v/a "The Eulogy Tour DVD Series Volume One: Tour is Hell" DVD
[Eulogy]
This is the first in a series of what is apparently going to be a surprisingly well executed foray into documenting Eulogy Recordings' bands on tour doing what it is that they do, from playing shows, to fucking around, and then some.  Why I think this series is going to be something that I'll continue to enjoy is because I'm really not that into most of these bands, but I still liked watching this DVD.  I dig The Warriors and Shattered Realm, but the other bands have only fared from poor to marginal with me in the past (regardless of whether or not I think they have potential), yet I still really got a kick out of watching this.  It's basically set up band by band, with interview footage, live performances, and random tour antics from each - with a few overlaps since the bands were, of course, on tour with one another.  You basically get two to three songs per band with decent sound and fairly strong visual quality, and then interviews and behind the scenes stuff that's all generally entertaining.  A quick rundown is that you'll basically get to see or hear about On Broken Wings terrorizing the other bands by smoke bombing their vans or assaulting them with pellet guns; Black My Heart shooting off fireworks in their own van while driving down the highway; the vocalist of The Judas Cradle randomly pissing himself for the hell of it; and Shattered Realm... well, just bein' Jersey, you know?  The Warriors seem to be somewhat of a calmer band than the others as far as hyperactive and chaotic footage goes, with Shattered Realm coming in second simply because there's not as much coverage on them, and they're probably to the point where they've don't have time for so much of that kids' stuff, you know?  (And that's not an insult, those guys are just older and have been around longer, so they've kind of seen it all before.)  Having witnessed a couple of these bands play live myself, I have to say that On Broken Wings is improving, and along with Black My Heart are a significantly better live band than has come across on record thus far.  Shattered Realm is tight and sounds solid across the board, and the Warriors are pretty energetic - as expected.  The Judas Cradle?  I simply do not like this band.  They seem like amusing guys as people, but their music does nothing for me and it's completely boring across the board.  When all is said and done the content of the DVD is around 80 - 90 minutes in total, with videos from The Warriors and The Judas Cradle tacked on as a bonus.  The Warriors video is cheesy just because the lip-syncing thing does not work well for that stuff, and The Judas Cradle video is one of those kinds of "Why did this even get produced?" sort of deals.  I definitely found The Judas Cradle to be the weak link on the DVD, but what their music lacks in intrigue the band does indeed make up for in urinary antics and other random downtime exploits.  I'll definitely be curious to see how this series grows as it continues, because I bet it'll only get better from here.  And if you can make me sit down for 90 minutes and watch a bunch of bands that I'm only marginally interested in... and find it entertaining?  Not bad.  I actually wish this thing was a little longer, favoring the antics and interviews over the live performances (simply because the crowds seemed to be generally weak and two or three songs is a good sampling without venturing into any overkill).  And there should've been more coverage on Shattered Realm!  Good work, though. (7/10)
Running time - 1:30:00 (approximately), Tracks: N/A
[Notable tracks: N/A]
Eulogy Recordings - http://www.eulogyrecordings.com

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