The new Fields Of The Nephilim album is entitled ‘Ceromonies‘. It’s a double live album, with the songs recorded during gigs live in London back in July 2008. The package also contains a DVD containing some of the songs, but since the format is PAL I am unable to view it (without changing the region on my Mac…)
Each of the two CDs has it’s own name, ‘Ad Motem’ and ‘Ad Vitam’. The arrangement of songs onto each of the two CDs doesn’t seem to follow any specific criteria, and the full track listing covers the entire history of the band (original album the song was from in brackets):
– Trees Come Down, Harmonica Man, Preacher Man (‘Dawnrazor‘)
– Moonchild, Celebrate (‘The Nephilim‘)
– Wail Of Sumer, And There Will Your Heart Be Also, Psychonaut (‘Elizium‘)
– Shine, Penetration, Zoon (Wakeworld) (‘Zoon‘)
– From The Fire (‘Fallen‘)
– Shroud, Straight To The Light, Xiberia, Requiem, Mourning Sun (‘Mourning Sun‘)
Live albums are tricky things. Often released solely to extract a few extra dollars from fans between studio albums, more often than not they are listened to once or twice and shelved. Some bands are exceptions to this – I personally find Rammstein‘s live albums to be magnificent and almost better than the studio work – and the difference seems to be how creatively the band interprets their own music. Furthermore, live performances have a life that is not easily captured in a recording. I can still vividly remember certain things about many of the live performances attended more than I can remember exactly how I felt about the way the band played their songs that night.
Fields Of The Nephilim is one of those bands that, for me, evokes a Pavlovian reaction when I listen to their songs. It’s impossible for me not to think about my last year of high school when I hear Psychonaut, or recollect vividly the days of Newcastle University, The Hanged Man concerts and late nights out with friends when hearing most anything from Earth Inferno. Indeed, were it not for FoTN, I may never have met KLS! This band was the soundtrack for a very important part of my life, and always will be.
So listening to any Nephilim album is, for me, a good thing (well, except perhaps for the ‘official bootleg’ that was Fallen). That said, I’m sad to say Ceromonies may count itself amongst the ‘shelfwarmers’ as far as live albums are concerned.
The performances are great (the above video is from the included DVD), the packaging is great, Carl’s voice is (mostly) great, the recording quality is great and the songs are (of course) great. But the arrangements are where things get a bit iffy, and the selection of material is for me, disappointing.
Even though three years had passed since the release of Mourning Sun, the tour from which this album was recorded was to support the album so it’s not surprising that about a third of the songs are from that album. However, since I prefer the earlier (pre ‘Nefilim’) material, I would have liked more from that era. Song choice aside, the second disappointment of the album is how similar to the studio versions the songs sound. It’s been 20 years (in some cases) since these songs were first released, but some of these performances could almost be the studio versions with a bit of crowd noise added. And where a song differs from the album, it’s the same difference as it was two decades ago. One such example is Trees Come Down, which – will powerful and effective on Ceromonies – is a pale imitation of the version recorded in 1989 and immortalized on the Forever and Ever live bootleg:
And therein lies the biggest problem with Ceromonies. During their lifetime, this band has released almost as much live material as studio albums. So one would imagine another should not be forthcoming unless it offered something new. Ceromonies does not; it’s not as good as the 1991 live album Earth Inferno and not as good as either of the two live DVDs Forever Remain (1988) and Visionary Heads (1991). Yes it has new material, but the songs are too similar to the album tracks and (for me) of lesser quality (the superb ‘Mourning Sun’ excepted) compared to older works. More importantly, Fields Of The Nephilim is a widely bootlegged band, and even their most famous concert from the Town and Country club back in 1989 was bootlegged and released (as the very, very, VERY good live album ‘Forever And Ever’). Ceromonies therefore isn’t even as good as a live bootleg!
That said, I’m glad I got this release. Not only as a collector, but since it inspired me to dig out the old albums and listen to them again for the first time in at least a year. While Ceromonies may have been ultimately disappointing, it’s only because Fields Of The Nephilim as a band is so very, very good. I’m glad this new CD inspired me to once again realize just how good 🙂
This is still in my teetering to-listen pile, so I can neither confirm nor deny your findings. I have, however, been playing the first album by related group The Eden House – “Smoke & Mirrors”. It’s…all right. I wouldn’t suggest rushing out to buy it. The music is pleasingly Nephilim-esque at times, but the vocals/lyrics don’t have anywhere near the same power. Doubt I’ll bother with their second release. “Elizium” forever.