Remember dual-discs? Those extra-thick discs that were a DVD on one side and a CD on the other? That's what this is like, although it lacks the official dual-disc logo and probably doesn't conform to those specs. As a technology, it was a neat idea, but in practice not so much. I'll get into that later, for now I'll give you the complete tracklist:
DVD side - Live at Wacken (2003)
What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)
The Kids Are Back
Stay Hungry
Destroyer
Like A Knife In The Back
Under The Blade
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll
The Fire Still Burns
Shoot 'Em Down
We're Not Gonna Take It
The Price
Burn In Hell
I Wanna Rock
S.M.F.
CD side - Live...Past & Present
Bad Boy Of Rock 'n' Roll (1980)
Born To Be Wild (1980)
I'll Never Grow Up, Now! (1980)
You Know I Cry (1980)
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll (1982)
What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You (2003)
The Kids Are Back (2003)
Stay Hungry (2003)
Like A Knife in the Back (2003)
I Am, I'm Me (2003)
The Fire Still Burns (2003)
The DVD side is also peppered with documentary footage and interviews with all five Twisted members. The documentary covers the entire history of the band, and sheds light on their acrimonious breakup and triumphant reunion. I found Mark Mendoza's segments particularly interesting as he had the most problems with Dee, and in fact was not on board when TS reunited in 1999 to record "Heroes Are Hard To Find". The live program is, of course, great, well shot, and sounds good.
The CD side is nice as it's not just a soundtrack to the DVD, but a standalone album on its own with 11 tracks total, spanning the early years and 6 from the Wacken show. I enjoy this one quite a bit on its own as a live album.
I mentioned that the idea of this package was flawed. The problem is the dual-type disc. This is by far the worst dual-type disc I've ever tried to play. It certainly LOOKS cool. The DVD side has the TS "bone" logo emblazoned directly on the playing surface. I've never seen graphics on the playing surface of a disc before and it looks awesome. This side plays on all my DVD players no problem. The CD side however will not play correctly on any of my CD players, although it plays fine on my DVD player. The CD of course does not conform to the Red Book Standards. These are delicate discs in the first place and they should not be played in a front-loading car deck or it could get destroyed along with your deck. Every CD player I tried it in either could not read the disc or could not handle the extra thickness, which is unusual as other dual discs never gave me this problem. I even tried copying the CD side and burning it to a CDR unsuccessfully. In the long run, in order to enjoy the CD on a CD player, I chose to purchase and download a digital copy of the CD. I burned that and I can finally play the album anywhere I want.
So, great video side, great live album, cool looking disc and package. Technology...not so great. Buy with caution.
3 stars.
