UMUR
"Live & Archives" is a compilation release by US progressive metal act Psychotic Waltz. The compilation was released through Rough Trade in July 2000. The compilation is a posthumous release as the band split-up in 1997 following a period of musical differences, a strained economy and a lawsuit filed by a former roadie. The band members have since been active in acts like Darkstar, Deadsoul Tribe, Teabag and Cage. While active Psychotic Waltz were quite the cult act with a very dedicated following (especially in Europe) and there was certainly a high demand for bootlegs back then. Which is probably one of the reasons for the release of this compilation.
"Live & Archives" is a two CD set and as the title suggests the first CD is a live concert recorded in Hamburg Germany in 1991 on the tour supporting their debut album "A Social Grace (1990)". This is not a well produced live album that has been altered in the studio afterwards to correct errors but rather a bootleg recording with a pretty bad sound quality, audience noise (you can actually hear the audience talking german and laughing) and lots of shrieks and feedback. In other words this is exactly how they sounded live take it or leave it.
The second CD is archive recordings which for the most part means raw demo recordings and unfinished songs. There are a few well produced songs on that CD but the majority of the songs are not in a very good recording quality.
CD1:
It´s always interesting to hear how a band perform on a bootleg type recording and especially how the singer performs. In the case of this recording the performance is passionate and tight. Buddy Lackey sings with great passion and although there is the occasional wrong note being sung this is a great performance by him.
The concert opens with the "Sleeping Dogs" intro and then seques into "I of the Storm". It´s a powerful performance of the latter and a great way to start the set. still great. "Halo of Thorns" follows and it´s an emotional and passionate performance of a great Psychotic Waltz classic. Buddy Lackey sings with incredible amounts of passion and pathos. There are some microphone problems during "Halo of Thorns" and the microphone cord is changed before the band start to play "Nothing". "Nothing" isn´t the strongets Psychotic Waltz track but it sounds great live. After "Nothing" Buddy Lackey speaks to the audience while the others tune their instruments (which you´ll know is highly necessary if you are familiar with how much Dan Rock (guitar) an Brain McAlpin (guitar) use their vibrato arms). He tells the audience that it is both his and the band´ss birthday today and the crowd sing "Happy Birthday to You" with a thick german accent. So sweet (LOL). Psychotic Waltz were founded on the first of july 1986 and this concerts marks the band´s five years birthday.
"...And the Devil Cried" is next song up and it´s probably the most energetic and thrashy song Psychotic Waltz have ever made. It works very well in this version and you can really hear how tight the band were on stage. Some of the fast sections are drowned in the bootleg sound quality but if you know the song you´ll still be able to hear what´s going on. "A Psychotic Waltz" and "Only in a Dream" follow. The first one is a beatiful and epic power ballad and the latter a very melodic song with lots of beautiful guitar harmonies. Buddy Lackey´s vocal performance on "A Psychotic Waltz" is noteworthy for being incredibly passionate and different from the studio version that appears on "A Social Grace (1990)".
Before "Successor" begins Buddy Lackey thanks a german band (I can´t catch the name) for lending them their rehearsal room and dedicates the song to them. "Successor" has always been one of the strangest and most futuristic sounding but also most powerful tracks on "A Social Grace (1990)" and here it´s performed in a very convincing manner. The next song in the setlist is "Strange" and just before the song starts an audience member shouts something that sounds like "cockroach" and to that Buddy Lackey replies: "Shut Up and Dance". Just hilarious and a good example of the friendly contact between band and audience that is apparent throughout the concert. "Strange" is delivered in a powerful version. Note the extremely fast dual guitar leads which are played to perfection. "Strange" is definitely one of the highlights of this live set.
Psychotic Waltz then chose to play "Out of mind" from their, at the time, forthcoming second full-length studio album "Into the Everflow (1992)". "Out of mind" unfortunately drowns a bit in the rather bad sounding bootleg sound. The song is energetic and loud and that´s probably the reason, but it´s one of the weakest sounding tracks here. The flute led power ballad "I remember" was always one of the highlights at any Psychotic Waltz concert and it´s no exception here. This is the ultimate crowd pleaser and the audience is participating by singing along. The flute solo comes of a bit weak though as there are a couple of audio fallouts.
"In this Place" is up next and while it´s one of the least interesting tracks in the setlist, the performance is decent. After the song Buddy Lackey talks about his positive ideals and view on life. Love being a more powerful force than hate and so on. Then into "Little People" from "Into the Everflow (1992)". The song is delivered in a powerful version which ends up being one of the highlights of the set. Before the song starts Buddy Lackey says: "This is our last song for tonight" but is then corrected by one of the other bandmembers, and then makes and excuse to the audience telling them that his setlist is incorrect. Again this is a "down to earth", authentic and live as it gets. Next up is "Spiral Tower" and a cover version of "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles closes the concert.
CD2:
"Flashback into the Abyss" opens CD2 and it´s a rather redundant track IMO. Synth sounds with noisy guitar on top and a touch of post rock. "Burn the Night" is the next track and it´s a melodic heavy metal track wity thrash metal leanings which reminds me of other mid- to late eighties melodic metal/thrash bands like Fates Warning, Savatage, Lääz Rocket, Forbidden and Heathen. It´s a decent track but nothing too special. "To Chase the Stars" is one of the better tracks on CD2. It´s a power ballad where we get to hear the full vocal range of Buddy Lackey. Some of the acoustic guitar sections remind me of the sound on "Into the Everflow (1992)". Compared to the tracks on that album, "To Chase the Stars" is a rather mediocre track.
"Snippet" is a redundant 15 seconds guitar idea. Why anyone would be interested in this is beyond me. This is probably not even interesting to the most hardcore fan. "No glory" is up next and it is in a similar style to "Burn the Night" which means melodic metal/thrash metal that reminds me of Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, Savatage and Heathen. The song is decent but nothing special. Then we´re treated to "Spiral Tower" in an early pre-album version. It´s a rather powerful version and definitely worth a listen. "The Fry Tape" is of some interest. It´s an instrumental track with some nice acoustic guitars and loads of Dan Rock´s spacey synths (similar in style to the intro to "Ashes" and "Sleeping Dogs"). There is also a classical influenced section in the middle. It seems a bit unfinished to me but I´m definitely intrigued by this one.
"Successor" is the next track and it´s a version that is very close to the original studio version on "A Social Grace (1990)" just with a more demo type sound. The same counts for the next track "Halo of Thorns". Both tracks are decent but I prefer the version on "A Social Grace (1990)". "The Keeper" is a live track and to begin with I was sure that this was an early version of "Ashes" as the opening riff in "The Keeper" is the same as the one that opens "Ashes", but when "The Keeper" starts for real it´s an entirely different track. But suddenly in the middle of "The Keeper", there are again riffs and sections from "Ashes" featured in the track. "Ashes" was apparently the middle part of "The Keeper" before being seperated into a track of it´s own. It seems like a sensible decision to seperate the two parts as the more heavy part of "The Keeper" isn´t that memorable while The "Ashes" part of the track is pretty great.
"Dan's Fall" is a short jamming live piece where Buddy Lackey tells the audience how guitarist Dan Rock was badly injured due to a fall and how this as a consequence results in Dan only being able to grow half a beard (Dan Rock had a very distinct beard style at the time. take a Look at the band photo on the inner sleeve to "Into the Everflow (1992)" for proof of that). There´s a Zappaesque humour to the whole thing that´s pretty hilarious. "007" is as the title suggests the title theme from James Bond played live by the band. Another redundant and not very entertaining piece.
"Flute Solo" is an Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) inspired a capella flute solo played by Buddy Lackey. It´s a decent piece but nothing too special. The Ozzy Osbourne cover "Diary of a Madman" is another live track. It´s a pretty great cover version and one of the better tracks on CD2. "Pre-Freakshow" is some loose ideas that would be used later in the song "Freakshow" from "Into the Everflow (1992)". It´s not very interesting unless you´re an all consuming hardcore fan. "Clusterfuck Jam" features some parts from the title track of "Mosquito (1994)" but I also think I hear other riffs that I have heard before. This is an intriguing sketch of a song in the respect that it is interesting to hear in which context known riffs were initially used. A real fan thing though. "Unfinished" sounds as the title suggests unfinished. The structure of the song is there but there are no vocals featured on the track and the song lacks details that would make it more complete. With it´s 8:35 minutes of playing time it could have been an interesting listen had it been finished and released in a real studio version. There is certainly promise here. "The Ending" is another rather redundant piece that might not even be interesting to the hardcore fans. With it´s 0:17 minutes of playing time it´s mercifully short though.
Conclusion:
"Live & Archives" is a classic example of a hardcore fan item. There is very little of interest here for the casual listener. Bootleg quality live shows just don´t give anyone else but fans satisfaction and archive material is almost always only for the really hardcore fans too. This means that even though I find especially the live show interesting this is a 2 - 2.5 star (45%) album.