Customer Reviews

Roadrunner United: The Concert

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What we have here is a piece of Metal history that is not likely to be duplicated any time soon. The fact that roadrunner released this at all is a blessing. The concert itself was amazing. The song choices were great and the musicians were great. This was more of a celebration of musicianship than a celebration of a record label. Some of the performing stars aren't even on this label. If you don't already have the CD, I highly suggest that you get it. So what are the down sides to this package. First is the actual packaging. Very cheap flimsy case like I have never seen before. Spill your coffee on it and it's ruined. Something so special should have come in a nice jewel case. The picture quality was an A- due mostly to poor lighting and the camera work was an A- as well because you never get a real good view of the drummers ever. Plus the one who shot it must not have known the songs because too many times during the solos the camera is on the wrong guy. Maybe that is why that were not going to release it. On the plus side, you really don't notice or care. The sound quality is perfect. A+. I am going to have to figure out how to rip is to cd so I can listen to it in my truck. Whats great is that this was released because fans wanted so badly to see it. I don't think anyone who buys it will be disappointed. As for the second DVD (documentry) it's interviews with the musicians looking back to that night and giving their thoughts and memories. A very fun watch.

This dvd kicks Ass! all kinds of great musicians and killer tunes , never new it was out there till a few months ago. Great show for any fan of Roadrunner Records.

I wasn't sure what to expect when i received this DVD, i preordered it because i thought it would be something cool, but it surpassed my thoughts. I watched the documentary first which basically shows all the roadrunner guys saying how great that night was. This shows highlights of the show and the studio where most of the practicing happened. Then i went over to the concert itself which was just plain awesome. So many great artists playing so many great songs. There is 25 songs total live which is quite a bit of great music. The video and sound quality is great which i was a little skeptical of because i heard they were not going to release this footage. I used to go out and tape band so i really appreciate the quality of this DVD and its a great buy for any roadrunner fan.

My boyfriend is going to be so excited to get this on his birthday I have seen him look for it in several different Best Buys where the price was significantly higher. I got this one for a great price about half what I expected to pay! I was able to get him something extra!

this is a must have for the metal fan! where else you going to see glenn benton belching out obituary. the commentary disc is worth the price of the package.

THIS DVD WAS BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS. HEAVY AND CLEAN SOUND, FANTASTIC SET LIST, IT'S A METAL GALAXY.ALL STARS TOGETHER. I HOPE TO SEE MORE SHOWS ON DVD LIKE THIS, IT GIVES A MESSAGGE TO THE FANS. METAL UNITED.

THANX ROADRUNNER FOR THE WONDERFOUL MOMEMTS SEEING THIS DVD WITH A COUPLE OF FRIENDS AND A LOT OF BEER!

HOPE TO SEE YA SOON!

I bought this tonight and I must say I disagree with the 2 stars given by the other reviewer (nothing against him) I see this as an amazing living history of Roadrunner Records, and I have been a fan since I bought the first Decide CD. It does a good job of giving a good live history of some of the bigger acts to come out of Roadrunner over the 25 year history; Type O, Deicide, Obituary, Slipknot, Stone Sour, King Diamond, Annihilator, Sepultura, Soulfly, SOD, Biohazard, Life of Agony and more are represented musically here. There are notable exceptions to the people playing the music, even though Ripper Owens does a good job it sucks King Diamond wasn't there, Glenn Benton trying to do John Tardy of Obituary is ok but John has a way different idea of vocals than Glenn and he says he didn't want to do it but he decided to since they pushed it. The camera play is ok except for the wide shots where it looks like someone brought a $200 camcorder and set it up on the back wall but it doesn't show up much. The class of metal musician live during the concert is awesome with James Murphy, Andreas Kisser, Joey Jordison, Steve Asheim, Jeff Waters, Dino Cazares, Keith Caputo, Robb Flynn, and many many others playing some killer tracks. The bonus DVD is a documentary of the concert and it does an awesome job of showing what they went though and even killing some bad blood out there about aboutt Roadrunner and some of the people who played that night. I also did not see an issue with the aspect ratio but since I have a projector the size of the picture is never an issue for me. SO you might want to watch that one if you have a smaller television. But otherwise if you are a fan you need to buy this it is an awesome live set..

Words can't describe the awesomeness contained on these two disks. The documentary is both insightful, enjoyable, and funny, and the concert was beyond phenomenal. No more to say. My only regret was that I missed the show. It was 4 months before my first concert, in the same venue. :(

Ok, this is a once in a lifetime show grouping together a bunch of Roadrunner artists making a helluva metal party on stage. So what? Some exceptions apart (more on that later), if you are into stock metal from the 90's, with downtuned guitars, uninspiring and sparse guitar solos, grungish choruses and monotone, rap-like verses, this might be for you and you'll be more than pleased.

However, if you like the superb work of Roadrunner battleships of the late eighties (such as Annihilator and King Diamond), when metal used to be more daring and still very musical and powerful, well... you really get very few of that here. Luckily enough, when Tim "The Ripper" Owen kicks in with Jeff Waters and James Murphy on guitars, their performance is no less than stunning. Maybe just their rendition of the Annihilator classic "Alison Hell", Mercyful Fate's "Curse of the Pharaohs" and King Diamond's "Abigail" is worth the whole entry price. You bet The Ripper can sing! Nevertheless, besides those climatic points, all the other stuff here is quite forgettable.

Ok, other cool moments for some listeners (not me) might be Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist", as well as the festive ambience of the closing song "Roots Bloody Roots" -- also a Sepultura's song, but covered here by many musicians on stage, including The Ripper again.

I don't think anyway this DVD will get a lot of playtime in my DVD player. Don't get me wrong though, as I don't want to disrespect the excellent job done by the backing band led by Dino Cazares. No doubt these musicians can play, but to me it's not only about how great you can play, but also about *what* you play.

Besides that, the production is pretty decent, though quite often the camera focuses on the rhythm guitar while the other guitarist is spitting his solo out -- what the...!? 8-|

The extra DVD has cool interviews and I kind of enjoyed it more than the whole concert. It's a shame Jeff Waters don't get as much screen time as James Murphy -- talk about an underrated TRUE guitar hero! ...in any case, the overall thing is quite enjoyable.

Finally, I give to this release 3 stars just for its documentary value and its good-enough production. Shamefully, I can't squeeze it more than that. At least two thirds of the music showcased here is completely non-transcendental, in spite of the aforementioned more-than-five stars performance from Tim Owen with Waters and Murphy. Other than that, this is just for unschooled modern metalheads. Thanks for reading this far!

Great artists. Great songs. A great night. But for this DVD, they forced a 16:9 picture into a 4:3 frame. Another sub-par production from Roadrunner. Rent it.