In Flames

Supposedly recorded live in Tokyo last year, perennial Swedish favourites In Flames have come up with a live recording that is about as exciting to listen to as watching the weeds grow. There is no crowd interaction, with the audience being barely audible between songs, and the mixing of this CD is just plain awful. The bass drum is way up in the forefront of the mix and the guitars are compressed and buried, and overall the sound quality of Live Tokyo Showdown is equally compressed. There is no excitement to be had here, especially when one compares it to recent live albums from power metal stalwarts, like Iced Earth's amazing Alive in Athens CD, a disc that really captures the live feeling and gives you goose bumps. Don't get me wrong, the playing is spot on and each of their CDs are well represented, but being five albums into their career, and on the verge of breaking big, they needed a better live representation of themselves than this.