Rockthology 3-Melodic Metal Masters (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	103:48 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	John B. House
Studio Distributor	Multi-Media Int. Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Sebastian Bach Brett Michaels David Lee Roth Blaze Bailey
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Wolfsbane The Black Crowes Primus

    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 3 focuses mainly on 'hair metal' bands. The program opens with a chat with Skid Row, followed by an in depth look at the making of Cinderella's latest album and its official launch party in New Orleans. Poison vocalist Brett Michaels talks about touring, song writing and the band's early days. LA Guns show off their new tattoos, then David Lee Roth offers some studio advice. A stream of bands I've never heard of follow from here; names like Kik Tracee, London Quireboys, Silent Rage, Roxx Gang, Sea Hags and Hardly Dangerous. L7 make a fashion statement and Annihilator talk about their recent British tour. I was surprised to see a lengthy interview with Wolfsbane, which features then-future Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bailey. One of my favourite bands, The Black Crowes show off their new song Jealous Again and brag about their tolerance for drugs and alcohol. Mind you, this was the beginning of their career, before they were forced into rehab countless times. The disc ends with a long chat with the legendary Primus, who discuss their beginnings as a college act.

    A word of warning regarding this disc. The front cover lists some bands that make no appearance whatsoever in the program. In fact, with statements like "single layered DVD9" on the slick, I wouldn't recommend you believe anything on the cover of these discs at all.

    My review of Rockthology Volume 1: Kings Of The Alternative can be found here. Volume 2 of the series is reviewed here.

Video

    The sources here are analogue video, so the quality of the presentation does not go far beyond that of a VHS tape. The aspect ratio is 1.33:1 full frame. The cover slick wrongly lists this as a pan & scan transfer.

    All of the usual nasties you would expect from a dated analogue source are present here. Besides the below average resolution, there are magnetic/analogue tape errors and a few tracking glitches. Colours are oversaturated often 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 speck of dirt, but nothing too serious.

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

    This disc is single layered (DVD5 format).

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The only soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, encoded at 448Kb/s.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand when it matters, 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. Most of the music comes across with a distinct lack of depth and brightness here.

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

    There is obviously 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.

    Rockthology Volume 3 is an interesting compilation of early nineties heavy metal interviews and video clips. Although this volume focuses more on tacky hair bands, the series is certainly worth a look if this music is your cup of tea - just don't expect too much quality-wise.

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

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall