Artist: Various Artists
Title: “Metal Mania 2008”
Label: Metal Mind Productions
Release Date: 8/11/2009
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.5/5

I’ve reviewed a number of these “Metal Mania” festival DVD’s from Metal Mind Productions and while many of them are good there are also ones that are sometimes difficult to sit through since the roster is not as appealing to me as I would have liked it to be. That being said, the 2008 edition of this festival show is really on the exemplary side and manages to deliver quite a lot of Metal giants while also bringing bands that more people should be supporting into the living room. The film starts off with a band called Inside Out that I had never heard of but did find a little bit interesting, and while I was digging what they were dealing out I could not wait to see the clips from Primordial who are a force to be reckoned with from the Republic Of Ireland. I caught this band when they played the Paganfest USA 2 tour and they were incredible. It was a shame that we only had two numbers from them, but perhaps the full set was recorded and shall see release some time in the future. For those who are unschooled in the band, they are a mixture of Black and Atmospheric Metal that use a heavy Celtic historical vibe. Crushing stuff without question. The same applies for New York’s own Immolation who show that they are still a monstrous force for Metal’s good some twenty plus years after first hitting the scene. Fortunately there were three tunes from them. We find Flotsam and Jetsam following the Immolation treats and while this is the band that first gave us Jason Newstead (ex-Metallica, ex-Voivod) they never really did that much for me so I was rather “meh” during this part of the film. Artillery was fun, 80’s styled Power Metal but since they were leading up to Marduk, Vader and Satyricon I must admit that I breezed through their offerings based on these three Black and Death Metal giants. It was great to see some new footage of Marduk live as their recent attempt at regional touring was thwarted on the Blackenedfest 2009 but they are set to return soon as headliners. Vader is never short of amazing live and this quick brief on them sent me back to watching my “And Blood Was Shed In Warsaw” full live DVD that they put out. Satyricon I would have liked to see more than two songs from as well after having enjoyed them perform as an opener for Cradle Of Filth when that band last hit my region.
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