• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Note: This release is apparently a CD/DVD combo, but this being a mp3 promo, the review is only about the CD part.

I've been hearing good things about Onslaught live since they came back among the living, and Live Damnation seems to be proving those good things to be right. The album is kept short, a little under 42 minutes, and was recorded at the Damnation Festival (UK) in November 2008. Interaction with the crowd is kept to a minimum – a few words here and there, a couple of song name announcements (and animated ones at that – he's not just mumbling the names in the microphone.) We can hear the crowd a little bit during some songs, but it doesn't deter from the performance – crowd noises are of course more audible when the vocalist in addressing them.

All live albums are cursed with "why did they (not) put this song?", so let's not even go there. What's important in the end is that the show flows well, and that it does pretty flawlessly here. Add a good sound with its little raw live edge, a solid performance by the band, and the only thing I can reproach Live Damnation is being so short. But to me that's still better than albums overstaying their welcome. I've been steering clear of live albums for a while, preferring DVDs for the visual, but this here is pretty cool (and since the real deal comes with a DVD, that addresses that last comment now, doesn't it?)