Review of Meat Loaf: Hits Out of Hell

Introduction

As you’ll see from the disc details above, Meat Loaf’s “Bat out of Hell” is a historic album, which was staggeringly successful when it was released and still sells well today. “Dead Ringer” and “Midnight at the Lost and Found” followed but neither could match “Bat Out of Hell” despite delivering some now classic songs. Meat Loaf’s career then went into decline, but he resurfaced with the brilliant “Bat Out of Hell II” in 1993.

The “Hits Out Of Hell” DVD features a live performance of tracks from “Bat Out Of Hell”, “Dead Ringer” and “Midnight at the Lost and Found” and is a reissue of a video that has been available for 10 years.

Video

Video comes in full-frame and unfortunately is not a good demonstration of the capabilities of DVD. This picture suffers from grain, dirt and a lack of resolution, and looks tired.

Much of this will stem from the source material itself, which is old, and a high quality master probably isn’t available – and to be honest although the packaging talks of this being digitally remastered, it wouldn’t surprise me if this DVD was created from the same masters used to produce the VHS version 10 years ago.

Audio

Having established that the video suffers from the age and quality of the source material, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that the soundtrack has similar problems. Although the sound has been given a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix, there is noticeable lack of dynamic range with a lack of bass power and high end clarity in the reproduction.

However having said the above, the sound is not dissimilar to my CD versions of “Bat Out of Hell” and “Hits Out Of Hell” so it has to be viewed in context.

Features

Extras consist of a biography and discography.

The DVD is packaged in a clear Amaray case.

Conclusion

Overall, the content is fantastic but the presentation unfortunately doesn’t do it justice. The video quality is poor and the sound isn’t great by today’s standards either (but it is on-par with the CD editions of early Meat Loaf albums).

Despite the problems, I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD and have watched it three times so far – the music is great, and the performances are very good.

It is impossible to justify a £19.99 price tag for a straight re-release of a product that has been out on VHS for years and offers nothing new, especially with the poor video and sound quality. Consequently, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone who already has the VHS version upgrades to the DVD. Anyone else should note that whilst the content is superb, the delivery is not.