Death

Two discs of live Death featuring the group with their final line-up are, of course, going to be a pleasure to listen to, patchy sound quality and slight unease with being bombarded with a great deal of Death material lately aside. With one CD featuring the band live at the Whiskey (smaller gig) and one ruling it live at Dynamo (huge fest gig), it's worth sitting through all the doubled-up songs and iffy sonics (this isn't exactly Alive II, but it works) to hear these energetic recordings, warts and all. It's fun to take a trip through the albums also, with the later-era technical material being a nerve-frazzled, teeth grinding, race-to-the-finish-line highlight. Is this a necessity? Of course not, but if you're a death metal fan who's worn out your Death albums, you could spend your money on worse things. It also serves as a good reminder that we should be spending more time listening to songs like the manic, panicked "Spirit Crusher" and less time doing just about anything else.