The production is solid, making the CD sound as clear and sharp as their studio counterparts. The performance is adequate, with the band occasionally sounding slightly different trying to cover acoustic guitar parts with electric. The audience sounds very distant and very small, almost as if cheering was piped in. Singer Anders Friden is fine raspy form, although his clean singing sections make him sound very much like Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett. So while everything is properly in order, there's little about this disc to suggest a showdown did indeed take place.
Chances are neither Japan nor Sweden won here.
It's competent and clean as a whistle, but it's really only meant for hardcore In Flames fans. Bullet ride 2. Embody the invisible 3. Food for the gods 5. Behind space 9.