It’s sad that bands like METALLICA and OVERKILL share the same roots and heritage, yet one is so over blown and the other remains a cult act. METALLICA have pretty much abandoned the Heavy Metal genre long ago, and since then have not exhibited an ounce of creativity or integrity. No, they’re more concerned about computer users downloading their *ahem* music, thereby cutting into their profits rather than concentrating on making quality music. OVERKILL have been around just as long the mainstream washouts, toiling in the underground, still retaining their intensity and making heavy music that never compromises their place in Rock n’ Roll. METALLICA has had numerous home videos over the years, and now its time for OVERKILL to release their first full length concert video, OVERKILL: WRECKING EVERYTHING AN EVENING IN ASHBURY PARK. Like MOTORHEAD, OVERKILL is a band with a reputation for playing live—something that ain’t easy to capture on a television screen. But I’ll be damned if Eaglevision’s DVD is superior to METALLICA’s home videos in terms of musical ferocity and video and sound quality (I don’t believe METALLICA has used DTS sound on any of their DVDs!).

Anyway, the band, consisting of frontman Bobby Blitz, bassist D.D. Verni,, drummer Tim Mallere, and the guitar duo of Derek Taylor and Dave Linsk put on a savage performance, with pounding rythms and shredding guitars. For this performance taped live on March 23, 2002, OVERKILL reach way back into their back catalog for songs they haven’t played since the 1980s, like Powersurge, Rotten to the Core, In Union We Stand, I Hate, The Years of Decay, Hello from the Cutter, Elimination, Wrecking Crew, Shred, Evil Never Dies, and their self titled power anthem, Overkill. Blitz and Co don’t forget about their 1990’s output with aggressive tracks like Thunderhead, Necroshine, Horrorscope, Bleed Me, Long Time Dying, Deny the Cross, Gasoline Dreams, Coma, It Lives, Battle, and Spiritual Void. OVERKILL race through this 23 song set, culminating with their climatic trademark performance of Fuck You, which morphs into BLACK SABBATH’S War Pigs. The camera work for this live video is top notch, consisting of 12 cameramen who capture every shred of OVERKILL’s frenetic instrumentation. Aging frontman Bobby Blitz whips the crowd into a frenzy while emoting the lyrics with his unique sandpaper vocals. The group’s credible, street-level approach to music has not failed to garner them a huge legion of fans, none of whom OVERKILL: WRECKING EVERYTHING AN EVENING IN ASHBURY PARK will disappoint.

Eaglevision presents the OVERKILL: WRECKING EVERYTHING AN EVENING IN ASHBURY PARK in full frame. As mentioned above, the camera work is truly stellar for an underground band. The only drawback to the filming of this show is the uneven lighting, occaisonally resulting in shadowy foregrounds. Thankfully, the black levels are perfectly calibrated resulting in delicious blacks. The photography is deep and the colors are sublimely enriched. Eaglevision’s DVD authoring is top notch and nary a digital artifact is seen. As good as the video portion is, the audio tracks are a significant improvement. The DVD includes Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks, as well as a powerful DTS track. Both the DD 5.1 and DTS 5.0 offer exceptional depth and clarity. The DTS track is the most powerful one on the DVD, though the drums and bass could have been a little more prominent. Still, there is little to complain about here. Disk 2 contains such extras as Discography, Photo Gallery, and an original 90 minute documentary that traces the roots and revolving door membership of OVERKILL. This is a well-constructed chronology that features member interviews interspersed with bootleg performances from all phases of their career. Everything you ever wanted to know about OVERKILL is here (with the exception of Blitz’s battle with cancer).

OVERKILL: WRECKING EVERYTHING AN EVENING IN ASHBURY PARK is true testament to one of the true champions of the aggressive music underground. For all 20 plus years they’ve been around, they’ve never put out a live concert video, and Eaglevision sure makes up for that with this release that includes nearly fours hours of material and a choice of three killer audio tracks. It’s great to see Eaglevision including a DTS option, for those who really like to ‘Feel the Fire’. Ideally, every Hard Rock DVD should have one, but it’s still fairly rare these days. Here’s hoping that OVERKILL outlasts their stagnant mainstream counterparts, METALLICA.