Rating: Country: USA Release Date: May 13, 2008 Distributor: Eagle Rock Entertainment Grade: C

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14 Years ago, I was working in a Blockbuster Music store in Jacksonville, Florida, and we had an in-store guest.  It was an up-and-coming band that I hadn't heard of yet, but one of the other employees was gushing over.  Of course, it was Korn, and they were pretty cool guys.  I saw them in concert many times, at the Milk Bar and Club 5, bought all of their CD's, and have always been entertained.  Fast-forward to today, and the band is a shell of what they once were.  With Brian "Head" Welch turning to Christianity and drummer David Silveria going on "hiatus," 2/5 of the band is missing.  As the last concert to be filmed before the departure of Welch and Silveria, "Live at Montreaux" should be a lasting moment of the best metal bands to come out of the '90's; unfortunately, it isn't. 

The main problem here is that the editing suffers from what I refer to as "MTV Attention Span Editing;" the camera never stays on one shot longer than three seconds, so you are constantly barraged with changing images and angles.  This type of editing is fine for a sub-four-minute video when there is little time to get the message, the story, or whatever, of the video across.  Unfortunately, during a concert it gets a bit annoying when the viewer wants to feel as though they're part of the crowd and not watching a video of the song.  It also eats away from the energy this concert flourishes on.  The crowd is jumping, moshing, and feeling it, yet we're torn away from the stage to a shot showing us the back of Silveria's drums, then onto a close-up of Fieldy's bass, to Jonathan singing, back to the audience...it gets rather tiresome.  In fact, the only time there are continuous shots longer than a few seconds is in between each of the first six songs, where we see the darkened stage from the back of the hall for ten to twenty seconds.  Edit a few of those moments away, please.

The only time there isn't a long wait is the transition between the ending of "Blind" and the beginning of "Shoots & Ladders," where a drum and bass solo transition into Jonathan's bagpipe intro.  Unfortunately, we don't get to hear this anthem in its entirety; instead, the band launches into a few moments of Metallica's "One," before transitioning into "Freak on a Leash."  Of course, this isn't the editor's fault, but it's unfortunate as a fan because "One" seems oddly out of place here, and we don't get to hear all of two Korn's best songs.

The beginning of intro into "A.D.I.D.A.S." is probably one of the best (of few) moments on the DVD.  Fieldy, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the stage with Munky kneeling next to him, play a nice little bass and guitar solo leading us into the schoolyard-chant of "All Day I Dream About..."  This song also seamlessly end-transitions into "Dead Bodies Everywhere" where we finally get some slow fades during the solos.  These two songs capture the most feeling, thanks to the long solos and the camera staying focused on someone for more than three seconds, but it shouldn't take ten songs into the DVD to elicit that feeling.  But, at least there are a few moments where it does occur and those times are where the concert sucks you in.

One bright spot musically here is the cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall."  While the original album version on 1994's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 came across as an interesting cover with a near note-for-note guitar solo, the live version infuses the metal edge that Korn *should* have injected into the song on the album - and is all the better for it.  Plus, attaching "Goodbye, Cruel World" to the ending is a nice touch. 

As a Korn fan from the beginning, knowing that this is the final concert that we'll see from the original line-up is a disappointment, but something we'll have to live with.  Unfortunately, this DVD feels as though it's been filmed for television and while it's something hardcore fans will want to add to their library as a keepsake, 76 minutes of concert just isn't long enough, and the MTV-editing gets old fast.  There are no bonus items on the disc, and while fans wish they could have been there for the actual show, this DVD doesn't quite make us feel like we were.