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Review:
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Sylvan are a German neo-progressive rock band whose
sound is most often compared to their British contemporaries
IQ and Marillion. Don't let the neo-prog label scare you
off though, as these guys fall into the melodic pop/rock
category just as easily. The band released their debut album,
Deliverance, in 1999 and have gone on to release five other
studio albums, with 2007's Presets being their latest. The
previous year Sylvan delivered the magnificent concept album,
Posthumous Silence, which is the feature of this first live
concert DVD from the band, Posthumous Silence: The Show.
And what a debut DVD it is.***
Although I have never found the music of Sylvan to
be quite as compelling as the two other bands I mentioned
previously, they are still one of the top bands of the genre.
Posthumous Silence was probably the high water mark for
this band so far, but the 18-minute bonus performance of
"Artificial Paradise", from their 2002 album of the same
name, shows how that one was just as impressive.***
The thing that struck me the most about this video
was just how good the production values of both the concert
and the DVD were. For such a modestly successful band as
Sylvan, with what I assume was a pretty modest budget, this
production looks about as big budget as it gets. The DVD
features a complete, one-off performance of Sylvan's critically
acclaimed 2006 concept album, Posthumous Silence, which
was filmed at the Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany, on September
1st, 2007.***
The bonus features includes time-lapse footage of how
the huge stage was custom built just for this show. The
quality of the stage production and light show rivals that
of any theater-sized concert I have ever seen, and this
DVD presents it marvelously. The show begins with a transparent
curtain draped over the entire stage with the Posthumous
Silence album cover artwork and some film depicting various
eerie landscape images are projected upon it, while the
haunting leadoff track, "Eternity Ends", plays in the background.***
This smoothly transitions into the stunning ballad
"Bequest Of Tears", where keyboardist Volker Sohl, cellist
Stefanie Richter, and singer Marco Gluhmann are dimly illuminated
by spotlights from behind the curtain. The drama and intensity
continues to build until the curtain finally dramatically
falls to the front of the stage, and the full light show
kicks into gear as the band launches into the heavy rocker
"In Chains". Very cool opening sequence.***
The strongest material on the Posthumous Silence album
for me was the slower, atmospheric ballads such as "Pane
Of Truth" and "The Colors Changed", and they also provide
the highlights for this show. During "The Colors Changed"
several people in the audience spontaneously started waving
colored glow sticks above their heads in harmony with the
music, and this made an already charming performance all
the more charming. The real highlight of the show comes
at the end though, when the band brings this heartbreaking
story to an amazing conclusion via the epic Posthumous Silence
title track.***
For this special performance the band was augmented
by an additional guitarist, a cello player, and three female
backup vocalists. Also of note is the fact that this was
the first live Sylvan performance by new guitarist Jan Petersen,
but his excellent playing did not make this fact obvious.
Although Guido Bungenstock was only listed as a guest guitarist,
he actually handled most of the key guitar solos throughout
the show.***
Although Marco Gluhmann sings all of the songs in English,
his vocals are heavily German accented and can be very difficult
to understand. The special features include an audio commentary
by the band (in German) as well as English and German subtitles,
which translate all of the song lyrics, but not the commentary.
The subject matter of the Posthumous Silence album was certainly
no light-hearted affair, as it is essentially the story
of a grieving father reading the diary of his daughter who
had recently committed suicide.***
Other special features include "In the Studio 2005-2006"
(behind-the-scenes of the recording of the Posthumous Silence
and Presets albums), "34 Days" (behind-the-scenes footage
of the production of the show), interviews with the band
and crew, a slide show, time-lapse footage of the stage
show being constructed, and the bonus performance of "Artificial
Paradise". The special features are quite extensive and
would be very entertaining - IF YOU SPREKEN ZIE DEUTSCH!
Some English subtitles would have made them worth watching
for us non-German speakers.***
As I mentioned previously, the production quality of
the DVD is first-rate. Audio is provided in both Dolby Digital
5.1 surround and stereo, and the tracks sound nearly flawless.
The video is presented in 16:9 widescreen and the picture
is crystal clear and sharp, and the extraordinary amount
of lights and colors on stage are presented flawlessly.
The camera work was superb, for the most part, but the director
did get carried away with some hyper fast cuts during some
of the heavier song parts.***
Sylvan really hit this one out of the park, and Posthumous
Silence: The Show comes highly recommend. I anxiously await
their follow up DVD, which hopefully will feature songs
from all of their albums, and will also meet the high standards
of this release.***
Concertdvdreviews.com
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