The first five songs were all recorded live during the band’s set at Wacken Open Air festival in 1998.
The live versions of these songs are interesting. All the studio versions have Piet Sielck’s vocals layered through them, which makes a great effect in the studio. Out here live, though, and without that ability, they have a different quality. “Iron Savior” doesn’t have quite the same feel as the original because of this. “Riding on Fire” sounds great still, with Kai’s backing vocals complementing brilliantly. “Watcher in the Sky” is still Kai’s song, and he executes it perfectly.
Four new studio songs have been added after this. All are similar in nature to those found off the band’s second album, Unification. They have a very B-side feel to them, as though they were left-over songs from their last effort, and have been added here to ensure they are used. “The Hatchet of War” is probably the best of these four songs.
The final song is a cover of Judas Priest’s “Desert Plains”, the band being an obvious influence on all the band members youth.
In all, that makes ten songs on this ‘EP’, which is great value for the fans. The disc also has video of the Wacken gig which can be seen on a computer, and has been often on mine.
This is a worthwhile listen, if only for the fact that it has the only live material so far released by the band, and has Kai Hansen heavily involved, which can only be a bonus.
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