A royal live album

The Queens of the Stone Age's live CD/DVD Over The Years and Through the Woods, released November 22nd, came a short eight months after the band's fourth studio album Lullabies to Paralyze. The first QOTSA's album since bassist and co-founder Nick Oliveri's departure from the band, Lullabies peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard charts and proved that frontman and guitarist Josh Homme was completely capable of leading the band himself. \nOver The Years and Through the Woods is a two-disc set complete with a 14-song CD and a DVD chock-full of live performances, backstage footage and band interviews spanning QOTSA's career. \nThe CD, recorded live at a recent QOTSA's show in London, is a snapshot of the band's whole career as well. Over the Years is practically a live greatest hits album for the QOTSA's. All four of the band's albums are represented on the album, including four songs from the QOTSA's most recent release Lullabies as well as the hugely successful "No One Knows" from their 2002 release Songs for the Deaf. The album also includes "I Wanna Make It Wit Chu," a song recorded by Josh Homme on his 2003 side-project release The Desert Sessions Volume 9 & 10.\nThe album does well to capture the loud and truly heavy experience of a live QOTSA's performance and the band is on point even without the naked bass playing of Oliveri. It is remarkable that even with the revolving door of players in the QOTSA's lineup and the absence of Oliveri, Homme is able to keep the band sounding as strong and as natural as ever.\nThe accompanying DVD includes both a featured full-length concert as well as bonus footage of live performances dating back to 1998. The full-length concert starts off with a short interlude with Homme leaning against a brick wall playing "This Lullaby" by himself. After this short intro the DVD jumps straight into QOTSA playing "Go With the Flow." The audio and visual quality of the full-length concert is quite good.\nThe bonus footage is a different story. Although it is quite interesting to watch live performances from the band throughout the years, the quality of recording is on par with a bad home movie. The sound quality is not so hot and most of the performances are shot from one angle only. However, watching the band's ever-changing lineup and seeing the band grow into what they are today is worth the look. \nOverall, the complete Over the Years and Through the Woods package is moderately priced and a solid pickup for the QOTSA fan.