Customer Reviews

The Big Four: Live From Sofia, Bulgaria

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nices and wow very amazing and awesome. The quality is exellent and the show is very good. A must for everybody

All 4 performances in their entirety with excellent backstage footage makes this a must have.
$25-$30 for two Bluray discs is a deal. Unfortunately you will have to spend $70 plus to get the DVD version with the included CD's.

Picture Quality ' Excellent
Sound Quality ' HD Master ' Awesome (with one exception)
Video ' Unlike some DVD Concerts, they did not bounce around at a furious pace that would give you a stroke. They held scenes for that second or three, and focused on some nice guitar work by all bands. I wish they would include a version where the view was from the 10th row or something giving you the perspective that you were sitting there and not moving from that view.

Anthrax ' 10/10
My second favorite performance of the night.
Those that waited to come later missed one of the better performances by Anthrax that I have seen.
The set was tight and rocked. Joey came out and set the tone for the night. They pulled out some old stuff and had fun.
Their tribute to Dio was a nice touch, very classy and well placed within their set.
Sound was great, well mixed.

Megadeth ' 10/10
In my opinion the best performance of the night.
I love that Dave comes out and sets forth to assault your brain with an onslaught of music with no BS in-between songs''Here We Go''.Holy Wars'.
Also, this was the best sounding set of the night. Anthrax was good, but when Megadeth started there was a noticeable change in sound, very warm and neutral, with great bottom end and control. Whoever did the mixing on this set did an awesome job. The sound captured the aggressiveness and raw power of Megadeth. I had two subs going and nothing sounded sloppy. It was tight and fast.

Slayer ' 7/10
Was really looking forward to a recent Slayer concert with all the new technology hoping to capture there brutal live sound, and I mean that in a good way. If you have ever seen them live you know what I mean. The bottom end just about pushes your heart out the back of your vertebrae. As soon as they went live into World Painted Blood', there was something missing. I turned it up so both my amps were at the max, including pushing my subs to the brink, but could not capture the sound of Slayer. I am using separates with a pre amp (500 watt ' 2 channel amp ' and 300 watt ' 3 channel amp) with Revel Speakers. Even at lesser volumes the warmth and cohesiveness was not there. The sound was muddled and maybe the best way to describe it is 'withdrawn'. I through on the CD of this set and found the same sound quality, lacking. I do not want to say that it is not listenable, you can turn it up and have a good time, but it is clear that they could have done a much better job of mixing. I don't understand how they got Megadeth and for that matter the other bands so perfect and missed it on Slayer. 'War at the Warfield' from 2001 sounds better. Kerry should have come out and played with the rest of them on 'Am I Evil' instead of staying in the mixing room trying to rush this. I would rather he take his time and get this right even if we had to wait a few more weeks or months. I don't pretend to fully understand how all this works, but someone should have said hold on, let's get this right. Some may think I am being picky, but listen to Megadeth and then listen to Slayer and see what you think.

Metallica ' 10/10
After watching the Nimes DVD and the Mexico DVD from their current tour, you pretty much know what you're going to get, although I was hoping for something a little different but have to say it was a heavier set than most nights. They did throw a few more older songs in from Justice (blackened, Harvester) Welcome Home'was a nice addition. I was hoping for maybe 'Disposable Heroes', 'Battery', 'Ride the Lighting', 'Hit The Lights'. I do like that they mix up their sets each night little bit, that if you follow them for a few shows, you will usually get some of your songs that you love or grew up with.
I love Metallica; they have a great stage presence. Lars does a great job of choosing their songs for a tight set. There is a sense when they hit the stage that they are this big and can draw the crowds wherever they go. Sound was a little more open than Megadeth, a little more in your face, but in a good way. Bass was clean, with great guitar sound. Everything worked together as it should for a sound and visual that put you in your seat and took you for a ride.

Overall, worth the 5 hours.
The HD Master Sound ' is a must hear. I first heard the quality on their Nimes Bluray and was taken aback by the sound quality, not realizing it was HD Master'to be honest did not even know what it was or that my preamp could even process this sound. It was a nice surprise, very dynamic, very clear and crisp. It is like the Bluray picture quality, clean with transparent depth, except in sound.

Since I couldn't watch the show in theater last June, I've been excited for this one to come out the day I saw amazon showing it to preorder. Now, I have it in hands, and here is what I think about it.

Band performances:
ANTHRAX: The first show of the DVD couldn't be much better! Awesome anthrax vocalist Joe Belladonna Rocking sonisphere with all their best tracks and, thank god excluding their rap stuff! ... haha. Awesome and solid performance with a bonus Dio hommage, liked it, I give it a 9.5/10 !

MEGADETH: Oh my god, kicking off with Holy wars and Hangar 18 under the rain is just awesome! The whole megadeth experience is something to see. very good solos by both Dave and Chris, almost perfect!Dave mustaine's voice is incredible, I didn't expect this! In fact, at some points I said to myself ''they probably recorded the voice again after the show'' but well, who cares if it's the case, it sounds great!!! 9.5/10

SLAYER: I'm a huge Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica fan but, Sadly, I seriously don't like them.. So I can't say anything bad on this performance, I skipped most of the songs because it just wasn't for me I guess. But Raining blood.. I found this one interesting..
So I won't give slayer's performance any rating, because It would not be fair for people who like their stuff, BUT: with a quick crowd analysis, I'd say slayer fans are going to enjoy this!

METALLICA: Great Setlist, James voice sounds good, kirk do great efforts not to use his crybaby everywhere and rock the hell out of the place. Don't know what more to say, I've seen many Metallica dvds, their always good. But in this one there's a part very different.. 4 bands at the same time on the stage. A must see. Same rate; 9.5/10

4 shows, more than 5 hours total plus 45 minutes documentary. It's definitely a must have for anyone who like this kind of music. Even though I don't like slayer, it's one of my best music dvd so far.

5 STARS!

It has been the best live concert I've bought in all my life!!! Being a headbanger since 25 years ago, I couldn't ask for more. Excellent video, excellent sound, excellent edition... everything is awesome!

Qualité visuel et sonore impeccable, seul petit regret le publique de Sofia, est très long d'être a la hauteur du public Canadien.....

What a perfect idea to joint those 4 groupe. The sound is ok, but for Slayer it's an other storie....

Finally we get the show some of us have been waiting over 20 years for. I won't go into a lot of details about it, because for the most part it is exactly what you'd expect, which is a good thing.
The little things that keep it from being 5 stars, are the weak guitar sounds, which seems to be something to expect from Metallica and Anthrax these days, like they're trying to avoid sounding too heavy; and I thought Anthrax's setlist was pretty weak as well - a show of this magnitude, a 25+ year career, and of their 9 songs, 3 are covers? WEAK. Not to mention the only song from P.O.T., which came out at the Big 4's peak, was Got the Time, one of the covers. Anthrax's career is on its last legs, they get a huge opportunity like this, and they didn't seem to take it seriously at all. And I'm an Anthrax fan, I'd have loved to see them nail this.
Still watchable and fun, just not what it could've been.

as an old school metal head, and having seen all these bands from about 86 onward ... all i can say is .. its about time they did a big four show ... these bands are legendary and are just as good now, if not better than they were when they were defining the metal scene ... this dvd is awsome on every level, the only complaint i have about it is .. metallica are too big of rock stars nowadays .. the other 3 bands put on a clinic on how a show should be .. they got out there and did there thing, not saying metallica didnt ... but they sure did overshadow the previous 3 bands stage..

oh well

definately recommended

GREAT DVD! You won't be disapointed by any performances by the bands. Load up on beers, call your friends and enjoy one hell of a time with this DVD