Rockthology 2-Classic Metal (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	163:24 (Case: 165)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (83:36)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	John B. House
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	David Coverdale David Lee Roth Billy Sheehan Tony Iommi Bruce Dickinson Ozzy Osbourne Rob Halford Steve Harris Ronnie James Dio Gene Simmons
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Megadeth KISS Black Sabbath

    Remember those old Hard 'n Heavy VHS tapes from the early to mid nineties, a video magazine of sorts that would interview all manner of hard rock and heavy metal artists? Well, the Rockthology series compiles three of those old tapes, back-to-back, onto one DVD disc. The quality isn't fantastic, but if you're a fan of early nineties hard rock and metal, there might be a few gems in here somewhere.

    Volume 2 opens with Ozzy Osbourne, who discusses his late guitarist Randy Rhoads and the new guy in his band, Zakk Wylde. Ronnie James Dio gives us a brief tour of his home in L.A., followed by a look at Rob Halford's house in Arizona. Steve Harris explains what Iron Maiden have been up to during their year off and The Scorpions share a few anecdotes from their early days. Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale voices his distaste for the press, then Lemmy and the guys from Motorhead invite us on their tour bus. Part One ends with an informative chat with Gene Simmons of KISS.

    Part two begins with Iron Maiden's classic song Can I Play With Madness, the video for which was directed by Julian Doyle (Brazil) and starred Graham Chapman of Monty Python. Queensryche then discuss their recent album Operation Mindcrime and the political state of the US at that time. The Cult are in rehearsal mode for their upcoming tour of the UK and they take a break to answer a few questions. This section closes with an interesting clip of Life Aid - Armenia, a star-studded recording of Smoke On The Water that features Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, as well as Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple. It's pretty amazing to see, and I'd never heard of it before!

    The third part opens with more Ozzy Osbourne, followed by some cavorting with Skid Row. Lemmy of Motorhead explains the band's change of artistic direction and discusses their new record label. Probably the most entertaining interviewee on the entire disc is David Lee Roth of Van Halen, who shares an hilarious story about how the band made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Lita Ford is given the opportunity to bite back at her former husband Tony Iommi and bass player extraordinaire Billy Sheehan makes an appearance.

    My review of Rockthology Volume 1: Kings Of The Alternative can be found here.

Video

    The sources at play here are analogue videotape, so the presentation does not go very far beyond that of a VHS tape. Obviously, the picture frame is 1.33:1 full frame. The cover slick incorrectly lists this as a pan & scan transfer.

    All of the usual nasties you would expect from a dated analogue source are present. Besides the below average resolution, there are magnetic/analogue tape errors and a few tracking glitches. Colours are often oversaturated and bleed all over the place, particularly reds. Some segments are awash with a lot of noise and grain.

    Some portions, such as music videos and the like, appear to have been originally derived from a film source. These bring with them the odd film artefact or spec of dirt, but nothing too serious.

    I didn't notice any MPEG compression issues at all, which is a relief.

    This disc is dual layered, with the layer break placed half-way at 83:36. The transition doesn't appear to interrupt anything of a major importance.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Not surprisingly, the audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, encoded at 448Kb/s.

    The dialogue is generally clear and easy to understand during interview segments and the like. When it comes to the music, the quality is pretty thin in comparison to the regular CD versions of some of this music. For example, Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness is a song I'm very familiar with, both on CD and vinyl, however it comes across with a distinct lack of depth and brightness here.

    I noticed quite a few small audio dropouts, probably due to the condition of the source tape. Some of the dropouts occur during interview segments and are quite disruptive.

    There is no surround or subwoofer activity to speak of.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras.

    The Rockthology series appears to be identical in content across all regions, aside from PAL/NTSC differences.

    The transfer is on a par with an old VHS tape.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall