Gigantour 2 (DVD)

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2008

This is the companion piece to the CD of the same title although several tracks are different on the two. Here are my impressions of each band's performance here even though most of the acts only got a song or two. The Smashup opened and I just couldn't get into their brand of some type of metalcore. Nothing seemed very genuine about them and they just weren't that sharp. Sanctity were more to my liking as they had more of a thrash approach. Nothing new at all, but they were fairly tight and comfortable with what they doing. Oh, my poor ears and eyes as Into Eternity were up next their hokey vocals and thinly laced music. Yuck, if I had been there I would have gone to the bathroom during their set. It gets way better as thrash veterans Overkill rip into two songs. Despite the legion of guitarists and drummers this band has gone through they still rip into their songs and rule the stage. Arch Enemy follow and their music is pounding and even more coherent live yet I have never been very impressed by the vocals of Angela Gossow. She is very average as a singer and her performance just had me thinking that she just can't seem to get very energized.Opeth get a great amount of praise and the technical ability is there in large doses, but it just seems a stale to me. It's like metal for the slightly snooty, they replace and energy and aggression with layers and gobs of lots of long winding parts, but it's just a little too sterile. Okay, I'll admit it I have had trouble getting into Lamb of God not because I didn't like the music, but because they seem to be getting a lot of praise and they were not bringing anything new to the table. I still stand by that judgement as far their releases go, but the few clips here convinced me that they can bring much more live than on their studio recordings. Their presence and fire was undeniable on just the few songs on this DVD. Last up is Dave Mustaine and his latest version of Megadeth who perform three listed tracks and Peace Sells as a fourth bonus track. The sound is great and actually the sound for everyone on this disc is impressive. Megadeth were superbly tight in sound, but the energy I got from the band was merely decent. Maybe it's being a little older or maybe it's having a band of hired guns, but there was more standing around than I was expecting. Yet they sounded strong and the crowd ate it up. So all in all I liked this one for what it was.