Album Review: Justice - All Arena Access (Live)

This week Justice released their second live album, All Access Arena, recorded at a show in Les Arenes De Nimas during their 2012 world tour. I saw these guys at the House of Blues back in October of last year and their live album made me relive the raucous concert. Each song listed on the live album were the exact same song that I remembered Justice played in Houston. For those of you who missed Justice in their 2012 tour, this is as close as you're going to get to their insane live performance.

The live album consists songs from their heavy electronic 2007 album, Cross, and their progressive rock influenced 2011 album, Audio, Video, Disco, only for Justice to collaborate their well-known hits such as "D.A.N.C.E," "Phantom (I & II)," "Civilization," "Audio, Video, Disco," and "Helix." For Justice being a part of the EDM genre, they didn't feel like a typical EDM show. The sound and production for this album was so amazing, it felt like an actual rock concert. There was no way that any other EDM act can produce the kind of sound. The way they transition from one song to the next song ("Genesis" to "Helix" and "Stress" to "Waters of Nazereth") was magical - Daft Punk's Alive magical.

Taken by Roland Ruiz (HOB Oct. 28, 2012)

One part of the live album that raised a couple of exclamation points to me was when they started to combine the vocals for "D.A.N.C.E" and mashed it with the intro for Jay-Z's "On To The Next One." I would say the track that surprised me the most in this album was "On 'n' On." The song was played at a good time, after the crowd asked for an encore, and it set the mood toward the end of the album. It was slow, melodic and it built up the crowd up for the final song "Phantom Pt. II." It was the song to get your lighters out and wave them slowly back and forth. Before this album, I wasn't a big fan of "On 'n' On" at the time when Audio, Video, Disco was released. Now, I have a new appreciation for that song because of this live album.

All in all, Justice's All Access Arena album is a real as you're going to get as far as a live act from this French duo. They are a premier act in the EDM scene and there's nobody like them.

5 out of 5 Stars