Gigantour 2

event

publisher

impulse buy

Image Entertainment
Produced by Michael Sarna, Shalini Waran, Andy Sneap & Dave Mustaine

The second edition of Dave Mustaine’s annual touring festival centred around a headlining slot by Megadeth and so far featuring a very varied line-up of bands touring together confined entirely to the US, although Mustaine had the cheek to brand Megadeth’s ever-so-ordinary tour of the UK as Gigantour UK 2008, which was ridiculous. And no, the half-size Australian line-ups don’t count either.

Just as with the CD and DVD to emerge from the first Gigantour the number of different bands and different styles makes for a very disjointed release – and it’s not long enough. The first release was at least two-CDs worth of material, but even that wasn’t enough. From the DVD perspective this time you’ve three hours of capacity on a regular DVD and yet only one hour of music. So of course there are too few songs by each band, meaning a fan of any of the band here is not going to buy this unless they happen to like at least some of the other bands as well. You might argue that that’s surely the case for the tour dates as well, yet they sold quite well. Of course you’d be right, but if you spend money on a ticket for a Gigantour show you’re going to get a full set by some of the bands. Here you’re getting one or to songs (three for Megadeth).

Obviously the price of a CD or DVD is a fraction of the concert ticket, but the relative value for money with respect to the bands you’re actually interested in is far great at the show. The first US Gigantour line-up was far more balanced than this one. Although it’s not unreasonable to hope that Megadeth fans would also appreciate thrash legends Overkill and modern metal hot properties Arch Enemy, Opeth and Lamb of God, it’s also equally likely that Megadeth don’t appreaciate extreme vocals, which rules out all three, along with Into Eternity (amazing switches to power metal vocals by Stu Block aside).

The video quality of this release is good, and the sound quality for most of it is excellent. Something happened to the sound during Lamb of God‘s performance as their two songs here are of noticeable worse sound quality than the others. This doesn’t improve during Megadeth‘s three songs either. But either way there’s nothing to worry about regarding the quality of the recording. But there simply is not enough here. It is very unlikely that anyone is going to be a fan of all the bands here and there’s not enough songs by each band to attract their respective fans. Particularly Opeth, The Smashup, Sanctity and Into Eternity who all get just one song each. This was true last time as well and the predicted low sales have obviously taken effect as both the CD and DVD releases were two discs each last time and are only one each this time.

What’s also interesting is that the CD tracklist differs from the DVD. Overkill, for instance, have two tracks on both, but they’re different songs. So why not all four on both? Especially as you can’t buy both together, you have to get them separately. Similarly Opeth, Sanctity, Into Eternity and The Smashup have a different song each on the CD. Lamb of God benefit from one extra song on the CD in addition to the two also on the DVD, and the bonus track Megadeth have on the DVD is also on the CD.

The rest of the DVD is occupied by a who-cares behind the scenes documentary and another Megadeth song (why isn’t this in the main concert programme?). Again, not enough to entice. They’ve done the sensible thing by making this release cheap (RRP for the DVD is only £9.99), but it’s still a long list of missed opportunities and mistakes. It really wouldn’t take much to make this a mutli-disc box set of complete shows by each band. The whole thing would be something in the region of five or six hours of music, which is two discs. Not much to ask, I don’t think.

“ not enough ”

Tracklist:
DVD – The Smashup Effigy / Sanctity Beneath The Machine / Into Enternity Severe Emotional Distress / Overkill Necroshine / Overkill Rotten To The Core / Arch Enemy We Will Rise / Arch Enemy Nemesis / Opeth The Leper Affinity / Lamb of God Vigil / Lamb of God Now You’ve Got Something To Die For / Megadeth Take No Prisoners / Megadeth The Scorpion / Megadeth Washington Is Next!
Bonus Features: Gigantour 2 Behind The Scenes / Megadeth Peace Sells

CD – The Smashup Rachel’s Day / Sanctity Zeppo / Into Enternity Timeless Winter / Overkill Thanx For Nothing / Overkill Long Time Dying / Arch Enemy Nemesis / Arch Enemy We Will Rise / Opeth Windowpane / Lamb of God Vigil / Lamb of God Redneck / Lamb of God Now You’ve Got Something To Die For / Megadeth Take No Prisoners / Megadeth The Scorpion / Megadeth Washington Is Next! / Megadeth Peace Sells

Written by Andy Lye
More: Heavy Metal (Extreme Vocals), Live Albums, Live DVDs, Thrash Metal, Lamb of God, Megadeth, Opeth