For my regular readers, I would like to say that this kicks off what I am calling Spring: Alive. For the next six weeks or so, all the reviews are going to mainly be live albums. There will be a few exceptions and the first one is the Some Kind Of Monster CD. This was a special promotional disc for the documentary of the same name.
I'm not sure what this album would really be called, format wise. There's eight tracks and it runs long enough to be considered a full album, but at the same time it's pretty much a Maxi Single. The album version of Some Kind Of Monster kicks off the album, while the edited version finishes the album. The middle six tracks are all live cuts.
I'm going to get into the live tracks first. They were recorded on "June 11, 2003, in Paris, France, during one of three club shows performed on the hottest day in French History." This is according to the liner notes. The songs were recorded and mixed by Mike Gillies. I don't care for his work. The bass is lost in too much of the mix, the drums are too far forward, and the only thing that sounds right is James' vocals. That is from a mix point of view.
The songs themselves are The Four Horsemen, Damage, Inc., Leper Messiah, Motorbreath, Ride The Lightning, and Hit The Lights. Classic songs done live with then new bassist Rob Trujillo.
Two of those songs are in my top ten of Metallica tracks. Sadly, I find that The Four Horsemen, and Leper Messiah fall short, and it's purely because of how everything sounds. The best way to describe the sound is that James' vocals were run straight into the mixer, so was the snare, hi-hat, and a couple of cymbals, while the guitars and bass were recorded with some distance from the band's amps. I remember making recordings that sounded like this on my buddy Matt's Fostex four track cassette recorder, but Matt mixed everything so it wasn't in the back of the mix. Actually when I think about how this comes across I would say that the closest thing I ever did to creating that type of live sound was park a video camera about ten feet away from the front of a stage and hit record.
As for tracks one and eight, well I don't mind the song Some Kind Of Monster. I will say that I like the full length version of the song better that the edited one. Also if I had to guess the direction Bob Rock took on the St. Anger album, I think is what loosely inspired the mix on the live tracks on this album. Not to say that Bob did a bad job. To me it's more that the drums are too far forward in the mix, especially the snare. I don't mind that he turned the actual snare off. I dislike it's placement in the mix. Over all I do enjoy the song when it comes on.
If the sound on the live tracks had been better, this album would have been better. Motorbreath and Hit The Lights were never songs that I was overly big on. Damage, Inc. and Ride The Lightning are very welcomed editions to the album since they don't get played live all that often.
I should mention that you can hear all instruments clearly, for the most part. The bass is a little burried, but it's not too bad when you consider the original source material. Which is to say that the bass and the guitars run pretty close together.
If you are like me and really like listening to live tracks, then maybe you should get this album. If you are also a Metallica fan, it wouldn't hurt either. However, this CD is meant only for that type of person. I would say that it's really a bargain bin grab for the most part.
8/10 - content
4/10 - production
6/10 - personal bias
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