I was not sure before purchasing this DVD, if I was going to enjoy a live show with the complete double album of "Quadrophenia", because it was a long time ago that I listen to this album and if I remember, I didn't enjoy all the songs. Many years later, I didn't change my mind about this, there are some really good songs, like the title track, "Dr. Jimmy", "The Rock" and "Love Reign Over Me". The other tracks are not bad for what they are, good rock songs, but not as good as some songs of their entire discography. Fortunately, the show has some of those songs as bonus performance, including "Baba O'Riley", "Who are You" and "Won't get Fooled Again"

There's a lot of projections on the screen of the band from the old days. Nice touch to have included John Entwistle with a solo of one of his performance in the song "5:15". Not only you can see him on the screen, but you can actually hear his solo. In fact, his solo sounds more alive than the bass sound of the actual player Pino Palladino, who is rarely captured by the cameras and low in the mix. Also, during "Bell Boy", Keith Moon is singing on the screen.Those projections of the old days performances are only present in the "Quadrophenia" album and not in the bonus songs at the end. We have many musicians on the stage including horn players, Simon Townsend who signs like Pete in "Dirty Jobs". Also two keyboardists, but it's mostly the piano that we hear during this show.

It is easy to rate this, can't be 2 stars because it's not only for collectors, and can't be 4 stars because, that is not a progressive rock show. So it's a good 3 stars, nothing more. But those who enjoy "Quadrophenia" will have a ball with this DVD!

From Richmond Hill, Ontario in Canada, the band was formed in 2006, and it's in 2012, that they made this self-titled album. There is only 5 tracks but one going to the 30 minutes mark. From the first song "The Old Knew", we are in the presence of a band that want to show their musicianship with some fast guitar arpeggios. The music is in the symphonic/power metal genre in the direction of Dream Theater and Symphony X. The vocals are not clean and fortunately it would improve a bit as we are going further in the album. Not only we are greeted with some powerful guitars parts, but also a big drum sound that shows some nice patterns. The keyboards have their share of space with some interesting solos, as well. The band can slow their fast pace down a bit with some acoustic parts that brings a little breather to the music. There's also a short oriental music passage from the guitar in the second song " Forever In Chains" and a drum part that evoke the song "Territories" from Rush. And this Rush's influence continue with the single "Another Day Slips By". The overall sound takes us back to the Rush "Signals" era. Here the vocals are cleaner and more melodic because the song is more mellower than the other tracks. In the next song "Primitive Design", we are back with some Progressive Metal where we can hear clearly for the first time a short bass line. There is also a extended keyboard solo from the book of Jordan Rudess. In the last epic song "The Dream", the band decided to end this album in a dramatic style with a resume of what the others songs were offering but by upgrading the level a bit with many stops and go, and a long instrumental break that slow things down with a pure Opeth style. This is a impressive debut album that show nice potential, if they could improve the quality of the vocals to match the quality of the music, that would be near perfect.

It seems like it was just yesterday that the Luna Park DVD was released. Now it's another one from the Boston Opera House less than a year later. The show is divided in three acts. The first act is tracks from the last two albums and the song "A Trial of Tears" from "Falling to Infinity". The second act is 5 songs from the "Awake" album to celebrate his 20th anniversary and the third act is the encore celebrating again "Scene from a Memory" with his 15th anniversary. On those 2 albums, the band use the same pattern by starting to play the technical, fast and heavy songs like "The Mirror", "Lie", "Overture 1928" and "Strange Déjà Vu" and finishing with the slower and emotional songs like "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream", "Space Dye Vest" and "Finally Free".

"The Illumination Theory", the most progressive and the epic song of the last album is played with an orchestra in the second act which is the perfect fit with this song that contains an irresistible classical break in the middle. The picture is crystal clear and the camera work more satisfying than the "Luna Park" DVD. As for the sound, I had to crank up the volume very high to get the full sound. Again, I wish we could hear John Myung louder, but that's what happens on live recording, it rarely match the sound quality of a studio release. James Labrie's voice is in nice shape as well as all others members. It's another nice addition to your Dream Theater collection. 3. 8 stars.

You wouldn't know this band if from Israël, listening to their second album. This is progressive metal with a slight touch of djent with influences from Dream Theater and many more modern progressive metal bands. The usual big guitar riffs are present throughout this CD, but what separate this music from the average prog metal bands are their strong compositions. When the band has showed their musicianship, they open the songs up with intelligent breaks by slowing things down with more emotional content. The vocals range can go from the screaming to some smooth vocals. Behind the powerful guitar riffs, the band has incorporated some nice arrangements and delicate passages with some acoustic music from the piano and the guitars offering a nice balance between metal and rock.

The use of death vocals seems to be a thing of the past for Opeth. I always appreciated the clean vocals from Mikael Akerfeldt. It gives a better view of how he can be a good singer. The previous album Heritage wasn't convincing. Again the band is showing the soft side of their music The song "Eternal Rains will come" display some haunting harmonies progressions with some dark keyboards sound similar to VDGG. "Cups of Eternity" show a vocalization hook repeated almost like an incantation. There are some nice grooves here and a display of heavier guitars. With "Moon, Above, Sun Below" we recognize the same compositions structures of the band with intense and melancholic passages, the melody at the beginning is suddenly switching to a complete new mood so we get the feel that the song is like different parts melt down to build a 10 minutes song, but it works. The song "Goblin" is inspired by the band of the same name with a little touch of jazz. "River" is another different track with some classical rock influence. "Voice of Treason" is another track in which the listener is challenge with the impossibility to reach an accessible melody, like the band was playing with restraint. It illustrates the new direction the band is, by keeping the music outside the extreme metal. The last track "Faith of Others" is full of strings, classical arrangements and some acoustic progressive rock not too far from the band Landberk.

While this release could be perceive as homage to the old progressive rock bands, the retro sound of the organ and mellotron should appeal to old progressive rock fans, it keeps the band own style, less metal than the majority of their albums, but more in the line of Damnation and Heritage. For me, those two albums despite their progressive side were not the best of their discography, but I think the latest is more satisfying and if I had doubt about the direction the band was headed when they took a break from their metal prog, I am more confident for the future that it's the right direction to go now. And Mikael Akerfeldt looks like a musician that is in a mood to do more melodic music with clean vocals the rest of his career.