Review of Corrosion Of Conformity: Live Volume The Movie

Introduction

This is the live concert from Corrosion of Conformity and was recorded in April 2001 at Harpo`s Theatre in Detroit. There are 15 songs and a few interviews clips between tracks just to break things up a little. I`ve not seen any CoC stuff before, but I`ve heard the music, and all I can say is that if you like your music heavy, you won`t be disappointed. This is the first DVD release from the band on rock label Sanctuary Records.

Video

This is presented with a fullframe transfer which is very sharp and well defined. The detail is high, colours are neutral and the blacks are very black. It`s very impressive with no sign of compression or other defects at all. The only drawback to the live concert is that it`s recorded with a fullframe and not widescreen. Too many concerts are presented in what I think is too enclosed a space. Anamorphic widescreen would be far better!

Audio

There`s a choice of two soundtracks, DD 5.1 and 2.0. Listening with the 5.1 track is awesome. I love the sound of the heavy guitars getting to work that I have to rock with it. The surround effect is quite good, so sit back with your air guitar and turn up your amp to 11...

Features

Bonus Footage is a five minute clip of behind the scenes with the band. This is very good, but it`s too short. What do they think we want when they produce this stuff? Concert footage is all well and good, but I want more than just 5 minutes bonus footage of the band! Gimme more!

Photo Gallery is good, it`s just a series of photos of the band doing what they do, backstage, on tour, taking vacations etc. with CoC background music.

Finally, weblinks provides two urls to the CoC (http://www.coc.com) and Sanctuary Records websites. If you put this disc in your PC-DVD player and have an active Internet connection, you can jump straight to the website! Yeah, great extra feature...

Note that there are no subtitles for the songs so if you`re hard of hearing, you`re not going to get much lipreading done here. Can I suggest that for newcomers to the band, like me, please add optional captions at the start of each track so I know what the tracknames are without reading the back of the box in the dark.

Now, repeat after me, "Sanctuary Records, must try harder."

Conclusion

CoC Live is a good DVD, the band perform well and it`s a testament to their skill as a band that they can still cut it live. Pure hard rock, pure entertainment and pure thrashiness (if such a word exists)! Metal riffs, grungy sounds, hard beats harking back to some of the bands punk 80s influence shows how versatile they are now.

I have minor grumbles about the lack of interviews and bonus footage on the disc however. The back of the box states quite clearly, `Interviews`, but what we get here are just a few minutes of clips between tracks and this is hardly what I`d call interviews. I`m still fairly new to CoC so some more band info with the DVD would have been good for me and useful for other newcomers too. Also, note that the disc has no regional restriction and outputs as NTSC.

I enjoyed rocking to this DVD. The sound is well recorded (though it`s a pity you can`t make out much of the lyrics) and the band really, really, rocks! CoC fans and hard rock fans are going to enjoy this too. Recommended.