Live Over Europe

Axel Rudi Pell and his band perform their distinctive melodic heavy metal sound in this live concert, recorded during the Rock Hard Festival at the Gelsenkirchen Amphitheatre in Germany, in May 2007. Tracks include 'Fly To The Moon', 'Rock The Nation', 'Fool Fool', 'The Temple Of The King' and more.|

Nostalgia is inevitable in the music world. Inevitably, there are those who yearn to experience the music of an era that they aren't old enough to have witnessed first-hand. That is why, in the 21st century, one sees so many people in their teens and twenties at 1970s/1980s-minded metal shows; young headbangers who weren't even born when David Lee Roth was still singing lead for Van Halen or when Motley Crue started headlining soccer arenas want a taste of what metal concerts were like back in the day. And in Europe, Axel Rudi Pell's live shows are a hot attraction because they so faithfully replicate the experience of '70s and '80s metal gatherings. Live Over Europe, a two-DVD set, is full of 21st century performances that do everything possible to give audiences a '70s/'80s-like metal experience. The first DVD focuses on Pell's 75-minute appearance at the 2007 Rock Hard Festival in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, while the second DVD is billed as the "Official Bootleg DVD" and was filmed at several different events (including festivals in Sweden in 2004, Germany and Belgium in 2005, and the U.K. in 2006). In terms of visual quality and sound quality, there is an obvious difference between DVD one and DVD two; Pell's Gelsenkirchen set was filmed professionally, whereas most of the footage on DVD two was filmed from within an audience and has a home movie-ish appearance. The overall quality on DVD two isn't terrible, although it certainly isn't audiophile quality either. But the performances are inspired on both DVDs, and Live Over Europe is a captivating example of how much live metal performances of the 2000s can feel like live metal performances of the '70s and '80s. ~ Alex Henderson