Various Artists
The Unholy Alliance Chapter II: Preaching to the Perverted
American
Diabolus in video
As DVDs go, Chapter II of Slayer’s Unholy Alliance tour is spartan. Backstage interviews and concert footage—that’s it. Said interviews are brief and bland. We learn that Thine Eyes Bleed have been working hard. From Children of Bodom, we discover that Finnish men get naked when they’re drunk. Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe discloses that he is having fun on this tour. Mastodon don’t reveal half as much. Most importantly, we learn from Kerry King that Slayer shows have more girls now than before. The first visible female audience member appears 24:15 into this DVD. I had to rewind to make sure I didn’t see a ghost.
The footage of the July 13, 2006 show in Vancouver is more successful. Seven cameras record the action in high fidelity, while a pristine soundboard mix captures every string scrape and clam. For supposedly being virtuosos, Children of Bodom are startlingly sloppy. Mastodon, on the other hand, are on fire, fluidly dishing out hot licks over the one long polydactylous fill that is Brann Dailor’s drumming. The other bands deliver their goods professionally and predictably. Guitars are panned hard left and right, useful for parsing how King and Jeff Hanneman divide their labor. The editing at times verges on seizure-inducing, with some strange choices. Once, when Alexi Laiho launches into a solo, the editing immediately cuts to... the bassist. On the other hand, we get faithful close-ups of every keyboard solo; Janne Warman’s home must be wallpapered with Jens Johansson posters.
Fitting five bands onto one DVD means giving each one short shrift. Editing cuts Slayer’s set to 10 songs—no “Raining Blood”??? Mastodon get three songs, Children of Bodom get two, and Thine Eyes Bleed and Lamb of God make one-song cameos. There’s also a pre-show parking lot feature, which basically consists of people yelling “Fucking Slayer!” At least it yields this howler: “Fuckin’ Slayer and beer go together like fuckin’ tits ‘n’ ass!”
—Cosmo Lee
