SAINT - ALIVE FOREVER DVD

Saints latest release is a live DVD entitled Alive Forever. Recorded and performed earlier this year at The Grand Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. A solid set of heavy metal is performed by Richard Lynch and company.

A three camera shoot (at least that’s what I can detect) was used to capture this performance. Scorching through tracks such as The Blade (from 2010’s Hell Blade) and the title track of 2004’s In the Battle quite a bit of diversity is presented here in regards to Saint’s back catalog.

The complete set list is a follows;

The Blade
The Choice
The Mark
To Live Forever
The Path
Holy Rollin’
The Vision
In The Battle
Alpha and Omega
Hell Blade

It is curious though that nothing was performed from 2008’s Crime Scene Earth and to revive a rather obscure track from their 1999 EP, A Perfect Life. The song in question To Live Forever appears here and it doesn’t quite fit musically. Even a third track from Hell Blade like Too The Cross or New World Order would've been a nice inclusion.

Quite a collection of bonus material appears here as well, a mix of fan footage and professionally shot performances. It should be noted that the very early material is for the hardcore fan only, the original tape sources being over twenty years old with some obvious degradation. The fans who shot the footage were obviously trying for a souvenir, specifically the Cornerstone 1986 footage. Both of Saint’s professionally shot music videos for Hell Blade appear here, the tracks The Blade and The New World Order respectively.

It can be observed that Saint spent a lot of money on this production between the video shoot and the lighting used for the concert. Yet for me it seems that the show itself is too dark most of the time. Guitarist Jerry Johnson on first glance is nearly absent; perhaps due to the lack of light on his side of the stage. When the show was edited back together it seems that the editors kept going back to drummer Larry London, perhaps because he had the most consistent light source?

As best as I can determine this was a three camera shoot and capture Saint they did. Fans of Saint (as I have been since 1984) will want this in their collections. The technical items aside this DVD shows Saint doing what they do best, rockin’ hard.

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