OFFICIAL BOOTLEG - LIVE IN JAPAN

A Japan-only release that has been reissued enough times to be owned on the entire planet by the fans, this double Live (Official Bootleg) album might just be Anekdoten's definitive statement with its Mini-Lp format and best tracks from their first two albums, including four as-of-then unreleased tracks, two of which would get a release on their From within album two years later.

Starting out with the group-defining anthems of Karelia and Old Man And The Sea (and later on The Flow), the quartet couldn't have possibly started better their concerts, and following it with the better tracks from their second album (a doomier-yet Harvest and very tense Book Of Hours), throwing some new tracks along the way, Slow Fire (average and sounding unfinished in its middle section) and Road To Nowhere (with a solid guitar solo), the first disc is really hitting close to perfection.

Opening on the then-unreleased Groundbound (and sounding much more interesting here than in its studio version), then almost emptying Vemod track list with the average Solitude (played too fast) and the Crimsonic Wheel (the flugelhorn being replaced by a organ synth solo), the second disk seems to run out of steam, by the middle of its duration. The instrumental Tabatah is a repetitive slow-evolving track, which overstays its welcome because it fails to climax or conclude in a proper manner. The lengthy Rubankh closer is a crescendo-ing instrumental that

While the group doesn't try to stick as close to possible to their tracks, most of the tracks are close to their studio version's lengths, but there are a few exceptions: most notably Wheel and the more-than tripled Rubhank (here announced as Pt I & II). Having seen the group twice before this album (and twice since), this album reflects pretty well their stage representation, mostly relying on ambiance rather than stage antics