First review Snood has found on Amazon by someone named BrickTop:
One of the best albums of the 90s gets a deluxe set that has some huge highs and unfortunate lows, easily 3 stars, September 30, 2016
By Bricktop
This review is from: Temple Of The Dog [2 CD/Blu-ray Audio/DVD][Super Deluxe Ed (Audio CD)
Temple of the Dog; the album that introduced many people to the world of Andrew Wood and Mother Love Bone, that enlightened them to Pearl Jam’s history and opened up just how connected many of the artists in the exploding early 90s “Seattle scene” were. A collection of songs from one to another, to say goodbye, to grieve, to celebrate; the songs here resonate today just as passionately as they did some 24 years ago in 1992 when I first heard Hunger Strike on MTV. Wait, is that Chris Cornell AND Eddie Vedder singing together? My 19 year old mind was blown. Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Holy Smokes! Sure, some people knew the album before then as it was released over a year earlier, but let’s face it…most of us were oblivious to this incredible album until Badmotorfinger, Ten and Nevermind were entrenched in our psyches.
Let's get this out of the way, the album itself gets 5 stars...without hesitation. It's one of the best albums of the 90s, the songwriting varies throughout, long journeys, ballads, rockers, wicked solos, soaring vocals, awesome harmonies, 5 FREAKING STARS! Now that we've got that out of the way, how does the 25th anniversary box set make out?
I had a lot of apprehension about this release due to seeing many of the same names involved that I feel prevented previous deluxe editions of Pearl Jam’s Ten and Soundgarden’s Superunknown from living up to their potential. Upon release some of it is resolved and some of it remains. With Ten and Superknown we saw a mess of loudness wars mastering, Ten was slammed by Bob Ludwig and Superunknown was slammed by Adam Kasper. Adam also did the 5.1 mix of Superunknown. In each case analogue source material is available but the album’s vinyl releases were cut from digital. So what has changed this time around? Well for starters this release is automatically precluded from being a 1-star release by the excellent video footage and bonus audio tracks presented within, so where does it falter? Four things in particular come to mind now that the release is out:
1) Brendan O'Brien remix: so you finally get all the tapes and you're going to REMIX the album? I would understand if you included both the original mix and a remix like Ten, but didn't the fairly mixed online reaction of O'Brien's work on the Ten Redux not clue anyone in that perhaps a substantial chunk of the music-buying public don't want these amazing 90s albums messed around with? This is like Star Wars and Lucas! I like the sound of the original album, a Blu-ray Disc has loads of storage space and they should have included a flat transfer of the original analogue stereo master in 24/96 or higher similar to some of the King Crimson, Yes, etc., releases that Steven Wilson has been involved in.
2) Adam Kasper: the press release actually touts that this is the guy who did the 5.1 mix of Superuknown! The Superunknown 5.1 mix was widely panned as being the worst 5.1 mix ever done on pretty much every forum that discusses such topics including the forums at Quadraphonic Quad. Adam Kasper is not a surround sound mixer: Steven Wilson; Bob Clearmountain; Elliot Scheiner; if you were serious about doing a 5.1 mix you would have got someone who understands surround to do it, like one of those names. Fortunately it appears Adam has heard some of the feedback on his previous effort, the vocals aren’t hard copied from center into surround, just an awful effect. Surround takes a little longer to listen to and appreciate so I reserve my right to change my opinion in time but for the moment, it is a miss for me that they didn’t get someone who understand what surround can do to treat this record right.
3) Remixed digital vinyl? [NOTE: this point refers to the 2LP set being released, the Super Deluxe edition does NOT contain any vinyl records, the ASIN for the 2LP set is B01KKYZQRC] - This is the bit that really makes me want to bash my head against the wall. You make all this noise on social media about getting the analog tapes back and then what do you do? Remix the album and digitally remaster it for VINYL...an ANALOG format! You have the original analog stereo master there. Why couldn't you send this off to Chris Bellman, Bernie Grundman, Steve Hoffman, Ryan K. Smith, Kevin Gray, someone who can cut in an all analogue chain? No, instead we get a 24-bit Brendan O'Brien remix cut to vinyl. The people involved in this release have missed a massive opportunity to deliver the Temple of the Dog original album cut in an all analogue chain with full dynamics intact allowing us to experience the magic in those tapes as close as possible to what was heard in the studio.
4) Blu-ray Disc missing video material – the promotional material for this release made it appear that all the video footage from the DVD would be included on the Blu-ray, it’s not! The entire Live at the Off Ramp Café footage is only on the DVD. At the very least the DVD audio is uncompressed stereo PCM, but with the storage size of Blu-ray there’s simply no reason to not have this on there. The Hunger Strike video and lie in Phoenix performance are also only on the DVD.
What was done right with this release?
It should be pretty obvious the excellent video footage being tapped here is the shining light, it won’t make up for the shoddy attention the original studio album has been given, but including all this extra material makes the package still hard to pass up even at its exorbitant price tag. Getting well-mastered copies of the videos, those old live performances, the Blu-ray Disc would have made a very nice standalone package at $29.99 but alas you have to pay over $100 for one disc! Money grab, similar to the onsale of the Temple of the Dog tour not being paperless/CC entry! But yes, having all this performance footage is pretty sweet, the Alpine Valley and Benaroya Hall footage in particular looks great, but even though the source material for the earlier footage is lacking you wouldn’t pass it up, it’s a historic chronicle of one of the most moving stories in music, how a friend got his friends together to say goodbye to Captain Hi-Top the Love Commander, to L’andrew, to Mr. Golden Words. For those that may not understand why it should have been included on the Blu-ray even though the source material may have been SD, the bitrate advantage leads to less artifacting like macroblocking, pixelation, etc., and you get everything on one disc. You could also have included the high resolution 5.1 mix on the Hunger Strike video. It's a little nit-picky, but I'd rather have everything on one disc. Heck even the bonus material could have been included on a BD50 disc.
Compared to the Superunknown and Ten releases, opponents of the worst thing to happen to music since Milli Vanilla, “The Loudness Wars”, will be very pleased to hear that the dynamics on this release were left mostly intact. It’s unfortunate we only have the remixed studio album, but the original CD for now still presents an excellent document of the original album and for those who don’t like the remix but want Temple of the Dog on vinyl, the recent vinyl release by Music On Vinyl is fully dynamic and sounds very good. Both are very affordable. Here’s some links:
Original CD - Temple Of The Dog
Music on Vinyl 2LP - Temple of the Dog
For those that understand DR numbers, here are some comparisons to show how much more tame the mastering is here compared to some previous efforts:
Temple of the Dog 1991 CD - DR12
Temple of the Dog 2016 2CD - DR9 (big surprise!)
Superunknown 1994 CD - DR10
Superunknown 2014 CD - DR6 (ugly)
Ten 1991 CD - DR10
Ten 2009 CD - DR6 (both the redux and remaster were an ugly DR6)
I really want to give this 3.5 stars and am having a tough time deciding whether to round up or round down.
PROS
the loudness wars haven't destroyed this release
it has a 5.1 mix that isn't so bad
HD footage included on the Blu-ray looks fab
historical archive of the early 90s performances
a plethora of bonus material
CONS
no high resolution transfer on the Blu-ray of the original stereo mix
no vinyl release cut all analogue from the original stereo master
missing video material on the DVD that's found on the Blu-ray
price
At the end of the day I'm very reluctantly rounding down to 3-stars due to the price. Were the MSRP $79.99 it would be easily a 4-star release.