Blood & Dirt

After three years of anticipation, this ouslaught of greatness has finally been unleashed onto the masses, and I must say that its actually better than I anticipated. I knew that this DVD was going to be great simply because it was Vio-lence, but it went far beyond my expectations in terms of sheer quality.

The sound and the picture quality are fantastic. Absolutely no complaints here. The documentary portion (disc 1) is a solid hour and a half of total vio history, stemming from the Death Penalty days right up until Phil's departure for Machine Head. Many of the bands peers from the thrash metal hayday are featured on the documentary, all giving throwing in their own recollections of the band, both good and band. Some of the people featured in the interview segments are; Gary Holt, Tom Hunting, Zetro, Craig Loccicero, Joey Houston, Debbie Abono, all of the previous vio members, Mark Osegueda...and the list goes on. There's alot of fuckin' history on this documentary and if you, like me, are a die hard thrash fanatic, then you will absolutely love this historical DVD as it unfolds.

As far as the concert footage goes. I had no idea how fast Perry Strickland's hands were. This dude has some serious chops in the fill department. Amazing drummer. The rest of the band is tight, but with the occassional hick up from time to time, usually during a solo. But you know what, no big shit, the band continues to rage on through and only the die hards like myself who have memorized the songs note for note/word for word, will be able to pick up on the trivial shit. The set lists are killer, but then again Vio-lence have no bad songs to choose from.

As much as I loved every minute of this 3.5 hour DVD, it kinda sucks knowing that this will be the last release of anything under the moniker of Vio-lence. I suppose I can find solace in the fact that these never compromised and never ceased to amaze, and ended on a high note!