As the German support for the "North American Black Metal Invasion Pt.I" – tour in December, SECRETS OF THE MOON played a couple of gigs in Germany and Belgium with GODLESS NORTH, INQUISITION and KRIEG. One of them, the one at the "Festung" in Bitterfeld, was recorded and now released as a limited live-tape (200 copies) on Arkana Musik. This tape is really able to bring you forth the power that S.O.T.M. are able to create live – an energetic yet spiritual gig that if you see them for the first time, leaves you speechless. It is no doubt that they really were the best band on the evening at the tour when I saw them. This livetape includes a good mixture of old (‘Caller Of The Moon’) and newer still unreleased songs (‘Kaosthrone (Destroy To Kreate)’) presenting for the first time their new drummer Thrawn on an official release. Especially the new songs show that S.O.T.M. become more and more outstanding, so hard to compare to any other act, so supreme in their own way and style that although the loss of MOONBLOOD and NAGELFAR is hard, the flag of the German Black Metal-scene is held up high so easily by this three-piece and if bearing in mind such bands which are few, we can forget about most of all these childish rumours, struggles etc. that nowadays paint the picture of the Black Metal-scene. I simply cannot find words for some bands, S.O.T.M. are among them. The sound is impressingly good for a live-recording, there are even worse live-recordings on CD, the only thing that I don’t like is that all songs are cut out as the live-feeling gets lost this way, but I doubt that this really matters. The tape comes as a professional release, printed inlay, sticker and hand-numbered! A must-have! http://www.arkana.de.vu