H R H - R E V I E W S

Seventh Season
Transposition Independent

Comments: Seventh Season is a three piece band from Russia, headed by the father-son duo of Konstantin (Chad) and Juri Batygin. The progressive, alternative rock band has an experimental feel to their music. This DVD performance was recorded at the Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, Calif.

The atmosphere on this DVD feels sterile, almost like a demo video. The audience is seated and while they clap, there really isn't a concert feeling. The stage is plain and the backdrop is black, which doesn't help the ease of viewing .

The energy and showmanship of the band is much more mellow and morose than it should be considering their music style. It would be nice to see a little more excitement from the band. Konstantin (Chad) has the best stage presence and energy level of the three. When he finally loosens up a little bit, later in the concert, his performance is actually pretty decent.

It's obvious that Chad is still just a little bit unsure of how to work a crowd and sometimes he talks longer than he needs to, elaborating too much instead of starting the next song. Unfortunately he doesn't get much help from his audience. Someone should definitely have fed them more booze before the concert started. It would be interesting to see what Chad could do with a larger, energetic crowd. It's amazing how fast you can develop your frontman skills when the crowd is rocking.

The video is shot from several camera angles, so there's a little variation to keep you interested. Although, the editing is pretty vanilla and doesn't really match the music or the feel of the band. The camera shots could be better at capturing the band, especially during Chad's solos.

The sound mix is great. Everything is audible and the tones are good. The vocals stand out well and are easy to understand, which helps keep you into the video.

The light show leaves quite a bit to be desired. First of all, the stage is grossly under-lit. There should have been three or four times the number of light cans for the size of the stage. There was barely enough light to see the band, let alone try to help the band create certain moods and energy levels. During some of Chad's solos, you actually lose his face in the shadows because there's not enough light. And as everyone knows, at least half of a rock guitar solo is the expression on the guitarist's face!

"New Day" may be a song you'll want to check out. Juri takes over on vocals and sings in Russian. It's interesting even if you don't know Russian. It may even be interesting because you don't know Russian.

This DVD makes nice promotional material as it showcases the bands musical talents and their ability to perform live. It looks like it was a decent show to go see, it's just not very entertaining to watch on DVD.

www.indierec.com
www.theseventhseason.net

Track Listing:
1. Desire
2. Commando
3. Pirate Song
4. So Insane
5. New Day
6. Like Years Ago
7. Liquid Water
8. Drag Me
9. Ocean of Time
10. Machine
11. Apart from Here
12. My Only Honor
13. April

Hardrock Haven rating: 4.2/10