The folks at M8/Magdalene Records did something truly great this past year. They reunited several seminal metal bands from bygone days and got them to perform at Cornerstone and documented it on CD (and soon-to-come DVD). Real quickly: Sacred Warrior, Deliverance, Guardian, and The Daniel Band really really got it on that night (in that order of quality IMHO).
As far as the live recordings went, it's hit and miss. The Deliverance disc, while containing great performances, have awful drum sounds and the low end and the sing-alongs aren't happening. The Sacred Warrior set features much better drum sounds and killer lead guitar tones. Guardian's set stands out with good levels all around, save for the obligatory audience sing-alongs. The Daniel Band's simple power chord hard rock translates really well here, too. Recon, unfortunately, turned in a weak performance that seemed out of touch with its audience, which even the decent sonics couldn't save. Bride played by the rules and stuck with a solid set of old Pure Metal songs (Guardian just played a typical set from the '99 era). Trytan only played two songs from its catalog (which you can catch on the Greatest Hits disc, and turned the rest of the set into P&W and preaching. This collection was for the fans, and for the fans, I say, "Thanks!"
