New England Metal & Hardcore Festival 2003

(Trustkill, 2004)

DVD review

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Someone finally made a New England Metal & Hardcore Festival DVD. It was inevitable since this is one of the best metalfests in the U.S., now in it's 6th year. Capturing that however, seems to be a problem. All the right elements are there for a great DVD, the fest played host to killer bands like Opeth, Meshuggah, Lamb Of God, and Shadows Fall who are all on this DVD, (where on earth are Superjoint Ritual, Mastodon and Bongzilla? that's what I'd like to know)...All mixed in with alot of bands I can't stand who all sound alike and scream incomprehensibly, (and no one needs to sit through 2 Lacuna Coil songs). But such is part of the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival. So where did this DVD go horribly wrong? Well, for one the mix blows, often the viewers find themselves wondering where the hell the vocals are since they get completely drowned by guitars here and there, (however this actually makes several bands sound better). Opeth's performance is particularly frustrating due to the mix. There is also distortion here and there throughout the DVD, not exactly an A+ for sound here. The video is quite decent for the most part, (you'd hope so by now, wouldn't you?). But wait, there's more! In between the live footage, the viewer is subjected to incredibly lame footage of various bands sitting on the couch in one of the dressing rooms upstairs in the Worcester paladium, telling very uninteresting stories and answering questions no one wants the answers to. Somewhere in the nearly 3 hours of footage there are gems however, Lamb Of God's captured performances are great for the pit footage alone, not to mention Meshuggah's 2 blistering tracks as well.

DVD Rating:

Reviewed by: Wolfie