War At The Warfield
December 13, 2006 by Jo Minor
War At The Warfield, simply put, is a DVD that represents the best of Slayer - capturing brilliant moments from the Show No Mercy years all the way to their more recent offerings. The band doesn’t disappoint with this video release - how can that be possible when they perform thrash metal masterpieces such as Chemical Warfare, Mandatory Suicide and Hell Awaits?
I strongly believe one of the reasons Slayer released this video was to support the God Hates Us All album. There are a few indications of this - the text and background music (God Hates Us All and Darkness Of Christ, respectively) at the start of the video, the first song on the set list (Disciple) and the stage design all point to this. However, Tom and Co. don’t get carried away with the newer material, thus making sure that the band doesn’t stray too far away from their classics that have heavily contributed to their 20-plus years of thrash metal supremacy.
By dishing out their regular live favorites like War Ensemble, South Of Heaven, Postmortem and Raining Blood, the DVD (a VHS format of the video was also released, by the way) is a solid showcase of the energy and brutality of the band. The thing that sets this video apart is the classic Slayer songs that they performed - aside from the songs I mentioned earlier in the review - they even played classic tracks such as Die By The Sword and Captor Of Sin!
As with any video release there are bound to be some drawbacks, and the only missing element here would be original drummer Dave Lombardo. Since the Warfield show was taped before he returned to the band, Paul Bostaph was the man responsible for the percussive assault, and this human drum-machine did a satisfactory job. In my opinion, he was the best “replacement” drummer to ever play with Slayer and handled the drumming in Warfield very well, but sadly his playing just doesn’t sound like Lombardo. Additionally, Bostaph is an extremely fast drummer who has a tendency of pushing the limits to insane limits, therefore minimizing the effects of some of the band’s more groove-laden tracks.
Another issue that I can argue about would be the selection of tracks for this DVD. I can understand the band’s need to cover all bases by trying to include tracks from almost every album they’ve released, but I would be much happier if they removed sub-par tracks like God Send Death and New Faith and replaced them with classics like Black Magic or Criminally Insane - two of my most favorite and very underrated Slayer songs. The inclusion of those two tracks would make this a perfect thrash fest!
My last gripe would be Tom Araya’s faltering vocal performance - his voice has been going on a rollercoaster ride and it would be unfair to blame the man after all the screaming he has done for over twenty years. Anyway, the band’s watertight performance and colossal stage presence more than makes up for Tom’s weakening vocal chords.
Classic and new Slayer songs, performed and recorded live on a brilliant show. This is a must have for all fans of heavy metal in general!
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