Arguably one of the more popular of the new wave of American Metal Acts, Unearth have released this 2 disc DVD to their adoring fans (or a Metal Blade contract filler?), as a stop gap between III: Into the Eyes of Fire and the next no doubt huge album.The main part of the 2 disc set is an eleven song performance recorded at the Glass House in Pomona, CA on October 7th, 2007. And with such a recent performance being the mainstay of the DVD, you can expect a high energy effort, comprising of mostly newer material, delivered with a tightness and professionalism of one of metal better modern acts. The sound is great, with the many solos being very crisp and many telegraphed breakdowns being expectedly thunderous.
While I personally still think that Stings of Conscience and the Endless EP are the bands best efforts, there is no denying the material from The Oncoming Storm and III has struck a chord with today’s younger metal fans, and thus the performance culls mostly from those two. That being, said “Only the People” and “One Step Away” make a welcome return to the bands set, despite being not nearly as structured and breakdown friendly as their newer material. Obvious fan favorites “This Glorious Nightmare”, “Black Hearts Now Reign”, “Zombie Autopilot”, “Giles” and (one of my very personal favorite Unearth songs) “Endless” make their expected appearances along with lots of speaker jumping, guitar spinning, and prompts for moshing and moving from gradually soaking but ever energetic frontman Trevor Phipps. Ken Susi remains one of the more animated and entertaining guitarists around and the band as a whole seems to enjoy playing live, as I can attest to from their Sounds Of the Underground performance a few years ago.
The second disc is a mixed bag of mostly filler and promotional videos. The filler being some insight into the band and their early years with ‘interviews’ with various metal (Blade) luminaries (Corey Taylor, Adam D, Brian Fair, Dino Cazarez, Scott Vogel, Phil Labonte, Tim Lambesis, etc) talking about how great and influential Unearth were/are and the band themselves talking about the bands formation and early years. Of interest though is lots of photos and home video footage of the bands very early (and very short haired), basement/bar room shows.
There are also two more live tracks, “Zombie Autopilot” from Full-Force in Germany and “Sanctity of Brother” from a show in Japan as well a slide show, and videos for “Black Hearts Now Reign”, “Zombie Autopilot”, The Great Dividers”, ” Sanctity of Brothers”, “Giles”. “One Step Away” and “Endless” which when not mostly simple live footage, definitely show of the budget benefits of being on Metal Blade.
A well produced, polished DVD from a well produced and polished band, who seem to be on the cusp of a major label deal, and due to their hard work and energy, deservedly so.
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