I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m a devoted metal fan -- because I’m not. About the closest I’ve ever come to listening to any type of metal was the clickity-clang of my son jammin’ with the Oneida-Allclad orchestra. That’s not to say that I’m completely unfamiliar with the work of Queensryche. Several years ago I was surprised to hear an incredibly effective song on the short-lived, but entertaining, The Hat Squad, produced by Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files, The A-Team). The Pink Floyd-ish tune about "dream control" and "dead parents" was incredibly dramatic and chilling, but it was left off the show’s end credits. Sadly, it took me all of the next day to find out that Waters and Gilmore hadn’t mended their tattered partnership to pen again. So who was it that could’ve pulled off such a classic arrangement? It was six years before my answer came when my good friend Jim played the same song for me. Despite being the only song on Empire I care for, the sublimely stunning "Silent Lucidity" still arouses my emotions today.

But enough nostalgia. What you all really want to know is what I thought of the recently remastered DVD re-release of the 1991 stage show LIVECrime. Fans will recognize it as the concert version of the 1988 Album Mindcrime.

A concept album similar to, but not as epic as, say, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Mindcrime tells the story of a fortune hunter turned assassin during the Regan era. Now that’s not what I took away from watching the DVD, but rather information I gathered through some initial research. Actually trying to follow the complex story via the disc proved daunting, even despite some well produced subtitles. There was, however, no denying vocalist Geoff Tate’s passionate delivery, or the tremendous amount of energy communicated through my audio/video system. Set against the backdrop of two huge projection screens and a multitude of lights, Tate, guitarists Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo, bassist Eddie Jackson, and drummer Scott Rockenfield gave the impression that they were truly enjoying themselves while giving the sold-out crowd a fiery performance. There was absolutely no point, during the hour-long show, where I got the impression I was watching a passively delivered "by-the-number" act. And while I can’t say I genuinely enjoyed all the music, I did find the atmospheric "Eyes of a Stranger," "The Mission," and "Waiting for 22," epic in scale and wonderfully desperate in tone. These were songs that drove even metal-challenged me to inch up the volume and succumb to the show’s visceral nature. I’m sorry; did I say I wasn’t a metal fan?

It wasn’t the ear-splitting sound that eventually caused me to view the show over two evenings (six altogether with repeated viewings). The combination of postproduction strobe and flash-cut editing against the darkness of my room ultimately proved too visually overloading for my eyes. While I’m not saying that LIVECrime should have been shot and edited like some meandering John Tesh concert, I do think removing some of the postproduction effects may have yielded a more enjoyable experience.

Typically this type of hyperkinetic action and complex lighting would mean disaster for the MPEG encoding process. Kudos, however, must go to the VBR compressionist (Donald O’Connell) and LIVECrime’s videographer (Dave Rudd) seeing as the images on this DVD were superb. Rich, vibrant colors, very little compression artifacts, and nice deep blacks genuinely surprised me. Also done well was the audio. Even though analog masters did contribute to some dynamic compression in the bass, the overall quality was quite good and never sounded harsh or overdriven.

It would seem reasonable to expect a fair amount of extras on a DVD -- especially one which supercedes a previously released, feature-challenged, VHS version. However, with the exception of a three-part, 20-minute interview with Geoff Tate, much of the added "features" on LIVECrime are sparse for such a well-produced disc. If you ask me, EMI/Capitol should have added interviews of the entire band as well as a couple of music videos from more recent albums to stoke fan excitement.