I Killed the Prom Queen were a just-OK metalcore/screamo band from Adelaide, Australia. They formed in 2003, released two full-length CDs and three EPs, and broke up in 2008 after one final tour, including the hometown gig documented on this CD/DVD set. The set list encompasses both their albums -- 2004's When Goodbye Means Forever and 2006's Music for the Recently Deceased -- as well as a few tracks from the Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You EP and the band's split with fellow Australians Parkway Drive. So it wouldn't be a bad starting point for those new to the band, except for one thing: it sounds awful. This is one of the worst-sounding live albums since Iggy Pop's TV Eye (1977 Live). The drums are all crash and boom, the guitars and bass blend into a soupy mass of distortion, and the vocals (screams by original frontman Michael Crafter, clean backups by guitarist Jona Weinhofen) are buried underneath everything else. The crowd noise sounds tinny and far away. Now, it's worth noting that this is exactly what most metal sounds like live, especially in a midsize club. Every sound bounces off the walls and the floor and the bodies in the pit, and subtle melodic intricacy goes out the window. It's all about crushing the listener with raw volume. But a great live album is a carefully constructed and beautiful lie, presenting skilled performances in almost studio-worthy sound, with some well-mixed cheers and examples of the vocalist's wittiest, most engaging banter popping up between songs. Fans know this: they want the lie. They don't want something that sounds like it was recorded on a cell phone. And frankly, nobody who's not already a diehard is gonna be interested in a live album by an already-broken-up, generic at best metalcore act.
© Phil Freeman /TiVo