Primordial have actually put out quite a few live albums in their career, as they play a workaholic schedule of live shows, touring way, way more than they have to. This is their fifth live release, and while I have found their live output to be a bit uneven in the past, this is an absolutely monolithic dose of what they do so well.

A big part of the quality of this is the set list, which includes almost all of the essential Primordial songs: "The Golden Spiral," "To Hell or the Hangman," "Lain With the Wolf," "Gods to the Godless," "Bloodied Yet Unbowed, and" "The Coffin Ships"—practically every song you could want on a Primordial live disc is here. Another factor is the recording, which is as good as a live recording of this band can probably be. Primordial have a big, booming sound with a lot of depth and shade, and it's hard to capture that in a live recording. The TV Eye is not a very big venue, but I have to say the acoustics are first-rate, as this sounds huge and heavy, but has a lot of space for the more delicate melodies in these songs.

But a live recording comes down to the performance, and this is a killer fucking performance. Nemtheanga is sometimes wobbly on live cuts, but here he sounds a lot better than he sometimes has in the past, bringing the essential rage and raw emotion this calls for. The band digs in with intensity and impressive assurance, and by the time they close with the mandatory "Heathen Tribes" they have steamrollered everything in sight. If you have never seen this band live and may not get to, this is pretty fucking close.