Review of In The Woods - Live At The Caledonien Hall

In my eyes, live albums rarely offer anything worthy of excitement. However, some bands have released material so strong over the course of their career that it’s at the very least interesting to see how those songs translate to a live setting. In The Woods is one such band. Their studio albums from Heart of the Ages through Three by Seven on a Pilgrimage were all superb bar the substandard production that the recent reissues have helped to remedy. Most bands as epic and ambitious as In The Woods aren’t capable of doing their music justice in a live setting, but I think that on this fine double album, they’ve done just so. It’s not without flaws, but I can safely say that no live albums I’ve heard previously can touch this. The nearly two and a half hours of music found here encompasses just about their entire career, drawing most heavily from Omnio, Strange in Stereo, and Three by Seven on a Pilgrimage. Considering the diversity between the material on each of those albums, it’s not a set that could possibly get boring. Their transition from grandiose blackish metal to spaced out gothic progressive (or something of the sort-- bands like this are terribly hard to categorize) is well showcased here. The songs from their more aggressive albums, Omnio and Heart of the Ages, are performed with as much enthusiastic ferocity as when they were originally recorded, while the songs from Strange in Stereo and 3X7 give off just the vibe that was originally intended; psychedelic, extravagant, and moody. 3X7, an album comprised of four covers among the ten tracks, showed listeners that In The Woods really got the point of covering songs. That point being to take someone else’s song and make it your own, to not blatantly copy it. On stage, their creative license has taken the two cover tunes, King Crimson’s Epitaph and Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, even further from their originals, and in such a good way. They don’t stand out as any different from the rest of In The Woods’ material, but instead enhance the brilliant songwriting of others past into something consistent with what the band does in writing their own songs. There are two things here worthy of bringing up that aren’t positive, but, fortunately, both are minor. The vocals, at times, tend to get a bit overbearing to say the least. They strive far too much to be epic and at times go far overboard. Most of the time both the male and female vocals are fine, but when they get all riled up, it’s not a good thing. In addition, the production isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. For a live album, it’s sufficient, but it could’ve been put together a bit better. In a live setting, the audience has no choice but to pay full attention. Because there’s no way of assuring that on an album, some bands aren’t given the attention needed to fully appreciate what they’re doing. I found myself distracted by things while listening to this record and the songs seemed to fall flat. Then I listened to them more closely to see if they actually were bad and they totally weren’t. So, this album isn’t something for casual listening, but the good thing about underground music fans is that most aren’t simply casual listeners. Overall, this record is damn good in general, especially for a live album. I can’t say much besides that I highly recommend it. If you’re not familiar with the band, do yourself a favor and listen to their studio albums first, then check this one out. You’ll be damn thankful you did.

Release Details

In The Woods

Live At The Caledonien Hall

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