S.O.D.- 20 Years Of Dysfunction (DVD)
Megaforce Records, 2005
By James Willcock
"Score!" I thought to myself when given this to review, "An S.O.D. DVD, something I don't own by them already". Managing to keep up their highly productive 1 release every 7 year average (I'm not counting the Seasoning the Obese EP as its impossible to get a hold of), the DVD consists of live footage, interviews and a couple of music videos.
For those of you who dont know,
S.O.D. are a side project of
Anthrax formed in 1985, consisting of Scott Ian of Anthrax (Guitars), Dan Lilker of Anthrax (Bass), Charlie Bendante of Anthrax (Drums) and Billy Milano of, erm,
Anthrax's road crew. They have produced two full albums which are the South Park of metal- crude, offensive, quickly put together and about as un-P.C. as you can get.
The main part of the DVD consists of live footage of the band playing most of the classics from the
Speak English or Die album, plus a highlight for me in the form of previously unreleased ballads (an
S.O.D. ballad is unique and has to be heard for yourself), interspersed with back stage footage of all the members of the band. The DVD also includes a tribute by Billy Milano to the victims of the World Trade Centre attacks on September 11th, interviews with Billy Milano and Alex Perialas, who produced
Speak English Or Die , videos for
'Fuck the Middle East' and
'March of the SOD/Sgt. D. and the SOD', as well as 5 "mini-concerts", 15-20 mins long, from around the world. Also included is an bootleg made official of a live gig from 1985, with a very similar set-list to that of the other live album,
Live At The Budokan.
The mini-concerts highlight the main problem with this DVD, in that the sound quality is low (but then again, it is
SOD, what do you expect) but more importantly, the set list is identical for each gig. This is a trend over the DVD as a whole, which lacks any material from the second album, despite including gigs recorded after it's release. My other problem is that its been compiled by Billy Milano, and therefore tries it best to show the rest of the band in as negative light as possible without being offensive, due to Billy Milano being the kind of arrogant person who believes he owes the rest of the band nothing despite the fact he would be nowhere without them. To see the fat man get into a hissy fit on stage watch the mini-concert from Germany, which is funny in the same way The Office is... tragic. One thing this DVD does answer for fans such as myself is "What is the Milano Mosh?" The answer is "a very overweight, arrogant, ingrate of a man standing virtually still".
Overall, worth getting if you're a fan, but don't expect anything great, especially as there is very little you wont have seen or heard before.
7/10
Although I'm sure he appreciates your comments.