3 out of 5

Label: Relapse

Produced by: Colin Marston (mastered by)

Live albums: do they add something to your experience? Do they maybe bring back a good memory of a show?

There are a couple basic criteria by which I value live albums, with the former type of question – is there an element you can’t get from studio albums – admittedly weighing a lot more than the latter, which has a “you had to be there” pre-requisite.

This 5-song EP of cuts from Dysrhythmia’s first major release, Pretest, would probably do well in that second category, of course, because the band absolutely brings it: the recording is weighty and crisp, matching studio production and possibly besting it as Dys’ recorded guitar sound tends toward clean and you get some grit here; and the playing is note-perfect, if you had any doubts the trio could do their metal instrumentals live. If they didn’t have Pretest, and only this EP, damn, yeah, this rocks.

But they do have Pretest, and, as indicated above, this is a pretty spot-on take. There’s nothing added, and given producer Steve Albini’s skills with capturing recordings pretty raw, it already had a defining live sound to it.

Definitely appreciated as a document of skills, beyond collecting there’s not much reason to own this over the album from which the tracks come.