Heaven & Hell: Radio City Music Hall Live Blu-ray
Review
Overall
The Performance
Video Quality
Audio Quality
Supplemental Materials
The Performance
Heaven & Hell, the legendary lineup of vocalist Ronnie James Dio,
guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Vinny Appice, otherwise
known as Black Sabbath, formed in 2007, the first time the lineup had played
together in over 15-years. They had intended it as a one-off reunion show, to
take place at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall on March 30. That
show, which is captured in this Blu-ray release from Eagle Rock, would turn into
a world tour of the post-Ozzy Sabbath lineup, now reunited for the first time in
decades under the new Heaven & Hell banner, eventually recording an album of
all new music in 2009. Sadly, all grand plans for the reinvigorated crew would
have to be scrapped after Dio died from stomach cancer on May 16, 2010.
His last tango in front of
the masters of dark metal is forever enshrined here in this 2007 performance.
It’s a 15-song marathon of shredding, power chords, minor keys, and dour
imagery that fans of the post-Ozzy lineup will cherish. From the enduring “Mob
Rules,” hooky “Sign of the Southern Cross” and “Voodoo” to the title
track, Radio City Music Hall Live is a metal fan’s holy sabbath.
Track listing:
Video Quality
The HD-captured performance
arrives in a 1080i/60 AVC transfer that is good enough, but not spectacular by
any means. There is a lot of video noise present in the low light stage setting
and a pervasive softness to the overall image, but there are no signs of
aliasing, macroblocking or any other nuisances as such to be found.
Audio Quality
Radio City Music Hall is
one of the better sounding performance spaces in the world for popular music and
I’ve had the pleasure of viewing performances there on more than once
occasion. It;s not surprising, then, that this concert video from Eagle Rock
sounds superb. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is big and spacious, showing a good
amount of instrumental separation. Dynamics are relatively good for this sort of
music while high frequencies are somewhat relaxed, though they can become just a
bit fatiguing after a while at higher volumes. Lows are tight and musical and
vocals are at a good balance in the mix. The surround channels carry good amount
of ambience that capture the performance space well while keeping crowd noise at
a minimum. Those looking for a stereo mix will find an equally impressive PCM
2.0 mix that has a solid, natural sounding midrange, good tight bass, and wide
stereo panning.
Supplemental Materials
All the video supplements
are provided in HD and offer more glimpses of the metal gods, their crew, and
their faithful fans.
The supplements provided
with this release are:
The Definitive Word
Overall:
Turn it on and crank it up
metal heads, Heaven & Hell on Blu-ray is a raucous bit of dark metal from
the overlords of the genre.
Additional Screen Captures
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Overall
The Performance
Video Quality
Audio Quality
Supplemental Materials