Another Trinity for Christmas: Three Recent Live Releases

By about mid-November, the flow of new albums has usually ground to a halt, which is great for those who are preparing end of the year stuff (stay tuned...), but leaves a bit of a gap for people looking for something to listen to. Luckily, a confluence of events has led to a number of live albums/DVDs coming out from some fairly big names. But are they all worth the time?

It'd be hard to argue that a free hour and a half of live music isn't worth a look, but when that free content is coming from Trent Reznor, any doubts can be safely erased. One of the great things about being a NIN fan in 2008 was watching Trent's bitterness at Interscope Records result in a four part instrumental album and a new studio record, all for no charge! Apparently, being in the middle of the honeymoon periods for two of his artistic endevours with Columbia Records hasn't stopped him, because with no warning at all a fully produced concert film documenting the Los Angeles stop of the band's Tension tour appeared on December 5th to once again reward us. There's a Blu-Ray release to follow next year, but watching the YouTube version on an HDTV put most of the professional releases I've seen this year to shame. As expected, the stage design and production values are high, with all sorts of cool interlocking screens and curtains illuminated by seemingly alien lighting rigs entertaining the eyes, but this is also, honestly, the most entertaining the music has been to at least these ears in a while. Back up singers Lisa Fischer and Sharlotte Gibson add a great flavor to many of these songs, and even manage to make the excerpts of Closer that pop up sound somewhat sultry and alluring. The set is probably still not heavy enough for those that are craving Downward Spiral 2.0, but March of the Pigs and the like are still played with plenty of power. People have been divided on the new album, but I think those who have positive memories of NIN live will find they've picked up where they left off, perhaps improving in the process.

Black Sabbath, on the other hand, have had a reputation for quite a while as an act that would be better off perhaps retiring from the road (or retiring completely depending on who you ask), a feeling built almost entirely on the fact that Ozzy, let's face it, has had better vocal days. With a little correction in studio, he's just fine. But live, at least in the last decade or so, it seems like every clip of him varies between out of tune with occasionally different lyrics at best, to incoherent mumbling and wailing at worst. So while the chart topping return of any other legacy act would of course be grounds for a big Blu-Ray/DVD appearance, Gathered in their Masses sounded like a bit of a risk, even to someone who liked 13 as much as I did (again, stay tuned...). Were the concerns justified?

Well, not entirely...

Putting aside Ozzy for a moment, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler really should be studied in terms of how to age gracefully as rock stars. Iommi's health has unfortunately become a question mark in the last year, but due to cancer, not damage from the years he's put on either from drugs or natural aging. These two can arguably still play just as well as they could in Sabbath's glory days. The set is heavier than hell, including the contributions of Tommy Clufetos, who isn't Bill Ward but fills the absence appropriately. Let's face it, if Ward's name hadn't occupied so many headlines, I don't think that many people would feel the void left. But these aren't the people I spent the whole introduction talking about. What about Ozzy? Well, he's better than he's sounded in a while, and the new songs in particular are sung with a fair bit of enthusiasm and power. It's when he loses the thread a bit or starts improvising during instrumental solos that he falls apart, and it takes a bit each time for him to find his way back to the pitch again. His crowd banter would be better off cut, people are just cheering at what they think he's trying to say at this point. Still, improvement is improvement. I wish he'd gotten to show that improvement on a few of the band's better songs, like Symptom of the Universe and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but they're inexplicably cut short. Into the Void can be played but no Sabbath Bloody Sabbath? Who made that decision? Regardless, this isn't a waste of money, and it certainly made me feel better about buying tickets for a performance I thought I'd be seeing moreso out of some inexplicable duty in the future. Realistic expectations will be met, and I don't think it will be hard to keep those in check at this point.

Another name band with an iffy live reputation are the devils that came out of Georgia (so sorry), Mastodon. The band's star has been on the rise since Leviathan with many people putting them with Lamb of God right at the forefront of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, and chart success starting to match that reputation. But lots of places, such as MetalSucks most notably, have published editorials alongside their praise questioning in particular the vocal aspects of the live performance. When I saw them in 2010, they projected a mind alteringly hypnotic film to play behind them while they ran through Crack the Skye in its entirety, and as soon as the intro to Blood and Thunder began during the encore the place went nuts enough that it didn't really matter, but the lack of a real lyrical presence in the set was definitely noticeable. 2011's Live at the Aragon was frankly awful, with only a couple of hits to supplement the Crack the Skye run through and embarrassing vocals for a professional recording. My hopes were up for Live at Brixton, which features a much longer and varied setlist and is coming off of touring for The Hunter, where one of the bands' goals as stated in the press was to bring a certain spark back to the live performances.

Unfortunately, I'm going to end up echoing the previous Sabbath review. It ALMOST gets there.

The energy is certainly improved. Instead of creating an immaculate, immersive presentation like the Crack the Skye tour, the emphasis is definitely back on the heavy. The problem is that the course almost feels too corrected, and lots of little nuances are lost. The set is a breakneck race to the finish line, and even on albums like Blood Mountain and Remission part of the fun with Mastodon is finding that weird guitar tone or the crazy drum fill that few other bands seem to be bothered with. For every Curl of the Burl, which comes through in all of its stomping, headbanging glory, there's two other songs that doesn't quite get there. Also, while the vocals are certainly more audible than the mumbly, whispery attempts on Live at the Aragon, they're certainly not up to what should be considered a live standard yet. I mention my 2010 experience in the intro to say that in the moment, this is something that could be overlooked, but when removed from the experience, sitting in your room examining this release with a sense of detachment, they don't work. None of this affects my anticipation for next year's new studio album, but it certainly would've been nice to come into that disc with good memories in mind.