The Cult-Music Without Fear: Live from the Grand Olympic Auditorium, LA (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Menu Audio Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	86:21
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Manny Rodriguez
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Ian Astbury Billy Duffy Matt Sorum Mike Dimkich Billy Morrison
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	The Cult

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish German Italian French	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, credits are played over the stage farewells.

    Beyond Good and Evil was one of my favourite albums of 2001 and in my opinion shows The Cult at their peak both musically and artistically. Many tracks from the album are performed here and translate to the stage very well, despite this being a different line-up of musicians to that which recorded the album.

    Ian Astbury is an energetic frontman with more than a passing similarity to Jim Morrison. So similar in fact that he is now doing vocal duties for The Doors on their current world tour.

    I must say that the DVD treatment for this concert is exemplary, presented with the care and attention to detail that all official music DVD releases should. It is certainly a must-own for any fan of The Cult or hard rock for that matter.

Video

    We are treated here to an absolutely flawless video transfer. I only wish more bands released DVDs of this quality.

    This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    For a concert movie, sharpness and shadow detail are brilliant. All corners of the stage are completely visible despite the typically dark live setting. There was no low level noise.

    Colours are rich and vibrant during the segments that are presented in colour.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. There are no film-to-video artefacts either. Some film artefacts have been introduced in post production, obviously for artistic effect, such as at 41:00. Other post production effects include a sepia toned picture and monochrome imagery. These alternate from song to song and don't cheapen the effect of the performance in my opinion.

    This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed between the songs Fire Woman and Sweet Soul Sister at 53:09. It only briefly interrupts Ian's between song banter and is not overly distracting.

    There are five subtitle options available; English, Spanish, German, French and Italian. I sampled the English subtitles and they appeared to be paced accurately with the lyrics.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is almost as good as the video transfer.

    There are three audio tracks on offer here, the default being English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s). Other tracks include English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) and English dts 5.1 (1536Kb/s). I listened to both 5.1 soundtracks in their entirety and briefly sampled the 2.0 track.

    Dialogue was clear, but diction was an issue as is the case with most rock bands. There were no apparent audio sync issues.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 track had a particularly lifeless mix and barely deserves a mention next to the other tracks on offer. The dts 5.1 mix is gently enveloping, with some guitar and vocals spilling to the rears on occasion, but mainly being used for echo effects and crowd noise. The Dolby Digital 5.1 on the other hand has been mastered 3dB louder than the dts track and uses the surrounds aggressively, with the rhythm guitar and vocals much more prominent in the rear channels.

    The subwoofer was very active, being used to fill out the bottom end in the kick drum and bass guitar consistently.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There aren't a lot of extras, but they are great all the same.

Menu

Featurette- Behind The Scenes (26:36)

    The video transfer is virtually flawless, and the use of post-production effects gives the feature plenty of character.

    The audio is enveloping, with good surround channel usage and a nice dts track.

    The extras are low on quantity but high on quality.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall