Review: Throwdown “Together, Forever, United” DVD

I never know what to expect from music-related DVD's, and I'm only a moderate Throwdown fan, but I have to admit that as far as this kind of stuff goes, this DVD is a bit better than average, if for no other reason than the majority of the disc does not revolve around live footage, which always tends to bore me. A pretty comprehensive collection, things kick off with some footage of the band's first show, and there are lots of quick live segments and random tour shots throughout, interspersed with tons of interview footage with current and former band members, roadies, friends, etc. Most of the footage is in color, with a scarce few shots in black and white, and the bulk of the content is interview footage and random humorous behind the scenes antics from tours over the years. It's definitely a little insular at times, but generally it's entertaining due to the focus on interviews rather than rehashed live performances. It's also cool that there's no bullshit hype or anything. For example, while one might expect a band of this style to include lots of violent dancing or footage of fights at shows, there's really none of that at all. Most of the behind the scenes stuff is amusing, and there's some cool footage from European tours, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Among the bonus features are the video for "Forever", which is totally professional looking and has a mix of performance footage in a warehouse spliced with some "Fight Club" type stuff; a 26-minute professionally shot live set from Orange County (with muddy sound but a great picture with multiple camera angles); and around 20 minutes of random extras, including a hilarious scene at a fast food joint where Throwdown pretends to be Slipknot without the masks on and fools some unsuspecting Slipknot fans into believing every bit of it. Classic. All in all it's a solid sitting. There's about 80 minutes of core content with enough bonus features to throw the total running time just over two hours, which isn't too shabby and goes by fairly quickly. There's not that much to talk about since most of the DVD is interview footage and sort of traces the band from start to present, and I definitely think it could've been a little more detailed or humorous at times (a lot of the humor and some of the content really leans towards their own particular niche of the scene in Orange County), but if I spent $10 or so on this thing I'd enjoy it. This is certainly one of the better music DVD's I've watched in the last year.