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Sometimes the DIY method turns out to be most the successful and even the most representative way. The promising and talented Australian thrashers In Malice's Wake took their time and put together a pretty darn impressive-looking live CD/DVD combo titled Visions of Live Destruction.

The In Malice's Wake show at Legions of Steel festival on June 2014, at the Bendigo Hotel in Melbourne, was recorded on both audio and video. The place looks relatively small but it's packed (300+ people in the crowd), which naturally gives some spice to In Malice's Wake's live performance. The band plays an intense and totally enjoyable set comprised of songs from their two full-length studio albums, plus a couple of new songs, "Hear the Howls" and "A Sign of the Times," meant for In Malice's Wake's forthcoming as-yet-untitled third album. The camera crew did a very professional job capturing the show from several different camera angles in order to give a best-of-the-best visual of In Malice's Wake's live performance. One of the camera men is placed in the midst of the audience so, whenever his shots are shown, the camera tends to swing back and fro giving a wild feel to the band's performance. All in all, this is a very cool and highly enjoyable performance from In Malice's Wake.

As for the special features, there's a drum camera for one of the songs edited so you can mostly hear Mark Farrugia's drum parts and see his drum technique. That's pretty cool, I must say. Even more interesting was Shaun Farrugia explaining how the cover artwork of Visions of Live Destruction came all together, piece by piece. He's an experienced artist and used his airbrushing techniques very effectively over the years (he has been running a business painting motorcycles for the last 5-6 years or so, check out www.predatorcustompainting.com.au). Finally, there's a gear talk from each member of In Malice's Wake that should interest all you musicians.

The live disc is nice to hear also and has very good sound quality (crispy, heavy and clear) but once you have watched the DVD, you always tend to choose it over the audio disc. Well, at least that's the problem for me...

It must be said that no expenses have been spared with this release. The DVD/live CD combo consists of a 6-panel digipak with Dual Layer DVD, audio CD and a 12-page booklet. Everything looks real pro indeed so if you a fan of In Malice's Wake and Thrash Metal in general, I cannot see any reason to not purchase this awesome set straight from the band. This release shows very dedicated work from the In Malice's Wake camp indeed.