Shadows Fall

You do not want to be around Shadow's Fall singer Brian Fair when he starts wind milling his knee-length dreadlocks. It's part of his persona and one of the things that the fans want to witness live. But most importantly, Shadows Fall are known for giving their fans as much as they can, and the CD/DVD, filmed in Manila, Philippines in 2009, is proof of that. The sound quality of the CD is excellent, as outside of Fair's slightly cheesy and pedestrian stage banter, you rarely hear the 25,000 audience members at all. The set list spans 2000's Of One Blood, 2002's The Art of Balance and 2004's The War Within, but despite the concert being held right before 2009's Retribution, they only perform one song from that album. The DVD portion is also pretty good, as it's well edited, paying attention to all the band members, not just the mesmerizing Fair, who is extremely attentive to the audience. But like all live albums, this is best suited to those who have not only a keen interest in the band, but are very familiar with their early work.