Overkill, one of the pioneers of thrash metal from the same time period Megadeth formed (in the mid-‘80s), never got the commercial fame the latter enjoyed, but they didn’t need it. Fifteen studio albums into their career, these New Jersey natives are one of the more respected and recognized acts in heavy metal and still churn out records, the latest being 2007’s Immortalis. On the Gigantour 2 CD, Dropped-D tuned tracks like “Thanks For Nothing” and the Eddie Van Halen-like shredding on “Long Time Dying” sound fresh and timeless.
On the DVD, their late ‘90s gem “Necroshine” and influential 1982 classic “Rotten To The Core” made for two well-chosen inclusions that were performed with more energy than some of the younger acts on this bill. And it’s not like Overkill tries to hide their age. No, as lead singer Bobby Ellsworth put it before performing “Rotten”: “New guys, watch the old guys. All those on the floor, Rotten To The Core!” They truly looked like they were have a blast and played like it too.
Back to the Gigantour 2 CD, my favorite (non-Megadeth) track was melodic death metal stars Arch Enemy’s performance of the superheavy fight song “Nemesis.” It features a bridge section that is so explosive that if you’re not banging your head or otherwise expressing how f-in’ awesome it is by the time it ends then you just don’t have true metal in your blood. Its militant, Fear Factory-ish buildup and crunchy, chromatic riffing climax that follows is the most pleasantly blood-boiling section I’ve heard since Byzantine’s “Stick Figure” track from a few years back. Another highlight on both discs — and pleasant discovery — was death-meets-prog metal group Into Eternity and its extremely versatile (and underrated) singer Stu Block, who sounds like Rob Halford fronting a black metal band.
As far as the audio mix of the DVD goes, I found that of the three choices, DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby 2.0, the latter sounded the best. There’s not much difference between the latter two mixes until you get to the Lamb of God tracks, where on Dolby 5.1 it sounds like the singer’s vocals and audience’s shouts that intro “…Something To Die For” have an unnatural filter or something else running through them. Nothing major, but it isn’t noticeable until that point in the DVD; if you play the track through Dolby 2.0, you’ll notice a more natural and consistent sound all through the performance.
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