The Unholy Alliance live

CMV
2007

This DVD was filmed in Vancouver on July 13, 2006. The Unholy Tour in 2006 included Thine eyes Bleed, Children of Bodom, Mastodon, Lamb of God and headliners Slayer. This DVD is a bit of a sampler with everyone except Slayer just getting between one and three tracks. Thine eyes bleed perform “Dark White” and the alternate between mid-tempo and thrash. It’s a decent enough song, but all rather familiar and just okay in it’s delivery. Children of Bodom are much more to my liking with there sometimes quirky style of metal that actually works with the keyboards thrown in. They perform two songs and I wish they had gotten. Mastodon perform three songs which is the most by any of the support bands here. Their performance here went along with what I thought when I saw them in 2005. That is the fact they are much better live than they are on album. Their albums just don’t do them justice because no producer has yet been able to capture the unbridles energy and heaviness that they easily master live. Lamb of God play to second to last, but only get one track for some reason. For some reason I have just never seen what all of the fuss about this band is. They are good, but I don’t see them as being anything special or new. Obviously they are tight enough, but I have to believe that they had an unfortunate spot being between Mastodon and Slayer. Last up is Slayer who get ten tracks and while that’s good I wish it had been more. This performance just reiterates what I already knew and that is the fact that Slayer are one of the most important metal bands of the last 25 years. The heaviness, the attitude, the straight up approach are all elements that Slayer have always had and all of those parts have helped shape not only this band, but all of the many, many bands they have influenced over the years. Their performance on this DVD is of course very good and their energy level is still there. They prove that they can still deliver and do it all rather effortlessly. My mouth dropped watching Dave Lombardo still just plow away at the drum parts that changed that changed this instrument was played in speed metal. The DVD runs around two hours and also includes some interviews with band members and parking lot extra that features interviews with fans. It’s a good sampler, but I would have liked to have seen the whole sets by the bands. Still it has some good and even great performances on it.