Whether you fancy the latest ANNIHILATOR releases or not, the main fact remains: Jeff Waters still is an carefree blessed metalhead breathing Metal fire while of course preserving his unsaid guitar virtuosity. For approximately 25 years forging ANNIHILATOR's eminence, the Canadian mastermind confirms he's not willing to bury the six-string axe and - more or less - this present DVD is another proof for his spotless significance.
The beautiful town of Vizovice hosted the Masters Of Rock festival in summer 2008, inviting - between others - the (lately) solid Waters/Padden duo along with touring players Ryan Ahoff and Dave Sheldon for a rich performance on Czech ground (the fest summoned more than 30,000 spectators in its 2007 installment, to give you a drift idea). 70 minutes of a dynamic performance is the main dish on this DVD piece, while no bonus goodies are included, not even an elementary menu for e.g. audio options or something. Skipping this disappointing occurrence, the gig itself is quite impressive with Jeff Waters sweating onstage while non-stop banging to the riffing madness of new and old ANNIHILATOR songs. What's really exciting is the spark in the man's eyes while exposing his Heavy/Speed/Thrash mastery; Jeff Waters is more of an Angus Young rather than an Eddie Van Halen kind of guitarist, but he can walk on both worlds in ease if needed.
The setlist is satisfactory, the less to say: touring for their last studio recording, the ambiguous Metal album, ANNIHILATOR perform a couple of cuts off this disc plus they demonstrate a full plate of older recordings and more older 'classics'. Throughout the whole setlist the band has enough energy to make most fans raising fists in the air - bear in mind the festival exhausting going - plus the sound/video shooting are in a decent level. Waters and Padden share the singing credits while joking with the audience in a real Rock 'n' Roll attitude/spirit. As assumed, trademark cuts like Alison Hell, Fun Palace, Set The World On Fire and King Of The Kill are the ones to raise hell - do not even imagine anything like a mosh pit, though - and a proof regarding the band's good mood and performance is that even their later career songs (plus the ones from the Metal release) do sound quite better in my ears overlapping e.g. the 2007 album's mediocre review.
Shallow Grave is the perfect finale for a nice performance, no questions asked. Hence, in terms of main movie this DVD seems to be a 'must' for fans of the band. Still, to the absence of bonus features I don't know if Live At Masters Of Rock shines as an attraction. If your main motive is the main feature then this DVD is a very good proposal, else just accept the fact that this is a single gig and nothing more and pass by. Jeff's star has not faded with even mediocre ANNIHILATOR albums, thus it won't blanch at e.g. average credit for this DVD release.