"The Unholy Alliance" Tour in 2006 would be a concert for the record books as it not only gave you the legendary and crushing might of Slayer as the evenings headliner but it also brought the audience four other bands that are truly worthy of attention as well. It would be during this tour that Thine Eyes Bleed, Children Of Bodom, Mastodon and Lamb Of God all stood together with the legends of Thrash Metal in order to show you how they took care of business in the genre. This DVD celebrates a small portion of the tour by bringing you front and center for seventeen of the evenings performed tunes. The release is only one DVD which I think was a mistake given the amount of Metal that gets left off as a result of this. Had they issued this as a double disc set there would have been much more room afforded to the other bands than we end up seeing. Obviously the larger scope of focus is on Slayer and rightly so since it was their tour when it came down to it. The mighty ones get a full ten songs and this was actually a large part of the bands set during these shows. Despite the heavy count from Slayer the rest of the selections remain rather random in terms of the bands. We only get one track from Thine Eyes Bleed and since they were the first group I was not too put off by that but I really would have liked to see more of what they could do. They give Children Of Bodom two tracks and that does not suffice based on the intensity that this band delivers. I guess we should be happy that they had recently released a full concert video of their own entitled Stockholm Knockout for us to enjoy. Mastodon gets three tracks and I think that's a fair number at best because the group is doing so much for upgrading the Progressive Death Metal angle that there should have been a larger focus on them. When it came down to Lamb Of God I almost expected four tunes because the disk had given us, one, two and three from the first, second and third bands on the evenings stage. Instead we get one track from LoG - ONE TRACK!!!! - You have to be kidding me with that one guys. I found this a little bit of a disappointment because in today's Metal world Lamb Of God is almost as important as Slayer was when the genre was still growing strong in the hearts of the faithful. Of course the visuals and sounds of the DVD are intense and cut right through the speakers when you play it nice and loud and this truly is what it is supposed to be about in the end. It's a smoldering piece of Metal when it comes down to it but I really think that the other bands should have been paid a little more attention to. Each group is led up to by brief interview segments and while it is cool to know about what they think of being on this particular tour I would have rather heard more music. I felt this so much that I would have sacrificed all of the superfluous bonus footage to have more live songs featured. The great thing to be a part of was that most of the bands were on the heels of new releases or immediately pending ones and had delivered new songs during their sets as a result. Slayer was set to issue Christ Illusion when I caught the show and the songs on this DVD are mostly their classics but also two of their newest numbers. I remembered them going over well even though the record had not yet been released. The tour was a great reminder to many about how Slayer does it and why they are still worthy of the title they hold. There is never compromise when it comes to a Slayer concert or record to date and I don't see this aspect changing all that much going forward. This is a worthy video to purchase even though I had a couple of personal reservations about it.
Bonus Features: The additional stuff on this DVD is a healthy collection of interview segments which are done by the members of the bands who are performing. For instance you will find Mastodon talking to Slayer and stuff along those lines. One of the most amusing segments in this was Mastodon's drummer Daillor interviewing the Slayer skin basher Lombardo and he is asking him such silly questions and acting as the total geeky fan boy who is nervous about the interview. The exchange is among the best of this whole feature. There is also a few minutes spent walking around the parking lot of the Slayer show that was being filmed and I don't know if many have had the pleasure of such an occurrence in their life but needless to say there are some crazy mothers out there waiting on the bands performance. Thankfully this is kept to a minimum and while it was amusing I still would have rather had more music be available given the amount of time that is actually on a DVD.
Track Listing
1. Dark White – Thine Eyes Bleed
2. Angels Don't Kill – Children Of Bodom
3. In Your Face – Children Of Bodom
4. Capillarian Forest – Mastodon
5. Crystal Skull – Mastodon
6. Blood And Thunder – Mastodon
7. Vigil – Lamb Of God
8. South Of Heaven – Slayer
9. Silent Scream – Slayer
10. Blood Red – Slayer
11. Cult – Slayer
12. Chemical Warfare – Slayer
13. Eyes Of The Insane – Slayer
14. Dead Skin Mask – Slayer
15. Hell Awaits – Slayer
16. The Anti-Christ – Slayer
17. Angel Of Death - Slayer
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