Between Megadeth lead singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine's recently released memoir, lead guitarist Chris Broderick's Guitar World columns, and another mammoth world tour by the band itself, fans have certainly had some golden opportunities to get their fill of the heavy metal titans this year.
The original 22-show long North American leg of the 2010 Megadeth World Tour in March provided a special treat for longtime fans, a live performance of the band's entire seminal Rust In Peace album, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Several other classics rounded each live set, of course.
The sold out March 31 show at the Hollywood Palladium was filmed and recorded, and now this week, released on CD, DVD and Blu-ray as Rust In Peace Live (on Shout! Factory). This review looks at the CD and DVD options.
AUDIO
A live recording that is 74 minutes long seems like a long concert. But with a fast-paced metal band like Megadeth, an hour and approximately fifteen minutes of ripping rifftastic metal goes by in a flash and leaves you wanting more. That is, of course, a good thing.
An audience of mostly young males leads the "ME-GA-DETH!" chants shortly before Dave Mustaine graces the stage to say "Good evening," a few more words, and then gets right down to business with the rest of the four-man clan.
The one-two punch of "Holy Wars ... The Punishment Due" and (the UFO-themed) "Hangar 18," followed by the war-based "Take No Prisoners" is a relentless trio of metal classics unmatched by any other opening set of songs in the band's catalog. And the sell-out hometown Los Angeles crowd ate up every bit of it.
The engineering and mixing of this performance is outstanding, as the listener is able to hear all instruments evenly, and also pick up various audience chants and sing-alongs very clearly. Take "Hangar 18," where the crowd spontaneously shouts "ME-GA-DETH!" along to drummer Shawn Drover's three accented beats during the extended solo section.
The only (minor) issue one could pick out is the lack of volume on the backup vocals to (personal favorite) "Tornado of Souls," which was otherwise a showstopper in and of itself here. But that was perhaps due to the way founding Megadeth bassist David Ellefson sang them more than the way it was mixed (by Ryan Greene). By the way, after being away for several years, Ellefson rejoined the band he co-founded shortly before the tour, and he sounded right at home throughout. At one point in the show, you could even hear a fan yell out "Welcome back!"
Note: This is an excerpt of an article that was first published in full at Blogcritics Magazine
Showing posts with label Megadeth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Megadeth. Show all posts
Friday, September 10, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Music DVD Review: Clutch - Live At The 9:30 (2-DVD)
This review was first published yesterday, May 22 at Blogcritics Magazine. This is just a short excerpt from it.
It’s become an increasingly popular trend over the past few years for veteran rock acts to give loyal fans the special live treat of playing a complete beloved album of theirs in its entirety live, and then some.
311, The Pixies, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, the Lemonheads, and most recently Megadeth, among others have given their following a live take of classic albums, including respectively, Grassroots, Doolittle, British Steel, Born To Run, It’s A Shame About Ray, and Rust In Peace.
Last December, the mighty Maryland hard rockers Clutch gave fans in select cities the special holiday treat of performing its entire 13-track 1995 classic self-titled second album live, with some select new tunes from its 2009 studio release Strange Cousins From The West and a couple of other oldies rounding out most set lists. With concerts as rare as these, you bet some high-tech video cameras were rolling on select dates.
Released on May 11, well ahead of its latest world headlining tour which takes place in June and July, Live At The 9:30 is a 90-minute, 19-song concert double DVD that captures the quartet’s entire December 28, 2009, performance at the legendary 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on one disc, with a nearly two-hour road movie called Fortune Tellers Make A Killing Nowadays on the second DVD.
Rest the whole review at this link
It’s become an increasingly popular trend over the past few years for veteran rock acts to give loyal fans the special live treat of playing a complete beloved album of theirs in its entirety live, and then some.
311, The Pixies, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, the Lemonheads, and most recently Megadeth, among others have given their following a live take of classic albums, including respectively, Grassroots, Doolittle, British Steel, Born To Run, It’s A Shame About Ray, and Rust In Peace.
Last December, the mighty Maryland hard rockers Clutch gave fans in select cities the special holiday treat of performing its entire 13-track 1995 classic self-titled second album live, with some select new tunes from its 2009 studio release Strange Cousins From The West and a couple of other oldies rounding out most set lists. With concerts as rare as these, you bet some high-tech video cameras were rolling on select dates.
Released on May 11, well ahead of its latest world headlining tour which takes place in June and July, Live At The 9:30 is a 90-minute, 19-song concert double DVD that captures the quartet’s entire December 28, 2009, performance at the legendary 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on one disc, with a nearly two-hour road movie called Fortune Tellers Make A Killing Nowadays on the second DVD.
Rest the whole review at this link
Monday, October 29, 2007
Music Review: Megadeth - That One Night: Live In Buenos Aires
Note: First published on Blogcritics 9-06-07
If you're in a great band, if you've built up a loyal fan base AND have had some degree of success over the years, there's a good chance that you will put out a live record some day. And if your band has sold over 70 million records worldwide in a span of 20 years, as Dave Mustaine's band Megadeth has, the time has finally come for that definitive live album.
Hardcore Megadeth fans know the band has released a couple live compilations and a fan club-only unplugged album in the past, but That One Night is their first official single show release. It captures a rejuvenated Dave Mustaine and his mates arguably at their absolute peak here, in terms of both performance and energy.
Recorded October 9, 2005 at Obras Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the concert features more than 100 minutes of non-stop, career-spanning (through 2004's The System Has Failed CD) thrash and speed metal over two discs. The DVD release of this show came out this past spring. It was recently certified Gold, and was as highly regarded as this newly released audio version should and likely will be.
But listening to either of the two CDs, listeners can easily use their imaginations to picture the electricity inside Obras Stadium that October night. The 25,000-strong fans in attendance really brought out the best in Megadeth.
Though Megadeth has gone through many lineup changes over the years, the group that Mustaine put together for the 2005 tour was the most fiery and fiercest in recent memory. It featured the Drover brothers - Shawn on drums and Glen on guitar - and James MacDonough (Iced Earth) on bass. The lone original member and main songwriter Dave Mustaine has likely never sounded better and kicked out more consistent, skull-crushing metal jams and gems than on this night. However, some may be left begging for more, as this 21-song set (like its DVD companion) is allegedly missing some tracks that were played that night, including "Sweating Bullets." Nonetheless, any worries of getting ripped off or not getting your money's worth will go away within minutes of pressing play on your CD player.
From show opener "Blackmail The Universe" to live staples like "Skin Of My Teeth" - both on disc one - and "Peace Sells" (disc two), the band showcases their influential brand of thrash and speed metal to the delight of the masses. The audience not only knows the lyrics to Megadeth's most beloved songs — they sing the opening chords of classics like "Symphony of Destruction" and an extended version of "Trust" — they also make their own vocals where there are none in order to sing along to the guitar riffs and solos on tracks such as "She Wolf."
Dave Mustaine even sings parts of songs like "Trust" in Spanish and allows the audience to sing an extra chorus. Taken together, it may not be the greatest heavy metal concert of all time, but it should certainly be high on anybody's list, as it is the most interactive and truly inspired metal concert put to tape in recent memory (at least according to these ears).
Dave Mustaine has a special bond with the Argentinian people that goes back several years. In the CD jacket, he recounts how fans there rode in taxis driving 100 mph just to hand him gifts in the van he was riding in; others who knew where the band spent their time in the country spelled out M-E-G-A-D-E-T-H "in the rocks of the [Sheraton] hotel landscaping."
But perhaps the most moving of all Mustaine's recollections is when he tells of the first time Megadeth ever played in Buenos Aires. Outside the gates of the show, he met a very sick young boy who suffered from a rare and fatal accelerated aging condition. The boy let Mustaine know how much he loved him and his music and Mustaine let him know the affection was mutual.
So if you had any doubts as to how powerful heavy music can be and what it can mean to people around the world, especially Megadeth's, those doubts should be gone by now. This band played their hearts out for those tens of thousands of fans and recorded a nearly flawless set that Megadeth fans all over the globe will enjoy for years to come.
If you're in a great band, if you've built up a loyal fan base AND have had some degree of success over the years, there's a good chance that you will put out a live record some day. And if your band has sold over 70 million records worldwide in a span of 20 years, as Dave Mustaine's band Megadeth has, the time has finally come for that definitive live album.
Hardcore Megadeth fans know the band has released a couple live compilations and a fan club-only unplugged album in the past, but That One Night is their first official single show release. It captures a rejuvenated Dave Mustaine and his mates arguably at their absolute peak here, in terms of both performance and energy.
Recorded October 9, 2005 at Obras Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the concert features more than 100 minutes of non-stop, career-spanning (through 2004's The System Has Failed CD) thrash and speed metal over two discs. The DVD release of this show came out this past spring. It was recently certified Gold, and was as highly regarded as this newly released audio version should and likely will be.
But listening to either of the two CDs, listeners can easily use their imaginations to picture the electricity inside Obras Stadium that October night. The 25,000-strong fans in attendance really brought out the best in Megadeth.
Though Megadeth has gone through many lineup changes over the years, the group that Mustaine put together for the 2005 tour was the most fiery and fiercest in recent memory. It featured the Drover brothers - Shawn on drums and Glen on guitar - and James MacDonough (Iced Earth) on bass. The lone original member and main songwriter Dave Mustaine has likely never sounded better and kicked out more consistent, skull-crushing metal jams and gems than on this night. However, some may be left begging for more, as this 21-song set (like its DVD companion) is allegedly missing some tracks that were played that night, including "Sweating Bullets." Nonetheless, any worries of getting ripped off or not getting your money's worth will go away within minutes of pressing play on your CD player.
From show opener "Blackmail The Universe" to live staples like "Skin Of My Teeth" - both on disc one - and "Peace Sells" (disc two), the band showcases their influential brand of thrash and speed metal to the delight of the masses. The audience not only knows the lyrics to Megadeth's most beloved songs — they sing the opening chords of classics like "Symphony of Destruction" and an extended version of "Trust" — they also make their own vocals where there are none in order to sing along to the guitar riffs and solos on tracks such as "She Wolf."
Dave Mustaine even sings parts of songs like "Trust" in Spanish and allows the audience to sing an extra chorus. Taken together, it may not be the greatest heavy metal concert of all time, but it should certainly be high on anybody's list, as it is the most interactive and truly inspired metal concert put to tape in recent memory (at least according to these ears).
Dave Mustaine has a special bond with the Argentinian people that goes back several years. In the CD jacket, he recounts how fans there rode in taxis driving 100 mph just to hand him gifts in the van he was riding in; others who knew where the band spent their time in the country spelled out M-E-G-A-D-E-T-H "in the rocks of the [Sheraton] hotel landscaping."
But perhaps the most moving of all Mustaine's recollections is when he tells of the first time Megadeth ever played in Buenos Aires. Outside the gates of the show, he met a very sick young boy who suffered from a rare and fatal accelerated aging condition. The boy let Mustaine know how much he loved him and his music and Mustaine let him know the affection was mutual.
So if you had any doubts as to how powerful heavy music can be and what it can mean to people around the world, especially Megadeth's, those doubts should be gone by now. This band played their hearts out for those tens of thousands of fans and recorded a nearly flawless set that Megadeth fans all over the globe will enjoy for years to come.
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