had been more camera's but it's not like the picture quality is bad, the video portion of this dvd is nothing anyone will be loosing sleep over. Just the fact that Barlow is singing on this album though made me purchase the dvd version even though I already had it on cd. For how cheap this dvd is you can't go wrong.

anyone knows if Jon will get any money out of this?

From what I understood he won't. Since it was the local greek TV who recorded it (from what I remember reading, I'm not sure about it at all.)

For every Iced Earth Fan this is a MUST buy. Also for every respected Heavy Metal fan this is a must buy. Ive always said that it was such a shame that Iced Earth didnt have a live dvd of the alive in athens show. How majestic and emotinal would it be to see how these metal gods play songs like travel in stygian or the something wicked trillogy....

So when i heard the news that there was going to be a live dvd out, about athens i went crazy.

Ive got the dvd on the day he was in store and since then ive seen it a dozen times. I can say this is one of the best concert dvd's i have ever seen. Iced Earth is for me a godlike band and when you see the dvd you will know what i mean. Unlike some people say (and what Jon Schaffer himself says) about the quallity, that it's bad....they are wrong. The quallity is high (not the best you can get on dvd, but still its outstanding). On the dvd you can feel the atmospfere of an Iced Earth concert....how it feels to stand in the crowd and the sound is as good as the cd albums.

Still its a big shame that the songs "Iced earth, A Slave To The dark, Colours and A Question Of Heaven" does not make their appereance on the dvd...thats the only sad thing IMO. But i guess we all should be happy to even have the oppertunity to see this legendary show. All songs are a masterpiece on them selves.


When Jon Schaffer says; "i wanna hear you athens, your ready to ride the storm?" and then a split second later starts Stormrider with his charging galloping power riffing and the crowd get crazy.....man, you will get electricity in every hair of your body i swear!

Just buy this dvd and see yourself why Iced Earth is one of the best metal acts of this earth.

Written by BrightNight on 12.12.2006 at 19:42


Still its a big shame that the songs "Iced earth, A Slave To The dark, Colours and A Question Of Heaven" does not make their appereance on the dvd...thats the only sad thing IMO. But i guess we all should be happy to even have the oppertunity to see this legendary show. All songs are a masterpiece on them selves.

I didn't think they played 'Colors' either of the nights. Last time I checked, the only songs that were missing were 'Iced Earth', 'Slave to the Dark' and 'A Question of Heaven' (presumably becuase there were such abominable problems with those tracks that even Century Media couldn't put them on it :p)

Written by RavenLord on 12.12.2006 at 23:18

Written by BrightNight on 12.12.2006 at 19:42


Still its a big shame that the songs "Iced earth, A Slave To The dark, Colours and A Question Of Heaven" does not make their appereance on the dvd...thats the only sad thing IMO. But i guess we all should be happy to even have the oppertunity to see this legendary show. All songs are a masterpiece on them selves.

I didn't think they played 'Colors' either of the nights. Last time I checked, the only songs that were missing were 'Iced Earth', 'Slave to the Dark' and 'A Question of Heaven' (presumably becuase there were such abominable problems with those tracks that even Century Media couldn't put them on it :p)

Colours was recorded during the Alive in Athens concerts, but somehow got lost in the shuffle when the tracklisting for that album was being put together....I hoped that it was on the dvd (could have been). But it didnt. So actually there are 4 numbers (colours, slave tot the dark, iced earth and a question of heaven) missing form the alive in athens tour.

However the life track "colours"from Alive in Athens may not be on the album "Alive in Athens" it does exists.
You can find it on The Melancholy E.P.

"Colors" was recorded during the Alive in Athens concerts, but somehow got lost in the shuffle when the tracklisting for that album was being put together.

Written by SETHULHU on 08.12.2006 at 13:23

@Eternal Flames, the video quality is not exactly DVD quality, but you dont see any jitters, boxes, dithers, spots or whatever like if you got a BOOTLEGED vhs from a cinema release, you know.

over all the video QUALITY (and not production) is 8.5/10, the production ,taking into consideration that this is a small set, indoors, 3 or 4 cameras at most, taking all that into consideration the production imho is 8/10 also.

overall, dont expect to be watching this dvd becasue you have nothing to do all day and want to waste time, this is a "i turned off my cellphone, home phone, msn, yahoo messenger, tv, lights, no food, no cigarettes, no drinks (except beer) and closed the door with a big sign on it saying (KNOCK AND YOU DIE)" kind of dvd to watch.

you will start headbangning unknowingly and try and keep your eyes on the screen to see barlow give you the high note.

Ah, thank you for that information. I wasn't sure what to be expecting with the video quality because there were some that said it was really bad and there were others that said it was good. I don't really care whether it's exactly dvd quality or not, as long as the audio is good and it's not like a bootleg vhs, it will be more than fine.

The DVD simply rules!

Yes, it does.. They play half of Stormrider, god 5 songs!!!! Hail, hail, hail! Gigantic band and concert

So Jon never wanted to release 'Alive in Athens" as a DVD? I can see why! Just like SETHULU, i too just got the DVD a couple of days ago and man, what a dissapointment! I had the audio discs for years now and absolutely loved them! Jeez, not one mistake, it's like they'r recording in studio or something! Then i got the DVD! First off the venue is super-small. When i listened to the discs i imagined them playng for at least a 50 000 strong crowd. Nope, the camera work sucks as well, it doesn't capture the atmosphere that the people present experienced(i wasn't there but i'm sure that show was amazing).The extra features SUCK! Take example from Children of Bodom's "Chaos Ridden Years" DVD - Separate interviews wit each band member, promo vids!

To conclude: i'll carry on blasting "Alive in Athens" in my HI-FI but watch the DVD? i don't think so

just got the DVD for Christmas, and by god it rocks even more watching the NON-DOWNLOADED version .. the extras are not that much worthy, but it is always fun to see JON and MATT backstage.

i am really dissapointed that they didn't include "A Question Of Heaven" and "Iced Earth"
anyway the DVD is really good even thought sometimes it looks like the music is not played by them and Matt's voice is sometimes singing when the image is not
anyhow the DVD is really good and i suggest it to all of you

Written by Remus on 17.12.2006 at 20:17

So Jon never wanted to release 'Alive in Athens" as a DVD? I can see why! Just like SETHULU, i too just got the DVD a couple of days ago and man, what a dissapointment! I had the audio discs for years now and absolutely loved them! Jeez, not one mistake, it's like they'r recording in studio or something! Then i got the DVD! First off the venue is super-small. When i listened to the discs i imagined them playng for at least a 50 000 strong crowd. Nope, the camera work sucks as well, it doesn't capture the atmosphere that the people present experienced(i wasn't there but i'm sure that show was amazing).The extra features SUCK! Take example from Children of Bodom's "Chaos Ridden Years" DVD - Separate interviews wit each band member, promo vids!

To conclude: i'll carry on blasting "Alive in Athens" in my HI-FI but watch the DVD? i don't think so

If this was in the hands of Jon Schaffer, the special futures would contain more stuff than it does now. They could have put stuff in it but this was the only material of Alive In Athens. So why not put it on the dvd? Its not much but its an extra, of that period in Athens. Comparing it with COB is useless.

Unfortunately I haven't seen it yet, but I ve heard many times that the quality isn't good enough, but I am pretty sure that the show was excellent, if I think of the cds.

One of the best live DVDs I have, if not the best!

i don't own the dvd, but to let out the brilliant band namesake song, "iced earth" that's just stupid man... they knew it was the last song(at least that's what i heard/realised), so why can't we get a grand finale??

It was two nights. One night ended with "Iced Earth", the other with "Violate". This DVD ends with "Violate". They say they'll release another now that Barlow is back, which should be great! The more Iced Earth, the better, especially DVDs.

Oh the Something Wicked Trilogy to end the Concert is the best moment of the DVD.

I love this DVD, it's unbelievable ... in fact I think it might have been dubbed. Check this out : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Oih6v42KE at 4:00 When Barlow says "lies foolish lies behind your brainwashed eyes" the microphone is away from his mouth but it sounds as though his is singing directly in it... and it is not out of sync...

Written by Nimlot on 21.03.2009 at 09:35

I love this DVD, it's unbelievable ... in fact I think it might have been dubbed. Check this out : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Oih6v42KE at 4:00 When Barlow says "lies foolish lies behind your brainwashed eyes" the microphone is away from his mouth but it sounds as though his is singing directly in it... and it is not out of sync...

hmm... well you're right it does look a bit fake. i don't know, maybe Schaffer wanted like a completely fucking perfect DVD and just edited that part? also, i'm not sure if you people knew, but they played there for 2 nights in a row, maybe they couldn't film "Brainwashed" in the first night, but they still recorded the audio part, and they felt it was too good of a song to leave out of the dvd. hence they dubbed the filming of the Brainwashed video on the second night, with the audio part of the first night.

There are hardly any Metal Live DVDs i own that are actually 'live' 100%.
Sometimes you have to wonder why its sounds like the album. This one is also dubbed, though not too bad, it seems to be chopped bits from both nights.
Its a decent live show for sure, but i only watched it once, never really got into it like some. I definatly need to give it another spin soon.

Well I've compared the songs on a some live albums with the studio versions and the differences are a easily noticeable... (I've even made some things like an IE song with Barlow and Owens together) So I figured it is live... but that part of the DVD made me think otherwise