Rock Of Ages-The DVD Collection

Def Leppard

The Music

Tied to its audio counterpart, “Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection”, Def Leppard’s new DVD experience has a lot to live up to. It does provide a glimpse into the bands live performances but not in the way I wanted. The DVD is only a collection of music videos or clips of live performances set to the studio audio. It’s actually hard to find out if the DVD actually has live performances in the first place. It’s nowhere on the box and I felt like I was cheated after I found out the DVD’s content. Not knowing what you’re getting on the DVD really ticks me off and forces you to look for some kind of a review. I should have turned to “Dobro’s Rock Barn” for a great review but sadly, I didn’t. But seriously, even looking into the collection online did not fill me in on what the content was like on the DVD. I could have looked harder but I feel like I shouldn’t have to. I think it should all be spelled out on the DVD case. On the bright side, you get your fill of cool music videos and all around great music. The videos themselves are sub par though and personally I think AC/DC does a better job with music videos in general. There wasn’t a video I particularly liked and I’d have to put them in all in the same garbage bin of low quality ideas. Even “Women” (the video I was looking forward to the most) involves some pre-adolescent kid looking at this stupid comic book. I mean, it couldn’t have been more boring. You’ll notice that I’m not going to highlight the music videos because I thought that they all were lacking. My other review of the audio Definitive Collection rates all these songs and can be found in the past album review section. The DVD is presented in Dolby Surround 5.1 and Dolby stereo so I can’t find anything to gripe about there.

Track Listing

Disc 1

Pour Some Sugar On Me
Photograph
Love Bites
Let’s Get Rocked
Two Steps Behind
Animal
Foolin’
Rocket
When Love and Hate Collide
Armageddon It
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
Rock of Ages
Hysteria
Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
Promises
Women
Slang
Work It Out
Now

Presentation and Extras

This DVD is good for a diehard fan who wants to relive Def Leppards’ old music videos. But it is not good for someone who wants to see Def Leppard live (Def Leppard isn’t exactly known for their live performances anyway). It utterly fails in this department with only clips of live performances without their original audio. Maybe they wanted to hide their below average, live performances. I did enjoy watching the videos and thought they were decent but kept thinking that they could have been better.

The presentation design of the DVD collection is based on the audio Definitive Collection. So you basically get the same patterns and designs as well as exactly the same cover. The DVD comes with a booklet that utilizes some of the same photos from the CD collection. The only other mentionable aspect of the booklet is a track listing. The actual menu of the DVD is cool, with lightening and shit but the extras on the DVD are kind of lacking. You get audio commentary by the band, a rehearsal of “No Matter What”, sound options and a cool personal playlist that allows you to edit out videos that you don’t want to see. Personally, I think this DVD is just a companion to the audio collection and not good as a stand alone DVD. It showcases sub par music videos and leaves you wanting more in a bad way. The DVD just seems like a broken off piece of the Definitive Collection sold separately to make more money.

Score

7/10