Die Apokalyptischen Reiter – Tobsucht: Reitermania Over Wacken & Party.San

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Nuclear Blast
Produced by Die Apokalyptischen Reiter

To celebrate and document their successful 2007 festival appearances, explosive German thrashers Die Apokalyptischen Reiter are releasing a DVD and double live CD of their performances at Wacken Open-Air and Party.San Metal Open-Air, both separately and as a deluxe three-disc book edition, of which there are to be just 5000 copies.

Promotional copies of the release only contain the CD of the Wacken show, but judging by the exceptional sound quality of the disc, and the DVD trailer available on the band’s website and YouTube, the whole package looks to be outstanding for Reiter fans, or “Reitermaniacs”, as the band like to call them.

From the moment instrumental opener Vom Ende De Welt gives way to the frenetic beginning of Friede Sei Mit Dir the band’s energy level is clearly high and they maintain it for the duration of their compact set, the majority of which came from from recent album Riders On The Storm and 2003′s Have A Nice Trip). Apart from the newer additions from the Riders of The Storm album, much of the rest of the set features the same songs as played at the Summer Breeze 2005 festival, which is the subject of the Friede Sei Mit Dir DVD EP.

The second CD comprises the Party.San show, which is a special “old-school” black/death show with guest Skelleton, original drummer and death screamer. This disc will probably be of less interest to newer fans as their style was quite different, but fans from the beginning should rejoice at being able to hear live versions of songs rarely played now. The sound quality on the clips of this show in the DVD trailer seems to match that of the Wacken show, to overall the double-disc set should please everybody in varying degrees.

Both shows are complete with one exception. Wacken closer Metal Will Never Die is missing CD (it is present on the DVD) and this is likely because it also closes the Party.San show and is the only duplicate track between the two shows. This also makes the CD good value for money, with 26 different songs across the two CDs. The DVD also contains the usual backstage, roadmovie, slide-show kinds of bonus features, but obviously two complete concerts is worth the price of admission alone. After so long without a full live product Die Apokalyptischen Reiter have made sure they truly deliver for their fans.

“ exceptional sound quality ”

Tracklist:
CD1 – Vom Ende De Welt / Friede Sei Mit Dir / Riders On The Storm / Das Himmelskind / Vier Reiter Stehen Bereit / Revolution / Seemann / Sehnsucht / MMMX / We Will Never Die / Der Kleiner Wicht / Reitermania / Die Sonne Scheint
CD2 – Geopfert / Instinct / Unter Der Asche / Gone / Die Schönheit Der Sklaverei / The Fire / Erhelle Meine Seele / The March of Revenge / The Smell of Death / V.A.D.E.R. / The Iron Fist / Dostulata / Metal Will Never Die

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2008, Live Albums, Thrash Metal, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter