5/5 AWESOME!!!
  by seamonkey (Southfield, MI, USA)
I was one of those who pre-ordered the NTSC version earlier in the year. After delay after delay I finally cancelled and even wrote an email to Shawn Gordon, president of Progrock records, stating my frustration.
He responded immediately and explained the problems they were having remastering this.
It was well worth the wait. I received this as a Christmas gift from my wife and we've already watched it twice...it is as I wrote earlier AWESOME!
The stage setting, the lighting, the mix, backup singers, etc and photography are four star. They set an atmosphere with the above things which add to the songs but not distract.

I am not a fan of rapid camera angle editing either, so I was anxiously expecting to be disappointed because of the previous review. I found the editing to be done very tastefully, many times the camera would catch artistic angles such as a picture within picture. Such as the camera looking through the keyboard setup and catching one of the singers touching her hair as she sang.
There are many examples of camera angles like that but they were always artistic and not distracting.
Perhaps when they did the NTSC version they cleaned things up a bit but for whatever reason I can highly recommend this DVD if you're a Sylvan fan.

I was worried because of the heaviness of this piece of work, it might fall into 60 minutes of depressing visuals but instead I found it to actually be uplifting at the end.

Artificial Paradise has always been one of my favorite Sylvan songs, their live performance only reinforces that Sylvan is a premiere neo-progressive band that deserves a place at the top along with bands like IQ, Arena, Pendragon and others.

If you like Sylvan, don't pass this one up!


1/5 MUCHA DEMORA!!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  by David Gilmour (Chile)
Por qué tanta demora???? no deberían anunciar el producto si no tienen definida la fecha de lanzamiento.....desde el Julio que están cambiando la fecha......hasta el Jueves decía que se vendía desde el 05 Sept. 2008,ahora dice el 23 de Sept.......muy mal!!!!

4/5 Nothing's Perfect
  by WillieB
The first time I watched this I was shocked but not in a good way. The video editing of this 73-minute show (done by the bass player Sebastian) is atrocious, mainly during the heavier parts. Cuts are chopped up so fast that all you see is a blurry mess. If they were doing this to create drama or intensity they failed. If this was done to create a nauseous felling, well done! The performance is not flawless but it's really good. Sometimes the band isn't as tight as they should be, and Marco has some pitch problems - most noticable on "The Last Embrace". Oh well, nothing's perfect and maybe they were nervous about this gig because it was their one and only shot to preserve "Posthumous Silence". The "guest musicians" for this performance are two guitarists, cello, and three backup female vocalists. Audio choices are stereo or DD 5.1 and they both sound good. The video is presented in a 16:9 widescreen format.

The absolute highlight for me is the ballad "The Colors Changed". The melody line is so infectious that whenever I hear this song I'm mesmerized by it. And the lyrics provide a glimmer of hope amongst this tragic story. I dig everything about Marco's vocals, but sometimes I can't understand what he's singing. With the subtitle feature the lyrics (in English and German) are just a remote push away. This is very useful and I wish subtitles were on all concert DVD's.

The bonus features include: In the Studio 2005- 2006 (21 minutes). 34 Days, which is behind the scenes footage of this production (16 minutes). Interviews of the four band members, the lighting tech, and sound engineer (29 minutes). Outtakes from the interviews (5 minutes). A time lapse of the production (1 ½ minute). Band commentary throughout the entire show. Also, filmed at the same gig, the eighteen-minute tune "Artificial Paradise" is included but is presented as a stereo mix only. Note that all these bonus features are in German; only the interviews have English subtitles. Therefore, for us non-German speaking fans I won't watch these again. It's a shame they didn't include the other songs they played at this gig instead of some of these bonus features. Finally, there is a slide show menu that doesn't work. Hey guys, if you need some quality control I'm available! The manufacturer is aware of this problem and is trying to fix it. Hopefully they will replace the defective DVD's and get this fixed before the Amazon release date.

Overall, Sylvan fans will love this, and who knows, maybe some will even enjoy the editing of the video.



5/5 Really Amazing !!
  by Jose Guevara (Venezuela)
I listen the double CD and it was a nice surprise for me. great music. Amazing performance.
Gusyprog