Having attended both of the Gigantour events to date I have to admit that I enjoyed the overall Metal consistency of Gigantour 2 much more than I did with the first event. Of course I mean no disrespect to the fine and talented bands that made up the events initial run for I am a huge fan of Dream Theater, Nevermore and Symphony X who joined the mighty Megadeth. Yet there was something about the booking of bands like Lamb Of God, Arch Enemy, Opeth and Overkill to be on one stage that gave it a much more intense feeling for me. Released as a companion to the CD bearing the same name comes the "Gigantour 2" DVD, and like its counterpart it is a single disk presentation and right off the bat I felt that Image Entertainment dropped the ball a little bit with this one. The first criticism is in their choosing to go with only one DVD for the product when we live in a time where almost every such release is a double disk endeavor and the second is that with this being a single disk item it should have been packaged together with the audio CD as opposed having them released individually. Having this as a single DVD makes this only a minute teaser taste and with it running just over an hour is hardly representative of the whole festival event. I know budgets and expenses are probably high on releases like this but as my concern was with the CD, it is better to deliver two disks. Make the first one the newer bands or earlier set bands and make the second the headliner and immediate support acts like Arch Enemy, Lamb Of God and Opeth. Perhaps the view is that each of these artists already have such a release and there is no need for duplicating the process at this point in time.
There are a couple of good aspects to it and this lies in their including different songs from bands like The Smash Up, Sanctity, Into Eternity and Overkill. The similarity for these bands on the CD ends with their number of actual presented tracks. I enjoyed getting a change in the Overkill tunes as they are legends and appreciated seeing those Into Eternity guys on film as I have seen them over a dozen times since their opening slot invasion of 2005-2006. Can a full live DVD be far in their future? Let's hope not. Opeth is better represented on the DVD than the CD for the audio version gave us the largely calming sounds of "Window Pane" and while these guys are considered a Dream Theater of Melodic Death Metal, they deliver the goods much better in Blackwater Park's track "The Leper Affinity". I was disappointed in their choosing to go with the same Arch Enemy, Lamb Of God and Megadeth tunes and as a result it firmed up my stance on this needing to be a package deal. A bright positive is the exclusion of crowd banter and noodling around backstage but perhaps it is only me who is growing tired of these things as features. There are also no interviews and with the amount of online mediums who give you those things in audio, text and video, the DVD hardly needs them and I felt they were not missed. Despite my issues with it, the release does do its job in making you remember the event if you attended it, and probably causes the blood to boil in the fans that let it pass them by when it came to town. If anything good can come from this it should be attendance numbers on the follow up event as well as increased interest in some of these killer bands. Going forward I am sure we shall see another such release after Gigantour 3 so let's hope they address some of the concerns I put on the table.
Track Listing
1. The Smash Up – Effigy
2. Sanctity – Beneath The Machine
3. Into Eternity – Severe Emotional Distress
4. Overkill – Necroshine
5. Overkill – Rotten To The Core
6. Arch Enemy – We Will Rise
7. Arch Enemy – Nemesis
8. Opeth – The Leper Affinity
9. Lamb Of God – Vigil
10. Lamb Of God – Now You've Got Something To Die For
11. Megadeth – Take No Prisoners
12. Megadeth – The Scorpion
13. Megadeth – Washington Is Next
14. Megadeth – Peace Sells (But Who's Buying) - bonus
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