Anthrax
Chile on Hell

Bringing hell to Chile is what Anthrax are doing with their latest release which is a film that just premiered in my home cinema. The quartet who are legends in their field engaged a massive crowd and on this film they mix the songs with some behind the scenes things coming up like breaks between chapters. Or so you can see it.

Otherwise Anthrax shouldn’t need any major introduction to an audience that reads this webzine, they do play classic thrash metal and are considered as one of the major acts within the genre. I have not really been a fan of this band but I can respect their achievements, I mean about 15 million albums sold is a fairly impressively large number. But it is not what you have done, it is what you do now that counts in the reviewing business and this Chile on Hell movies is what I am to review.

It sounds very good, the sound is really high class for a live album and I would say that it is even rare to hear studio recordings that tops this one from Anthrax catalogue. The music is typical of Anthrax and I think it would require no deeper introduction considering that this release should mainly appeal to fans of the band. The variation is typical of the genre but they break up the music with some behind the scenes stuff that are spoken and such. Maybe the film could have been slightly shorter and the ending spoofs a bit longer but all in all it works alright and as I said the sound is above average for a live recording, that is a good start.

Looking at the video I would say that they are using some modern trickery, but fortunately not the fast cutting which is mostly annoying. Splitting the screen like in the 24 TV-show with two or three frames or something like that is a bit silly and I don’t think it works too well when used. Other than that it is quite nice with many cameras, one mounted on the top of the guitar of that bold man with the ugly beard and some other hand cameras makes the viewer come closer and gives more energy to the film. This thing is good, I like how we get closer, I like the cutting and I think they have done an overall good job in creating the sights and the sounds of this movie.

Still, it didn’t get any longer run before it was cancelled in my own theatre. My problem is that I don’t really like Anthrax that much and no amount of quality sound recording of live shows and filming will change the fact that I have never heard a particularly interesting song by these guys. Nevertheless, I don’t find them bad either but this film does not quite catch my attention and hold it and I find myself zooming in and out of the screen where it is played. I like the way they make a three-four second still when someone jumps or does something like that, it may be cliché but they do it well. I think the vocalist is a fairly poor performer but a pretty good showman, the bald guitarist is plain ugly but he does show lots of crowd pleasing and energy. So they do alright.

Fans of Anthrax shouldn’t miss this album, they will most likely describe every aspect of the show as brilliant and why not? fans have easier to appreciate music than us reviewers have (or at least me reviewer has). I think that those who are not fans of the band will find it less appealing, maybe not appealing at all so I can describe this as a movie for the fans so if you are one you should find a place that sells these movies and get yourself one.

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