Still Alive... and Well?
Hot on the heels of the speed-metal dandies' first-ever live retrospective,Rude Awakening, comes this most unusual (contract fulfilling?) release. Featuring six previously unreleased live songs captured in November 2001 during what's described as the band's last concerts,Still Alive and Wellconcludes with an additional six songs lifted wholesale from 2001'sThe World Needs a Hero, the group's last studio recording. The live tracks ("Time/Use the Man," "Conjuring," "In My Darkest Hour," "Sweating Bullets," "Symphony of Destruction," and "Holy Wars") are up to snuff--fast, bruising, and furious--but of little interest to anyone other than die-hard fans, who doubtless already ownThe World Needs a Hero.--Kim Hughes