While Heaven Wept – Triumph:Tragedy:Transcendence – Live at the Hammer of Doom Festival (2010)

As one of the most under rated bands of the USA, today we have While Heaven Wept and their very impressive live CD/DVD “Triumph:Tragedy:Transcendence – Live at the Hammer of Doom Festival”. With a career of over 20 years and only three full-length releases, we are usually excited when we can get anything new from this amazing band.

In this release (the audio portion), the band presents seven of their most epic songs and provide amazing renditions of each one of them, especially the older songs that in this release feature Rain Irving on vocals. With half of the “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” album here and some of the band’s ‘greatest hits’, this package features an amazing value for all the countless fans of the band.

For a band that plays only a handful of shows every year, WHW plays an amazing live set in this Hammer of Doom show, making us not be able to wait any longer to be able to see them live at ProgPower USA in 2011. The band does a killer job at playing classics like “Thus with a Kiss I Die” and the ‘newer’ songs from the “Of Empires Forlorn” album. Rain’s vocals nicely adorn these songs and make them even more impressive than ever.

As you can expect from the band, the music is executed in a top notch fashion. All songs, even the 15+ minute songs are crushing and very effective. The recording quality of this show is very high, allowing the listener to quickly be immersed in the live experience. We are dying to hear the DVD, which hopefully has 5.1 audio. The way the songs are arranged in this release works very well since we have two songs of the “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” album, three songs from the “Of Empires Forlorn” release, “Vessel” from the “Vast…” album, featuring nice backing vocals by Michelle (from Brave), and the band closes with one of their best songs ever “Thus with a Kiss I Die” from their “Sorrow of the Angels” CD.

In general, if you love WHW, then this release is a must have album. We can’t wait to get our hands on the DVD and get the full experience from this amazing show. The band has more than enough quality to make great music, and now we can listen that they can pull off their very rich songs live in a flawless manner.

Release: December 7th, 2010

Country: USA