After the incredible success of their concept album “Posthumous Silence”, Sylvan staged a huge live show on September 1, 2007 to record this stunning double CD as well as a DVD. With a string section and backup singers and a powerful light show, this sold out show brings all of Posthumous Silence to life as well as other Sylvan favorites. This version is NTSC, which usually means U.S. only. If you are in Europe, please check the band web site or your favorite retailer to get a PAL version unless you are sure your DVD player supports NTSC.
DVD Credits:
SYLVAN are:
Marco Glühmann – vocals
Matthias Harder – drums
Sebastian Harnack – bass
Jan Petersen – guitars
Volker Söhl - keyboards
Filmed and recorded live at Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany - September 1st 2007
DVD Track List:
1. Eternity Ends
2. Bequest Of Tears
3. In Chains
4. Bitter Symphony
5. Pane Of Truth
6. No Earthly Reason
7. Forgotten Virtue
8. The Colors Changed
9. A Sad Sympathy
10. Questions
11. Answer To Life
12. Message From The Past
13. The Last Embrace
14. A Kind Of Eden
15. Posthumous Silence
DVD Features:
1. Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Mix
2. Audio commentary by the band
3. Subtitles in English and German (German subtitles = complete translation of all lyrics)
4. Full motion menus
DVD Bonus Features:
1. Making of: "In the Studio 2005-2006" (The recording of "Posthumous Silence" and "Presets")
2. Making of: "34 Days" (Behind the scenes footage of the production)
3. Interviews with Sylvan and their main technicians
4. Slide show
5. Bonus song: “Artificial Paradise”
Preview:
Album reviews:
...The start of this concert is impressive. We see a huge curtain between the audience and the band. Then the music builds up together with projections about the dark story. The music swells with lots of tension followed by a fragile piano, melancholic vocals, an intense cello and a bombastic eruption. The curtain falls and finally the band appears. Sylvan’s sound on Posthumous Silence alternates between progressive pop, melodic rock and neo-prog. Marco Glühmann finds himself in the centre of both the band and the music. On stage, he feels like a fish in the water. I like his voice and presentation with dosed theatrical elements, especially in Forgotten Virtue and The Last Embrace. Just great! Sylvan play tight and enthusiastic, all tracks are performed with passion and with a very professional attitude. The sound is excellent and the lightshow is wonderful, just as it should be on a DVD! The lengthy final song is the title track. I really enjoyed the howling guitar runs and the bombastic keyboard sound. The band gets a standing ovation after the concert has finished...
...This DVD is a top notch production and top notch all the way around. I was really blown away by it. The sound is fantastic, the visual effects during the show were incredible and the emotion of the music itself was outstanding! The band pulled out all the stops in making this concert experience immensely enjoyable, not only for those in attendance, but also for the video viewer. Marco Gluhmann is a fantastic lead vocalist and performer. His vocals are spot on and delivered with great control. The emotion conveyed by him really adds to the experience. All of the other band members were great as well. The keyboard player Volker Sohl stood out as the glue holding everything together while the David Crowder look alike drummer Matthias Harder seemed to have everything under control at all times. Apparently this was the first live performance of new guitarist Jan Petersen but I would have never known otherwise. And finally bassist Sebastian Harnack has that cool vibe as he plays the funky bass lines but not ever trying to steal the show.
I have yet to watch the special features with full attention but it looks as if they spent a lot of time getting everything ready for this show. The stage was custom made and they take you through all the time consuming details. For whatever lengths they went to, they should be pleased with the end result of this DVD. Awesome job by our German friends, VERY well done! Highly recommended to everyone, even if you are not familiar with Sylvan or this concept album. 5 stars for this DVD concert performance!
...Almost without any stops the concert gives us the full album. I must say, with great camera shots and great lightning. All in good taste without being flashy or distracting from the music/ performence.
Opening with Eternity ends and Bequest of tears the concert starts with closed curtains. A projection from the cover is seen and a movie is shown. From a single sportlight the curtain reveals a keyboardplayer and later in a second light a vocalist. A third light is on the cello of Stephanie Hundertmark. When the other musicians join in the curtain falls and the full stage is revealled. The satisfied smile of vocalist Marco Gluhmann is the start of a great concert.
With and extra guitarplayer, Guido Bungenstock and three background femal vocalists this is German percision at his best
If you doubted the bands performence or did not know which album to start your Sylvan prog-adventure with: This is the one to buy.
Sylvan is not to compared to any other band. Experience it and LOVE IT (like i do)
...“Posthumous Silence: The Show” is a good DVD. Fans of the album will of course be the ones most interested in this release, and as the tunes on this album are varied in style this will also be a fair (although not quite accurate) introduction of the band to new listeners, especially with the inclusion of Artificial Paradise in the bonus material. Still, the limited content means that this DVD can't be seen as a must-have release – even if it is high quality through and through.
This is quite an impressive package. The DVD was recorded in Sept 2007 as the band performs their complete story, Posthumous Silence live. The DVD also includes a lot of extra material about the making of the record, an unreleased track, interviews, complete translation of the lyrics and more. The DVD is also mixed in 5.1 with a quite impressive and huge sound. The start of the DVD is awesome with a huge transparent screen at the front of the stage that they project onto as the show begins. The band actually plays behind this semi-transparent screen while they project images on the screen for the first part of the show. The music is always melodic but also some heavy metal like riffs in the music but often very commercial prog rock. Great musicians and well crafted songs. If you are a fan of this German band already, you will not be disappointed with the DVD.
...There's several more elements that make the show interesting. There's the appearance of the cello player during several songs and Marco's usage of the arrow-shaped elevated platform between the drummer and keyboard player during powerful moments. Although he admits that he's not a very theatrical performer Marco does put a lot of feeling in his act. Another neat part of the lightshow are the 'audience blinders' that are both on stage and behind the band. At times these are so incredibly bright that they blind out the whole band, like in Forgotten Virtue. At the end of the show the projection screen drops and these lights just burst out at full power, symbolizing the light at the end of the tunnel and completely dissolving the stage. There's also quite a bit of spooky smoke and a fair deal of strobes during at least one song. And there's the little things, like the audience waving coloured sticks during The Colours Changed, which they had spontaneously brought with them without any kind of planning by the band. The band play along with a click-track making the timing of the pre-programmed lightshow spot-on, enabling sequences like in Answer To Life when the lightshow moves exactly in time with the piano and bass...
...Bonus features on the DVD include studio footage, interviews with the band,
outtakes and "Artificial Paradise" from the same show - a solid 95+ minutes
just on that material alone. You can't get a more complete peek into Sylvan
as a newcomer or long time follower if you tried. Well worth your time and
money - now I have to scour the net for more Sylvan...
...The DVD begins with an intro called ”Eternity Ends” during which very cool looking visuals are projected on the screen in front of the band. After that the keyboard player plays a beautiful piano pattern that is soon joined by the singer and a female violinist. This is sad and peaceful stuff. The next track ”In Chains” is heavier, and does bring to mind later Porcupine Tree. A pretty nice, at times rather prgressive track. Then we get some atmospherics with keyboards and great vocals again (”Bitter Symphony”) followed by a touching and over nine-minute-long ”Pane of Truth”. There is again some violin and background projections in there. In fact this is a really great song! After the short ”No Earthly Reason” comes a bit heavier stuff again in form of ”Forgotten Virtue”. These guys play really well! The gig progresses very nicely in every way and the audience seems to be really into it...
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