THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL OPERA

If there is an experimental and innovative band nowadays, that's Ulver and this live album is such a great example of their talent to make extraordinary atmospheres and dark but even proggy compositions.

This concert at the Norwegian National Opera presents some of the greatest titles of the band between 1998 and 2011, including tracks from delightful albums from latest 90 such as Perdition City, Svidd Neger and William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; from their latest and equaly amazing producutions: Blood Inside, Shadows of the Sun and War of Roses, along with some tracks that you'll find into EP's like A Quick Fix of Melancholy or Silence Teaches You How to Speak, among others.

The concert catches you from the first minutes with a dark musical ambiance that shows some sort of acted but cruel execution by hanging. After that, Ulver displays a lot of video material to give their music a kind of visual context that fits perfectly almost any song, turning the National Opera into a phantasmagoric scenario fullfilled with dark and impressive atmospheres.

The concert is a materpiece from the beginning to the end but if I got to pick some highlights I recommend to you listen (and see) very carefully what I call the "Blood Inside Suite", the two songs extracted from Perdition City and Like Music and Not Saved at the end of the album. With no hesitation, 4 great stars...

One of the greatest, most powerful live concert DVDs I've ever seen, the producers/editors have done a wonderful job of making the listener/viewer feel as if they are right there in the concert hall. Each and every reproduction of often-familiar Ulver songs is embellished or transformed to such a degree as to make them better than the originals. Such power! I wish I had been able to be present for such a soul-filling experience!

Favorite Songs: "EOS," "Not Saved," and "Little Blue Bird." The video visuals up on the screen make for such a more powerful experience! Thank you so much Kristoffer Rygg (vocals, programming), Daniel O'Sullivan (guitars, bass, keyboards), Jørn H. Sværen (miscellaneous), Tore Ylwizaker (keyboards, programming), Christian Fennesz (guitar), Ole Alexander Halstensgå­rd (theremin, electronics), Tomas Pettersen (drums, percussion), and Ian Johnstone (visual performance). Another production that exhibits the high artistic capacity of our species!