Hell...definitly better artowrk on the second one, but there's only MMX there
Well, it would have been extremely hard to blend the group picture with the background, and besides, the whole composition would have suffered greatly. You know, in the previous artwork, the shape of the colosseum directly shifts and pushes the viewer's attention toward the image above. Furthermore, if you draw a line to join all the heads of the band members, you'll have the same shape of the upper edge of the building. So, that's definitely a strong composition. To try the same thing with a different foreground image, with different shapes, would have compromised the whole result, in my opinion.
And I could not include each member's single portrait, either, since most of them have the upper part of their head cropped away. -.-
So, I went with Mangini (the only one with Myung to have a full-head picture) alone, which is not completely nonsense, since the show was very much HIS special show.
Anyway, I like both artwork, but my preference leans towards the first. I like hot color a bit more, and definitely love the blurred lights/lines (which might allude to the "Blurring lines drawn in between what is right and what is wrong").