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Seasons of Mist presents
Necrophagia: Through The Eyes of the Dead—Uncut (2001)

"...and so, the Necrophagia has been awakened..."
- Opening Narration

Review By: Dan Lopez   
Published: November 27, 2002

Stars: Killjoy, Frediablo, Iscariah, Fug
Other Stars: Mirai, Titta Tani
Director: Jim VanBebber

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (extreme gore, language)
Run Time: 01h:10m:00s
Release Date: September 10, 2002
UPC: 822603105094
Genre: metal

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
C+	C+	B-	C	C

DVD Review

Necrophagia is a hardcore, death metal band that has had a long, underground career based around their connections with horror films. They borrow and mix material from various films that have given them inspiration and the end result is their own special brand of intense metal. I personally don't much care for the music, but at least Necrophagia is an honest group who haven't diluted their style or image to gain more popularity or listeners. Through the Eyes of the Undead is a collection of their video work which is, by and large, comprised of clips from various horror films upon which the songs are based. If you're into this kind of music, I suspect Necrophagia will probably impress you with their overall styling, although to be honest, I felt as if perhaps it was a little on the immature side.

Basing an entire video album around concepts from horror movies is interesting, but it seems like Necrophagia kind of borrowed too much and are dangerously close to invading other people's work. Famous gore films seem to be the main inspiration for the songs and videos; especially influential are the films of Lucio Fulci, such as City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. Clips from The Beyond are heavily used, as is footage from Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodato's legendary and infamous piece of work, still banned around the world today. The music is, as you might expect, totally in the death metal vein; a genre that's been sort of pushed to the fringes of music despite having once enjoyed a lot of mainstream success. Is it any good? All in all, it's hard for me to say one way or the other.

Since most death metal groups are inherently obsessed with making songs about the occult, violence, and destruction, that's pretty much what you get. I can't imagine anyone buying or renting this disc who don't already know what they were getting into. To be honest, though, the lyrics about horror films, the silly band member names, and funny attempts at being scary struck me as more "carnival funhouse" atmosphere than anything that can be taken too seriously. Metal fans should enjoy the overall effect, but it's a domain pretty much for those who know what they're looking for.

Rating for Style: C+
Rating for Substance: C+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: Most of the footage on the disc is either handheld, home video style work or clips taken from films or other outside sources. It all looks pretty good and reproduces well on the disc without much in the way of digital artifacts or pixelization. It isn't professional quality filmmaking, but it gets the job done without being too distracting. Some of the footage could have been better lit. Film clips are in their proper aspect ratio.

Image Transfer Grade: B-

 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
Dolby Digital 5.1	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: Since this is centrally a music disc, the audio seemed a bit too subtle and weak. The mix seemed rather collapsed and unproduced, with the guitars, drums, and screaming vocals just all sort of combined into one track with no feeling of separation or individuality in the elements. This isn't always the problem, but it felt like the sound work could have been a bit more focused and higher quality.

Audio Transfer Grade: C

 

Disc Extras

Static menu with music
Scene Access with 5 cues and remote access
Packaging: Amaray
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extra Extras:

1. Interview Footage
2. Two bonus videos
3. Photo Gallery

Extras Review: On top of the 5 videos that make up the main feature, there are two additional videos (with a bit of commentary from the band included) which are pretty much the same overall style as the others. There are interviews with members of the group (seemingly taped inside a tour bus) and a large photo gallery of artwork, stage stills, and all sorts of stuff. The disc itself gets points for its design, but at the same time, they went a bit far with it, resulting in a painfully slow menu system that always adds new images to the screen and/or sound effects that must load with each button press.

Extras Grade: C

 

Final Comments

Either you're into death metal, or you're not. If you are, you might want to take a look at Necrophagia. While the disc feels a little amateurish, it at least has the advantage of honesty. Viewers should be warned, though, with all the gore footage included in here, the squeamish need not apply.

 

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