The thing about live albums in my opinion is that the energy of the band should be captured on it, and this disc does that perfectly. I first listened to it while sitting in a train and I just couldn’t stop moving all sorts of body parts to the beats. A big grin was on my face the whole time and as you can probably conclude by now, I LOVE THIS SHIT!!!

It has been a while since these recordings were made, and what you learn from that is that a very intensive mixing process came with the production of this stuff. Which you can hear very well, especially with the drums. When played loudly on a decent surround set or something you are surrounded by effect crashes and toms. Incredibly broad, fantastic.

 

Another plus for this album is that I can follow the bass guitar throughout the entire concert, without it disappearing in the drums and guitars. That thing is pounding like hell, especially when your auditing it through earplugs. All the other equipment comes through in the mix as well, so you get the complete picture perfectly. It’s just that because of the intensive drum mixing, a bit of the percussion is lost in that.

The little improvisations they do in the tracks are marvellous too, like faster double bass parts, little guitar and bass walks here and there and some adjusted solo’s to name a few. It makes it a bit more refreshing.

 

So do I have anything bad to say about this? Well, you could say that Corey’s screams don’t sound as cool as they do on the studio albums, but I don’t totally agree with that. He has a far more high pitched scream that you would throw out the second before one of your limbs is severed from your body. That’s the best description I could come up with…

And that there’s a little feedback in I believe two tracks, one being “Get This”. But that enhances the “live” feeling for me.

 

The selection of tracks on the discs is magnificent. Their first time ever playing “Skin
Ticket” of the Iowa album is on it, as well as their short version of the track “Iowa” itself. Besides of those and a few other softer tracks, it’s full of the brutal stuff they’ve done. I’m talking “People=Shit”, “Eeyore”, “Get This”,” Three Nil” and “The Heretic Anthem”. Blasting madness!!!

 

This is truly a worthy addition to the Slipknot releases and a must-have for every person ever to call itself a maggot. The (Sic)ness continues…