This 2-CD live recording captures Megadeth's Dave Mustaine at his best -- playing his guitar-driven heavy metal music that fans have embraced for years. The musicianship is top-notch and his uncredited bandmates -- you have to go to their official website (http://www.megadeth.com) to figure out who is on this recording -- blitz through their material with a lot of aggression.

Recorded at Obras Sanitarias stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 9, 2005, these 22 songs represent a lot of Megadeth's best material, including the landmark 1990 Rust in Peace release. On CD 1, opener "Blackmail the Universe" from The System has Fail ed sets the omnious tone with the voice-over describing a disaster regarding the United States. With effortless grace, "Set the World Afire" and "Skin of My Teeth" continue the momentum. The classics "Wake Up Dead" and "In My Darkest Hour" are outstanding choices as well.

On CD 2, a scorching version of "Hangar 18" seamlessly melts into the "sequel" called "Return to Hangar." When Mustaine writes a sequel, it meshes together better than Metallica's lame sequel to "The Unforgiven" on ReLoad, for example. Immediately after this Mustaine launches into personal testimony in a song called "I'll Be There," with excellent lyrics like "You were there for me / I'll be there for you" that come off a lot more heartfelt than they read.

"Tornado of Souls" follows before arriving at the hit single "Trust." This song still sounds too closely constructed to "Enter Sandman," but fortunately the tag team of "Peace Sells" and "Holy Wars" ends the release with a dip to the classic Megadeth years. Make no mistake that Megadeth continues to be solely about Dave Mustaine playing his songs. None of the other band members really stand out, aside from nailing their musical parts that someone else recorded.

This results in a recording that has excellent music but absolutely no interplay between the band and audience, or between band members. Yes, the audience sings along, so in a 'paint by numbers' way, this release fulfills its requirements. You don't hear introductions of the other members of the band to the audience, though, nor is there anything different from the studio recordings like an extended guitar solo. There's not even one alternate version of any song, making one wonder why they should bother with this instead of, say, a greatest hits package.

But seen as such, this is quite the hits package, plus the only place where Mustaine sings "Coming Home to Argentina," which of course gets a huge crowd response. So while this is mainly for completists, who will likely complain about the lack of liner notes and bland cover art, it's still a great introduction to the band's material.

Rating: A-

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