The single disc is subtitled, "Live At Rock Of Ages Festival 2009", so there’s no surprises in what you get from the iconic, shaggy silver haired, dark fu manchu moustache Teutonic fretster. Playing the outdoors, hard rock gathering at twilight, this is a 70-minute German festival set (including drum solo), featuring best-of tracks, medley of songs too lengthy to air in their entirety and a cover of Pell’s mentor (Ritchie Blackmore) in the guise of a nine-minute rendition of Rainbow’s ‘The Temple Of The King’.

The solo spot within ‘Mystica’ also borrows liberally from the man in black. There is nothing off the just issued "The Crest" and only a snippet of the title track to "Tales Of The Crown", for which they were on tour. Like the recent Annihilator live set, this was scheduled prior to the label’s financial woes and whether this is a tax-right off, or cost cutting move, there’s nothing in the way of extras (one sided insert, not even the cheap photo gallery lifted from the live footage), just the concert, a menu to select individual songs, the credits and audio pre-sets. In that regard, this is recommended only to old-school Pell fans, or someone interested in an overview of his more than two decade career, without investing much money (seems to be a theme here)!

As always, the band is comprised of killer players at nearly every position. Since the dawn of rock, drummers have been an odd lot and Mohawk sporting American, Mike Terrana, is an amazing skinsman and wild man. Countryman Johnny Gioeli is one of melodic metal’s unsung vocal greats and Ferdy Doernberg has added his keyboard and backing vocal talents to numerous projects, as well as a few of his own. Yet, usually the camera is trained on Pell (and rightfully so), especially during his lengthy, emotive solos. Too many red/orange/purple lights, which wash out features (and since show begins in daylight and finished in dark, camera filters should have been changed, as too dark overall), and only Gioeli walks beyond a three foot perimeter, yet it’s the music and conviction which transcend the visual limitations. The concluding ‘Eternal Prisoner’ becomes an instrumental showdown between keys and guitar.