Alive in Poland

Personnel: Blaze Bayley (vocals); Rich Newport, Nick Bermudez (guitar); Rico Banderra (drums).
Audio Mixer: Piotr Brzenzinski.
Recording information: Poland (03/24/2007); Spodek, Katowice, Poland (03/24/2007); Poland (04/2007); Spodek, Katowice, Poland (04/2007).
Photographer: Marta Tluszcz.
With epithets pouring out of Blaze Bayley's mouth about 13 minutes into the DVD, this crunchy batch of hard metal gushes from the screen in beautifully filmed movie-like form. The menacing image of the ex-Iron Maiden lead singer who fronted Wolfsbane as far back as 1988 on the
Live Fast Die Fast album is in fine form on March 24, 2007 in Katowice, Poland for the Metalmania festival. The veteran may not be a household name, but his prowess is impressive and the DVD is full of fury and brimstone. Metal Mind Productions and MVD give Bayley the star treatment and he deserves it, both on the cover of the DVD and with a colorful eight-page insert chock-full of photos of bandmates Rich Newport on guitar, second guitarist Nick Bermudez, David Bermudez on bass, and Rico Banderra on drums. Sometimes the band runs away with the music, as on "Two Worlds Collide," which could be the musicians playing on two different planets on a collision course, but since attitude and feeling is what this genre is all about, the chaos works to Bayley's advantage. That tune is also on 2003's As Live as It Gets from the band Blaze (totally different set of musicians from this outing) and an album with less than half of the songs overlapping due to the fact that Bayley has a very deep catalog. He calls the band "incredibly sexy," but the fact is the lead vocalist could be a sad cross between Meat Loaf and Lemmy from Motörhead, definitely a frightening thought...you wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, and that ominous and imposing look lends itself quite well to the music generated by this crew. "Kill and Destroy" smashes out of 2002's Tenth Dimension album as do two other titles from this 15-song set, opening number "Speed of Light" and that disc's title track. Metal Mind does a super job with these DVDs and this package contains an interview with Blaze, an interview with the band, photo gallery, desktop images, and all sorts of goodies including the bonus video "Hollow Head." The rock veteran has a fan base in Europe but this project has the potential to expand his following exponentially. ~ Joe Viglione