In Flames - Used And Abused: In Live We Trust DVD
Nuclear Blast
Melodic Death / Metalcore

Release year: 2005
In Flames, Nuclear Blast
Reviewed by Ben

This review has been a long time coming. Following their recent success and Ozzfest stint, In Flames have released this DVD / cd set as a representation of their current live incarnation. The first DVD disc has two abbreviated performances and a full length show filmed in their native country of Sweden. When I say abbreviated shows I stick to my words because one concert is a mere ten songs long and the other section contains only two offerings from the 2004 Soundtrack To Your Escape tour. The ten song Hammersmith gig’s only exclusive song is a medley of Pantera’s Fucking Hostile and Behind Space. A nice little treat but not worthy of tacking on as a separate entity. What will attract the most buyers is the full set at Sticky Finger’s and even the material therein can be considered questionable. This show was billed as a “special event” and was divided into two sets, one being a song by song reproduction of Soundtrack To Your Escape and the other a setlist comprised of “classic” material. The use of the term classic will be interpreted differently amongst fans seeing as tracks from 02’s Reroute To Remain pop up in the second set. For the most part the Soundtrack selections don’t do much for me since I am not what one would call an avid fan of that album. The Quiet Place does not work in the live setting although In Search For I has an improved feel due to the slightly different tone it takes on while played live. In regards to the “classic” jaunt there are some definite highlights. Artifacts Of The Black Rain is superb live, the double harmony solos are exquisite and a pleasure to hear. Fan favorites Jotun, Embody The Invisible and Food For The Gods make appearances and are all played excellent. Unfortunately this is it in terms of true classic material. Pinball Map, Cloud Connected, and Only For The Weak (amongst others) round out the show and while my enjoyment of these songs range from relatively high to not at all, they should have been cut to make room for numbers such as Episode 666, Ordinary Story, Coerced Existence, or Dead Eternity. If these had been included then this package would be a must own for die hard fans.

DVD two shows In Flames dropping the ball again. Five music videos are shown yet they are all from the Soundtrack LP. Where’s the clips for Jotun, Pinball Map, Only For The Weak, Cloud Connected, Trigger, and Ordinary Story? All of the albums that these older clips come from are on Nuclear Blast so contractual difficulties are not the reason for their exclusion. It’s obvious after this glaring error that the main purpose of this release is to highlight Soundtrack To Your Escape. There is no reason why all of In Flames’ video clips should not be present. A documentary entitled Jester TV Universal Access (In Flames Behind The Stage) rounds out DVD two and this is enjoyable and a nice “life in the band” featurette.

Since this is the “limited edition” there are two audio cds, disc one being the audio counterpart to the Hammersmith show (minus Fucking Hostile) and a severely edited version of the Sticky Fingers gig. I know these two cds are supposed to be bonuses for the fans but this is pretty weak. A full two disc recording of a separate show would have been a much better option to do, the thought that a show recorded in the nineties could have taken these cd’s place gives me the shivers.

If you adore and love Soundtrack To Your Escape then this collection is your wet dream. If you’re an older fan of the band the only thing that you have to look forward to is the second setlist on DVD one. I feel that there is way too much emphasis on the Soundtrack sessions and that this is a highly biased release. A more rounded collection of songs (it isn’t like Soundtrack was a genre defining album and needed to be represented in its entirety) and this would be a blind buy. As it is, Used And Abused: In Live We Trust will be lapped up by newer fans and largely ignored by the rest of the melodic death buying public.

Killing Songs :
Artifacts Of The Black Rain, Jotun
Ben quoted no quote
Other albums by In Flames that we have reviewed:
In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading reviewed by Khelek and quoted 55 / 100
In Flames - A Sense Of Purpose reviewed by Chris and quoted 86 / 100
In Flames - Colony reviewed by Dylan and quoted 95 / 100
In Flames - The Jester Race reviewed by Adam and quoted CLASSIC
In Flames - Come Clarity reviewed by Jason and quoted 95 / 100
To see all 13 reviews click here
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There are 22 replies to this review. Last one on Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:36 pm
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