Korn: Live on the Other Side Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this overall recommended Blu-ray release
Alternative metal rockers Korn kick off the release of their record "Live on the Other Set" with a concert for their closest fans in the intimate setting of New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. High-def footage and digital surround sound capture the raw energy of the show, which includes the tracks "Shoots and Ladders," "Here to Stay," "Freak on a Leash," "One," "Somebody Someone," "Hypocrites," "Coming Undone," "Dirty," "Got the Life" and more.
When the review editor of Bluray.com Ben sent me this video for review, I was filled with dread. I have recorded and mixed all kinds of music in my career, but rock, metal, acid rock and quite frankly any derivative of rock has always tested my patience, and my ears. One could easily dismiss this genre of music as a bunch of noise, but they would be far from the truth. One could easily label these guys as "non musicians", and again they would be wrong. The tonal textures and rhythmic complexity found in their music can only be achieved by people who really know music. Korn: Live on the other Side represents the first time I sat down and actually listened to Korn, instead of just hearing them in passing. Damn, this group is really off the hook. How in the hell does a four piece band sound this fat? They literally shook the air and floor of my room for over an hour, and had my head doing some serious bobbing the entire time. Many of the songs I have never heard before, but I sure in the heck got into them. Other songs they played I have heard before such as Pink Floyd's Another Brick Wall, and Cruel World . Their music is angry, rhythmically powerful, driving, aggressive, nicely textured and layered, and anything but subtle. They have a powerful stage presence, but they are a little less polished than other acts that I have reviewed on disc, which might be a good thing for the type of music they play. I did notice that the pacing of the show, and the order the music played occasionally lost the room, but they were able to pull it back together rather quickly with more familiar tunes the fans knew. This was especially true during the Pink Floyd medley. When they pick up the song Blind the crowd goes wild after a sort of down moment. This show takes a lot of energy, and my hat goes off to David Silveria, who quite literally banged the hell out of the drums for over an hour, and didn't even seem tired after it was all over. Jonathan Davis, James Shaffer, Reggie Arvizu and David Siveria put on a great show, one that is so good it is worth multiple viewings.
I first heard of Korn in 2005 when a local television station did a special on the life of its former lead guitarist Brian "head" Welch. One of the founding members of the group, he left Korn for religious reasons, and because he wanted to be with his daughter. I absolutely loved his story, and was very moved by it. One visit to Valley Bible Fellowship in Bakersfield, and a dip in the Jordan River in Israel was all it took for Welch to make his decision to come to Christ. After being hooked on alcohol, meth and Xanax and sleeping pills for so long, it appeared he had hit a wall, and needed a change. After making that change, he could not go back to the metal and rock life.
Recorded live at a very familiar place to me, a place that I saw so often as a kid and as an adult, The Hammerstein Ballroom is a perfect place for this kind of concert. It quite frankly is one of the best performance venues for a viewer, and musicians. It has great sightlines and the acoustics are superb, with not a dead spot in the house. It also has a full post production facility, so a full production from recording to mastering can happen in house.
The placed looked packed to the rafters, and I bet those Turbo-Sound line arrays and subs were smoking after this concert was over.
The track list consists of : Intro
Here to Stay
Twist
Got the Life
Liar
A.D.I.D.A.S
Coming Undone
Dirty
Falling Away From Me
Twisted Transistor
Did My Time
Shoots and Ladders
One
Freak on a Leash
Another Brick in the Wall/Goodbye Cruel World
Blind
Somebody Someone
Hypocrites
Y'all Want A Single
There were no stand out songs for me as all of them had me moving and grooving, but some more so than others.
Filmed in high definition video Live from the other Side rocks onto Bluray in a 1080p/AVC encode framed at a 1:78:1 aspect ratio, which allows every line and pixel to be used to capture the performance. I could find but one small fault on this otherwise excellent presentation. Black levels and contrast are just about perfect, which gives a very dynamic quality to the images on screen. Colors are nicely saturated, with the many hues of blue and purple coming across beautifully on screen. Combine the black levels, contrast, and nicely rendered color palette, and you get a very punchy picture quality that is very pleasing to the eyes. Images are quite sharp naturally without the help of any post processing, as there is no sign of edge enhancement or DNR to be found. I also found no video artifacts as well. This is a damn good presentation that is for sure. The one issue I did find lasted a second, and was never repeated again. I found one case of digital video noise in a shot, but it could have been an artistic decision later added in post production. That certainly cannot be ruled out since it only happened once during the entire production.
This concert features a Dts-HD Master audio 5.1 soundtrack encoded at a full 24/48khz bit and sample rate that is damn near perfect with one exception, and I'll get to that later. This is a tight mix, with more a studio sound than a live concert sound. Nothing sticks out of the mix; everything is perfectly balanced instrumentally speaking. Instruments sound raw and thick with great texture, and the heavy distortion in the lead guitar comes across perfectly in this mix. The bass is fat and has a thick texture which denotes he is occasionally chording which gives it a big sound. Drums are perfectly placed in the center, with cymbal splashes bleeding into the left and right main speakers. Now to the on problem which kept this recording from being totally perfect. When the music is in full bore, the vocals are totally stepped on. What makes this worse is the vocalist diction, as I could not make out but a few words at a time of his lyrics. Had the mixer brought the vocalist more forward in the mix, this problem probably would not have existed. The diction needs some work though, especially since your singing has a thick growl to it. In spite of my little pet peeve, this mix was outstanding.
I compared the Dolby Digital track to the Dts lossless track, and quite frankly they were so close in terms of quality, you would be hard pressed to hear any differences, but they were there. The only difference I could ascertain was the Dts lossless sounded fatter and fuller than its Dolby Digital counterpart. The PCM two channel track sound crowded and colored next to these two tracks, but one your ears got use to it, it wasn't all that bad to listen to.
The extras are long in length but light in quantity. See You on the Other Side is so cool, I watched it twice. MTV Europe sponsored a contest that allows winners to meet Korn, ride with them from Europe to America to see them perform, and gave them a in flight concert on the way. This is way cool, even if you are not a big fan of the group. See who is on the Other Side is a featurette that essentially shows the crew, and give them a chance for some face time on camera. Juke Box is a feature I have never seen on bluray before, but it is really cool. Juke Box essentially allows you to create your own perfect Korn concert by allowing you to arrange the songs in any order you want. I actually re-watched the concert with the songs in the order that I liked them in, which made this concert even better to me than their order of songs.
Also included is the live music video Coming Undone which is really just the live concert performance of the song.
I am not a Korn fan, but I have heard quite a few of the older songs. This concert kicked ass for me, even though a buddy of mine who was at the performance didn't think this was their best show. He did buy this disc anyway, and I would recommend this disc to rabid and casual fans. One of the great pleasures of reviewing is that I get a chance to see things I would never buy. The is my second concert video surprise, the first Being Within Temptation's great performance Black Symphony. I am so glad to add Korn to my collection, and will be listening to them much more often. Don't forget to click through Bluray.com link to Amazon to make your purchase.
Image Entertainment has announced that they are bringing the concert 'Korn: Live on the Other Side' to Blu-ray on October 7th. The concert, which was filmed at Hammerstein Ballroom with HD cameras, will be presented in 1.78:1 1080i video with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master ...
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