Exodus

EXODUS DVD SCREENING
FULL METAL ROCK ATTENDS

DVD HITS STREETS JAN 12th

Artist: Exodus
Title: Shovel Headed Tour Machine Live (2DVD/CD)
Format: DVD/CD
Label: Nuclear Blast
Released: 1/1/2010
Genre: Thrash / Speed Metal

http://store.nuclearblastusa.com/Item/Exodus_-_Shovel_Headed_Tour_Machine_Live_-2DVD+CD-/32361

Exodus Movie Premiere
Shovel Headed Tour Machine and other Assorted Atrocities

Date: 01/08/10
Place: Steve Ray Allen Theatre, Hollywood CA

Review by ~ Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

A small but dedicated group of fans turned up for this special occasion and a rare opportunity to watch the premiere of the soon-to-be-released Exodus DVD titled 'Shovel Headed Tour Machine and other Assorted Atrocities', with the band members in attendance. Brendon Small of Dethklok graced us with his presence as the host for the night.

Part 1: Concert: Live at Wacken 2008

First we got to see the concert video from Wacken. The first thing I should mention here is that the camera work is absolutely brilliant and very easy on the eyes. In some DVD's you don't even get to see a shot for more than half a second and by the end of the movie you have nothing but headache. This certainly isn't one of those. The camera zooms in at all the appropriate moments and stays there for a few seconds. When Gary or Lee play guitar solos, the focus is entirely on the solo till they are done playing it. In addition, the camera coverage is comprehensive as well, with each band member getting good amount of footage. The fans in an Exodus show are probably more important than at any other show, and I am glad that there are plenty of crowd shots with moshing and crowd surfing galore. The band played this gig in broad daylight so it made for an interesting viewing. This video enhances Wacken's reputation as being some of the most dedicated metal fans on the planet, because the venue looks packed despite the time of day and the fans are definitely loud and energetic.

Talking about the band's performance, they sound as tight as they've ever done. The selection of songs shouldn't have too many people complaining. It was really great to witness them performing in front of such a huge crowd of nearly 85,000, something they don't get to do in their home country. Having seen them play club shows here and now after seeing this video, I can say that they've proved themselves as thorough professionals, belting out the same intensity in front of crowds and in venues very different in sizes. Rob Dukes is in his elements, pumping up the crowd every time he spoke, talking in German on one or two occasions and even giving out rants. Gary and Lee are as brilliant as ever, with very good support from Jack Gibson on bass. Tom Hunting is one of the most original thrash drummers and he's done his reputation no harm at all. The mixing sounded perfect to me and I can't wait to blast this thing at home whenever I get my hands on it!

All in all, this 68-minute video will give you the first row Exodus experience you were looking for and I would highly recommend it to every Exodus fan out there reading this. Here's the track listing:

1. Bonded By Blood
2. Iconoclasm
3. Funeral Hymn
4. A Lesson In Violence
5. Children Of A Worthless God
6. Piranha
7. Deathamphetamine
8. Blacklist
9. War Is My Shepherd
10. Strike Of The Beast
11. Shovel Headed Kill Machine

Part 2: Tour Documentary

After the concert video came the moment we were most waiting for, the start of the tour documentary.

The movie starts off with the history of the band's formative years with Kirk Hammett in an attempt to familiarize new fans and I would say they've done a great job with this part. There are plenty of old pictures and funny stories that a big fan would adore. The band talks a lot about their days with Paul Baloff, from the early years to the reunion in 1997 to his death. The movie has plenty of intermittent footage from various gigs played all over the world over the course of the past three years, in Australia, Europe, Asia and the US.

The highlights of the movie as far as comedy is concerned, are undoubtedly the 'Exodus Non Metal moments'. These are placed excellently at various stages of the movie and show a band member doing something, which as the title suggests, is totally not metal. It is highly amusing to see a band that plays totally aggressive thrash metal on stage and is known for the most violent crowds doing these things off it. From these hilarious scenes they switch to the most important part of being a successful band, the recording. Other than the current line-up of course, a former member is also shown laying down his parts in the studio and talking a little bit about it.

In addition to the studio recording they also show and talk about music video shoots. One particular story about a video shoot in the Californian desert stands out as fascinating. In another video shoot, Rob talks about how hard it is to do these video shoots and the relentless amount of head banging that they do, even more than they ever do on stage. Other hardships and mishaps on tour are mentioned as well, including among many others forgetting of lyrics and a venue in Europe cutting off the power on them because they overran the allotted slot. Some of the road stories from the Asia tour are outrageously funny.

While keeping it interesting and funny, the band members talk about each other, from how they got into the band to what they are really good at and not good at. Brendon Small's Metalocalypse makes its appearance too, giving us the rare chance to see what happens behind the scenes during the entire voice-over process that the guest musicians go through. The rest of the movie really covers a whole range of things, ranging from the fanatic South Americas, Exodus playing bluegrass, Rob performing despite sickness and a plethora of other such things. Musicians from other well known bands like Overkill, Slayer, Lamb Of God, 3 Inches Of Blood and others make their opinion and stories about Exodus known to us and we also see them play together on stage on a few occasions.

While the video shows the good and funny moments in Exodus's recent and early history, this is not a video meant merely to glorify the band in the eyes of the public and there is enough of the other side too. There are some stories that will make you cringe, while others really touch you and sympathize with the band. Their take on piracy and a story about their run-in with security at a venue for the sake of a young fan are two of those that fall into the latter. The fan story brought loud cheers from everyone in the theatre. Exodus definitely let us know that they are what they are because of the fans and they would go out of their way to take care of the fans and protect them.

The movie ended after a run time of around 2 hours among a standing ovation from the attendees. All in all, this movie has everything that a new fan would want to know as well as a lot of things that an already huge fan would love to see. They keep it interesting all the way through and it never looks boring or overdone. This is an excellent documentary showing the band in their true colors and as I said earlier, never comes off as an attempt to glorify the band. This is a must-have for all Exodus fans old and new. There is a surprise bonus during the ending credits as well.

Part 3: Q&A session with the band by Brendon Small and after-party

After the movie the band members themselves came up on stage to answer a few questions that Brendon Small and the fans had prepared for them. We got to know things like how Tom being left handed affects the band on stage and how they got used to it long time back. Rob told how he doesn't use a vocals monitor and just hears what he sings because he is screaming loud all the time. Tom shared a funny story about his 'most expensive apple that he never got to eat'. He was fined $200 and hassled for 3 hours by the customs when they found an apple from South America in his bag, which they confiscated as well. Fans in the crowd pointed out certain qualities of the band like the very heavy bass sound, the Satanic lyrics and the band being 'classic thrash' at its best. It was a great pleasure to listen to the band answering these questions and it was very nice of them to do it, not at all something many bands do. Check out the video for a funny portion of the session.

After this brief session, we headed upstairs for the after-party where we got to hang out and drink with the band and other fans. They gladly posed for pictures with fans and signed autographs. Hats off to Exodus for making such a wonderful event out of their DVD premiere and I hope all you Exodus fans out there get your hands on the DVD as soon as it releases. If you do decide to buy it, the 3 disc version is the one to go for.

Disc 1: DVD Live from Wacken 2008
Disc 2: CD Live from Wacken 2008
Disc 3: Assorted Atrocities (tour documentary)

For all the info go here: www.exodusattack.com