Various

Mere weeks after Muhammed Suicmez’s Summer Slaughter tour laid waste to Toronto with its 2008 stop, the DVD of last year’s visit to the city’s Opera House comes out, delivering a vast assortment of death metal bands from all corners of the globe. Suicmez’s Necrophagist headlines the tour and DVD, and it’s no surprise that they get the most airtime, as well as the highest sound quality. Aside from Suicmez’s sweep-picking superiority, drummer Marco Minneman puts on a performance (including a drum solo that unfortunately runs a little too long) that’s nothing short of awe-inspiring. The rest of the DVD is filled up by performances of modern death metal acts such as Cephalic Carnage and Cattle Decapitation, plus some CanCon in the form of Beneath the Massacre and Ion Dissonance. Initially, one of the biggest selling features of this DVD is the fact that it contains one of the last times we’ll see Decapitated, captured here several months before a car accident ended the life of drummer Vitek. Unfortunately, there are only two songs from each band, and for some reason there is only one from Decapitated, so this DVD kind of serves as a small sampler for each of the bands and the tour itself. The sound and visuals are nothing out of this world, and the whole package seems a little rushed. But if you’re down for some technical death metal (or if you were at the show last year and you want to try and spot yourself rocking out) then give this DVD a glance.