Review of Various Artists - New England Metal and Hardcore Festival (DVD)

The annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival is typically one of the highest-profile, multi-day festivals in the US, when it comes to underground extreme music. It's also one of the most professionally organized fests out there, especially when compared to a certain other string of US Metalfests. The NEMHF generally attracts some of the best bands that modern metal has to offer, particularly catering to the rising stars of the metalcore scene. The fest covers the Friday and Saturday of one lucky Spring weekend, and runs two stages. The main stage is downstairs in the Worcester Palladium, a spacious venue with towering ceilings, like 40 or 50 feet high, a large floor space, and an even larger balcony. The second stage is basically the lobby to the balcony, which holds 300-400 people, I'd guess.

Seeing as how the fest sells out year after year, someone finally made the wise business decision to record the fest for future sale. Trustkill Records are the producers of this release, which chronicles the 2003 version of the fest, complete with interview snippets and plenty of live cuts. The meat of the DVD is obviously the featured videos. Since Trustkill had no say in the billing of the show, criticizing the lineup is pretty pointless. I'm assuming that due to contractual issues between labels, a few of the major bands are conspicuously absent, like Kataklysm, Beyond the Embrace, and Saturday headliners, Superjoint Ritual.

What you do get are one or two songs from: Shadows Fall, Opeth, The Haunted, Unearth, Nevermore, Meshuggah, Lacuna Coil, Bleeding Through, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Shai Hulud, Converge, Nora, Most Precious Blood, Cannae, 18 Visions, and Atreyu. The bonus cuts including lesser quality recordings of second stage bands like Darkest Hour, Blood Has Been Shed, Haste, Scarlet, and more.

I'm no stranger to the Palladium, seeing as how they are one of the few venues in the Boston area that will host metal shows, as such, basically every major metal tour lands there. As a matter of fact, I was in the audience on the first night of this festival, seeing great sets from Beyond the Embrace (who are not on this DVD), Shadows Fall, and headliners Opeth. I'm also no stranger to the acoustics of the Palladium, which is what I find most surprising about this recording. The main stage videos mostly sound fine, but in person, the Palladium sound is always awful. My theory is that the place is just too high, so sound gets lost up high. Everything usually sounds too bass-heavy and boomy. On the other hand, the upstairs sound is better live, but on the DVD, it's pretty low quality. Fortunately, most of the second stage videos are just bonus tracks on the DVD, comprised of lesser-known acts like Himsa, Caliban, and On Broken Wings, although I feel like Darkest Hour got shafted by being stuck on the second stage.

Right off the bat, the DVD opens up with an interview with Nora, and the question, "If you thought a girl deserved it, would you hit her?" Response: "Yes, in a heartbeat." The sound quality varies from band to band, ranging from good to very good, especially considering what they had to work with. Cannae sounds excellent, as does Lacuna Coil (even though Cristina's vocals are mixed a little low). Nevermore's rendition of "The Sound of Silence" looks quite entertaining, but suffers in the sound department. Opeth continues to amaze with a flawless version of "The Drapery Falls", which actually sounded better in person than on this recording. Nobody sounds better at the Palladium than Opeth. Shadows Fall contributed two tracks, the mighty "Crushing Belial" and "The Idiot Box", but if I were in charge, I would've used their scathing performance of "A Fire in Babylon" instead. And that wraps up Friday.

The Saturday bands featured a few of my faves, including Unearth and Lamb of God, which really made me regret missing that half of the fest. Unearth unleash a high-octane version of "One Step Away", complete with plenty of crowd interaction and some showoff guitar theatrics. Shai Hulud play one of my faves of theirs, but the sound man seems to have forgotten to mix in the rest of the band, leaving a loud vocal performance but not much more. The Haunted reach way back in the vault with the excellent "In Vein". Conveniently enough, Bleeding Through and 18 Visions both get a pair of tracks. The BT tracks are powerful, but the sound gets spotty. Lamb of God deliver a pair from New American Gospel that are nothing short of killer. Couple those with a hilarious interview and the Wall of Death and you've got a good time brewing. Converge play with intensity, but were stuck upstairs, and the production on these is quite poor. Meshuggah wrap up the DVD with "Sickening" and "Sane".

If you dig the bands profiled here, this is definitely a good pickup. I'm not sure about the availability of the DVD outside of the New England area, but it's well worth the money. All in all, Trustkill did a fine job capturing this wild weekend, and presented it with excellent video shots, and acceptable audio, especially considering where they were playing. I sure had fun reliving this fest, which turned out to be much more enjoyable than the 2004 NEMHF.

Release Details

Various Artists

New England Metal and Hardcore Festival (DVD)

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