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If you love the shredding guitars of heavy metal, but you missed the 2006 Gigantour tour, you’re in luck. Or maybe you were fortunate enough to experience it—but you want a lasting memory. In any event, Gigantour 2 is now available on DVD.
“Gigantour is the spirit of heavy metal captured in a festival,” says its founder, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. The annual tour, which started in 2005 and still continues, features various metal bands from North America and Europe. Some of the bands may be unknown, but they still rock with that burning intensity.
The DVD features selected songs from the concert, culminating with three cuts from Megadeth (actually four, including bonus track “Peace Sells”). From the onset, the live concert footage, with its speeding guitars and diverse vocals, ruthlessly attacks and never lets up. The DVD opens with New York’s punk metal band, The Smashup, and moves on to thrash metal’s Sanctity from North Carolina. Next, transitioning between complex melodic structures and death metal vocals and back to thrash is Saskatchewan’s Into Eternity. Veteran metal band, Overkill, aggressively pounds with “Rotten to the Core.” Arch Enemy continues with thrashing guitars and Angela Gossow growling at vocals in death mode. Another Swedish progressive death metal band, Opeth, snarls with intense rhythms and vocals in “The Leper Affinity.” Lamb of God grinds the beat and vocals further. And, finally, Megadeth concludes in more traditional style, while keeping the fans jumping.
This is pure metal and ecstatic guitar playing at its finest. These eight bands are so diverse and exciting that it’s hard to pick a favorite. Though Lamb of God and Megadeth get top billing on the cover, the others are just as driving—a credit to Mustaine, who handpicked the bands on the tour.
Even though the music alone makes the Gigantour 2 DVD worth buying, the behind-the-scenes special feature is a must-see. In the feature, Mustaine explains how he chose these impressive bands, and viewers hear from the band members themselves. The crew—from concessionaires to production assistants—discusses life on the road. And of course, there’s the drama—like when one band member of Into Eternity splits in the middle of the night and doesn’t return. Also, two members of Arch Enemy are fired, so we get to see the band auditioning teenage guitarists in the middle of the tour. (By the way, these musicians are so good that we’re reminded how much remarkable—but unappreciated—talent is out there.) We witness the crew desperately trying to revive the sound system after an unidentified fan throws beer onto the console. We even learn about the difficulty of pyrotechnics.
Throughout the DVD, Dave Mustaine reminds us of his respect for the fans as well as the musicians—and Gigantour 2 was released with the fans in mind. Other than the occasional milli-second break to post the name of the next band, the music continually pounds and attacks full force. The superb visual and sound quality (and, yes, some pyrotechnics) enhance this thrilling music DVD. Heavy metal and guitar fans won’t be disappointed.
