When London Burns

This is Deicide's first DVD and you immediately notice that the Hoffman brothers ain't on it. Instead you get Dave Suzuki and Jack Owen of Vital Remains and Cannibal Corpse respectively. Surprisingly they're able to put on a great performance in such a short time (I think the documentary says that the Hoffman brothers quit just before Deicide started touring). Then again they're already big names in death metal, so I guess it wasn't a problem.

Over all performance? Again, surprisingly well-played. The guitars are sharp, and precise. The drums kill. fucking. everything. (hehehe). Steve Asheim is a fantastic drummer and this DVD shows him at his best. Glen bassplaying, however, doesn't seem to be very useful. You can't hear it AT ALL most of the time and when you can hear it it's pretty similar to the guitar. His vox are great and damn brutal.

The songs are great, pretty diverse selection here. Starting with the new stuff while heavy on the classics near the end. The crowd is pretty rowdy when the classics are played and that is definitely a plus.

The main reason I like this DVD is because of the documentary. It really takes you inside the band. The documentary features the Hoffman brothers before they left and there's a lot of footage of them, they mainly discuss the band's history. Glen Benton is hilarious, he talks about an e-mail he received from some kid, he plays with a lizard before kicking it(!). Steve Asheim is a crazy bastard, he shows off his gun collection and goes to the shooting range to take pot-shots at some Osama targets. Overall, I like the documentary more than the concert. I don't know why, I just do.

Get it? Sure. It's better than most DVDs (Rising in the East comes to mind). And the documentary alone is worth three-fourths the price (to me).

Things do not bode well it seems. Glen walks on stage - very clearly pissed out of his skull - introduces himself (somehow) and with 2 completely new guitarists at the reigns I was tempted to turn the DVD off right there and get my money back! I was glad I didn't though, as when the band kicks off with Scars Of The Crucifix, you can tell this is not going to be bad gig, oh hell no.

From start to finish, Deicide are on top form, regardless of the absence of the Hoffman brothers. In fact it seems Glen is performing better without them (or maybe that's just the alcohol talking). Throughout the whole gig, every song is brought to life, and regardless of which Deicide album is your favorite, there's something here for you. From thrash-like classics such as "Dead By Dawn" to newer, darker songs like "When Heaven Burns" each one is done very well, although the new songs are slightly off due to them having just been written by now ex members. Also the guitar solo's aren't 100% perfect, but for a mostly improvisational job, Jack and Dave pull their spots off rather well.

I don't know how Dave Suzuki and Jack Owen managed to pull off their sheer ferocity and tightness after only being with Deicide for LESS THAN A WEEK but maybe being in other, roughly as large death metal bands with the same tuning for over 10 years beforehand did help the matter.

There is also plenty of extras on this DVD too which will keep any Deicide fan happy, however there is no real explanation as to why the Hoffman brothers left on it. They are even in the documentary! I was extremely confused as to why members who just left Deicide as well as royaly pissing off Glen and Steve are even included on this DVD which they did not play on! Ah well, they were heavily involved in writing Scars Of The Crucifix so I suppose they deserve a spot.

My closing comments: if you a Deicide fan buy this DVD. If you are a fan of Florida death metal buy this DVD. If you are a fan of death metal in general this DVD would not be a bad purchase. However if you don't like death metal than don't bother with this as there's not gonna be anything to change your mind in it.