Collide has been a duo act for many years so when word of a live album and dvd were made on their website, I began to wonder how will they reproduce the studio tricks live. My suspicions soon flew out the window when I began watching the main concert footage, which was taken at a April 14th , 2005 show at a LA venue called the El Rey.The dvd portion of the show is called “Like the Hunted” and for those unable to attend can live the experience. For those that seen the band live, can relive it visually over and over again. The band gets fleshed out to a sextet with Scott Landes and Rogerio Silvio on guitars, Kai Kurosawa on warr guitar / bass and Chaz Pease on drums. I was really amazed to see a warr guitar within a metallic based band but I think it helps give the band a leading edge over most in the genre. Here’s hoping Kai as well as the others will contribute more than just live.
On the DVD, we get treated with a bunch of extra special features. Collide sure spoils their fans! The special features includes studio videos of Euphoria, Son of A Preacher Man and Razor Sharp as well as tour videos of Like You Want To Believe and Wings of Steel. Other features are acoustic versions of Modify and Deep. Showing that kaRIn truly has a angelic beautiful voice outside of the electronic based music. It would be interesting to hear more acoustic pieces, maybe a piano/vocal song here and there in the near future. Another feature is something called “The Modification”, which is an interview with various live, studio and video out-takes.
Like The Hunted proves that Collide is not another studio project, but in fact a full fledged band. This is one of the better made and produced music DVDs that I’ve seen in a long while. It’s definitely one I will be revisiting often!
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on February 4th, 2006
