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Live at Eindhoven was originally released as an EP back in 1987 - a recording of the band's performance at the Dynamo Open Air festival. This re-issue does it right this time, containing the full set rather than just five songs like the original EP. Testament were red hot back then, having released their highly acclaimed debut just a few weeks prior to that show, and even though crowd noises are kept to a minimum, you can tell that they got a great reception. That's something I like on a live album: Just enough to feel that it's a live recording, but without too much crowd noises and interaction (unlike some albums that won't drop annoyances like 5-6 minutes of "eeehhhh ooooohhhh"'s.) We can hear the frontman pump up the crowd and introduce songs, but it's short enough as to not get annoying.

This is of course almost exclusively material off The Legacy, with a couple of other songs and a guitar solo (could have skipped this one, but that would have defeated the idea of releasing the whole thing, right?) The sound is somewhat raw and pretty heavy-sounding and - at least from what I can tell - hasn't been touched up too much; there are times when the vocals are drowned by the instruments, just the kind of stuff you expect to run into at a live show. As well, things can get a bit chaotic here and there due to the nature of a live performance. In the end, it's tight enough, very energetic, and there's just enough band-crowd interaction to make you feel a bit like you are there. I have been steering clear of most live albums for a while now, but I'm glad I gave this one a spin (by now, 20 or so...) Not too long, not too short and free of time-consuming live stuff that doesn't translate well in your living room. Very cool.