In 1998, American rockers Korn assembled a motley group of acts from the international hard-core music scene and headed off around America for what they coined the Family Values Tour; a tour that has become somewhat of a tradition in subsequent years. Headlining the tour, Korn were joined by German rockers Rammstein, and other American acts Limp Bizkit, Orgy and rapper Ice Cube. A compilation of footage from the tour, Family Values Fall Tour ‘98 presents some of the standout performances, interspersed with interviews and back-stage footage.

“Americans are so conservative. What worries me the most is that they wont let us do our show the way we want - if you really want to see brutality, just turn on TV in America. It is very brutal and evil.� –- Flake (Rammstein)

All in all, 18 hard-core tracks are presented, with performances by all five acts. The complete list of tracks is as follows:

• Limp Bizkit
  1. Cambodia
  2. Counterfeit
  3. Faith
  4. Jump Around
• Ice Cube
  1. Check Yo Self (Remix)
  2. Fuck Dying
  3. It was a Good Day
  4. Fuck tha Police
• Orgy
  1. Blue Monday
  2. Stiches
  3. Revival
• Rammstein
  1. Büch Dich
  2. Du Hast
• Korn
  1. Blind
  2. All in the Family
  3. Got the Life
  4. Children of the Korn (with Ice Cube)
  5. Faget

To my bitter disappointment, Rammstein (despite having second billing on the tour) are sorely under-represented here with only two tracks. Quality definitely makes up for quantity however, with Büch Dich finally making an appearance on R4 DVD, and definitely earning the disc’s R rating. Rammstein fans still stinging from the removal of this track from the recently released Rammstein Live aus Berlin (it was removed for its American release) will be glad to find the full, unedited stage performance here – Till’s fake rubber phallus, Flake’s unzippable bum-flap and all.

I’ll be the first to admit that, though a Rammstein fan, hard-core isn’t really my thing, and therefore I know little to nothing about the other acts presented here. In their latest opus, TISM tells us that Fred Durst (lead singer of Limp Bizkit), is the new apostle of Hard-Core Christian Inc. Ice Cube did a bloody good job in Three Kings. But other than that? Nup a complete blank.

Therefore, the stand-out tracks for me were the tracks I had heard before. Limp Bizkit’s super-charged version of the George Michael ‘classic’ Faith gave me a chuckle (and a version I could actually stomach), and although I thought it sacrilege, Orgy’s version of the New Order classic Blue Monday pushed all the right buttons. Rammstein tracks Büch Dich and Du Hast are the cornerstones of their second album Seinsucht, and Korn’s Got the Life was on high rotation with JJJ for quite a while. OK, undoubtedly you hard-core dudes will find much more to appreciate, but there it is.

Presented in full-frame on a single-sided, single-layer disc, this re-release of Family Values Fall Tour ‘98 presents us with a PAL conversion from the original NTSC master. In general, the transfer is adequate, with most of the footage seemingly shot on the cheap using video equipment. The image is sharp and there is a reasonable amount of detail on display during the well-lit sequences. Although black level is solid, the detail tails off dramatically as the amount of light decreases. The shadow detail is also reduced by an abundance of background grain - not surprising given the source material. Despite these limitations, colours are rendered faithfully, and there are no MPEG artefacts to be seen. All in all, the transfer is reasonable and fans will be fairly happy with the results.

In terms of audio, whereas the original NTSC version of Family Values Fall Tour ‘98 provided both PCM stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, Sony have forgone the 5.1 option for this PAL re-release. Given that the footage has so obviously been filmed on the cheap, I was never expecting outstanding sound production values. I wasn’t disappointed. The PCM track is passable, although below CD quality, and is equivalent to (or possibly a fraction better than) the quality you might expect from a VHS release.

The disk itself is fairly devoid of any ‘extra’ material. Static menus are provided to access the tracks and behind the scenes material for each of the bands, but that’s the extent of it.

At the end of the day Family Values Fall Tour ‘98 will only be of interest to fans of one or more of the featured acts. For me, the Rammstein material makes great viewing, but you’ll have to make your own mind up about the rest. The production values on the disc are a little on the mean side, but hey – that’s hard core (man).