OK, I know music's mainly an audio kind of thing (meaning that what your ears hear is what counts the most) but what about the visual aspect of the whole thing. What? What am I talking about? Hello? We're living in the era of...DVDs and this brutal video compilation of various artists comes to you straight from the depths of hell (well, not exactly - I'd rather say from the depths of Metal Blade Records' offices...).
Metal Blade Records has put together 20 video clips of (of course) their artists. Well, M.B. is mostly known for their Death Metal (or at least brutal vox-orientated) bands so this should be no surprise for those of you who listen to these kind of bands. Of course this is a good chance - if you're relatively new to the Death genre - to get to know a few bands of the label's roster that usually don't get that much publicity (either because their latest release wasn't that good or because...I don't know) or even bands that are commonly admitted to be kick-ass acts!
So you've got two video clips from the Scandinavian deathsters Amon Amarth, suitable for kicking back in your chair and moving that head of yours back and forth while viewing the band shred on your screen. Then you've got even more classic acts like Six Feet Under, Cannibal Corpse, The Crown and Ancient which really need no introduction. Then you've also got newer bands like Cataract, As I Lay Dying and Unearth which have a lot of potential and let's just say that sometimes watching a video clip can even twist your opinion towards positive over certain bands...even when that's just a little.
And now for the weird part of this compilation. With so many Death Metal video clips in it, who would you expect to see purchase this DVD? A Hard Rocker? No. The answer would be something more like a guy with guts drawn all over his t-shirt and I'd agree (I got those kind of t-shirts myself anyway). So what the hell are a Starwood and a Brainstorm video clip doing inside this compilation??? Yeah, I know that all these bands belong to the same record label but who'd care about what Starwood look and sound like or Brainstorm...if he bought this DVD obviously for video clips like Only Tools And Corpses? In my humble opinion, people putting compilations together should be an inch more careful when deciding what fits in and what not.
To conclude, Digital Video Destruction is a cool DVD for you and your pals to watch if you're a Death metalhead (or a person who can listen to all sorts of Metal). I personally enjoyed it but...Starwood & Brainstorm fans should wait till their favorite bands release some DVDs of their own (much better that way).
- DVD Highlights: Clips #01, #04, #05, #08, #13, #15, #16 and #18.