Band : Roadrunner United

Album Title : The Concert

Label : Roadrunner Records

Distributor : Concreteweb Web Promotion Office - CNR

Release Date : 01/12/2008

Release : DVD

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Roadrunner Records this record label has launched a double DVD. Roadrunner held on December 15th 2005 a huge concert at the Nokia Theater in New York City. It was an  event featuring 39 musicians from 25 bands, performing 25 songs from the catalogue of 19 bands. As occasional house band they’ve put together Dino Cazares of Aesino, Adam Duce of Machine Head, Paul Gray and Joey Jordison of Slipknot, Andreas Kisser of Sepultura and Roy Mayorga of Stone Sour. Almost three years after the event the DVD “Roadrunner United: The Concert” finally arrives as a two-disc special edition DVD from the label that put it all together with on one disc the full concert and on the other disc the 75 minute documentary. This documentary you could better watch after the concert because it’s more a retrospective of how the concert came to be with newly-shot footage and interviews of the players involved. Still this documentary is an entertaining movie with the bands discussing the potential disaster of having a label pay tribute to itself. And since all turned out well this is entertaining package that would be a welcome addition to the collection of any fan of dark and heavy music. The second disc with the concert starts with a powerful version of Biohazard’s “Punishment”. Besides the sometimes lacking technical aspects, the performances are the showcase of the set. Tim Owens handles the high-notes of the King Diamond and Annihilator songs masterfully and serves as a clear reminder of why he was chosen to replace Rob Halford in Judas Priest. Jesse Leach, front man of Killswitch Engage, shares vocals with Howard Jones on the band’s “My Last Serenade” and closing out the song with a gigantic on-stage man-hug. The only disappointment on this concert DVD is the performance of Type O’Negative best song “Black No. 1". By absent of any members of the band and with sickly H.I.M. front man Ville Valo butchering the vocals this song really sucks. But in the end this DVD is entertaining from the beginning towards the end.

70/100

Guido Claes.