If you’ve not heard about this release then you’re the kind of maggot that lives under rocks. Day of the Gusano is a documentary and live recording of Slipknot’s first performance in Mexico, something that surprisingly only happened in 2015 – sixteen years after the band’s inception. Directed by Slipknot’s own M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan, you know it’s going to get down and dirty.
Note that the home release only includes the concert footage (with many different options for audio reproduction, depending on how much you’ve spent on your sound system), and not the documentary which seems to have been a cinema exclusive. The concert footage is frenetic, to say the least. Making use of a tremendous number of cameras and angles, it’s doubtful that you miss anything in the 80-minute show. From booms over the audience to selfie sticks in the audience, professional cameras on stage to GoPros stuck to microphone stands, to drones flying overhead… there’s nothing skipped.
Obviously, there’s a tremendous amount of footage to be edited and it’s been done pretty well, usually at the pace of the music. In slower sections, the cuts are longer and you get a chance to breathe in the scale of the whole show – taking in the flame pots going off at the start of “The Devil In I”, for instance. When things kick up a notch, the scenes flick around fast enough to be mistaken for strobe lighting (OK, not quite), which can be a little distracting. Just as you’re settling on a view, it’s whipped away from you. Just bang your head or form a living room moshpit and you won’t notice.
Sound is great – better than you’d get at a live event, obviously – and it’s cool hearing Taylor slip some Spanish into the lyrics now and again (such as “cinco, cinco, cinco” in “Heretic Anthem”). The sheer scale of the band’s stage set is captured well, and the crowd get a good showing, too. “That” bit during “Spit It Out” is very much present and seeing it captured from all angles is something to behold. As good as being there? Of course not. But it still gets the hairs standing up on your neck. When the crowd erupt on signal, the boom camera filming them is visibly shaking!
Clown and the crew have done a great job of capturing the insane circus that is a Slipknot show. Along with a varied setlist, this makes for a more than decent watch and another quality live DVD to add to the collection.
Day of the Gusano is out on October 20th. It will be available in digital format, DVD and BluRay, as well as gatefold deluxe triple vinyl/DVD and 2CD/DVD packages (CD/vinyl features audio of the live set in full). Pre-order using the links below and support this site!
- [amazon text=DVD&asin=B07477ZM9S]
- [amazon text=Blu-Ray&asin=B07472NP5L]
- [amazon text=DVD + CD&asin=B07472MCJG]
- [amazon text=DVD + 3 LP&asin=B0746Y25YV]
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