Band : Godsmack

Album title : Changes

Label : Godsmack – Coming Home Studios

Distributor : PIAS

Release date : May 2008 (original= 2004)

Release : DVD

As the clever reader already knows from the info above, this ain't exactly a new DVD, but for reasons unknows (and best not thought about too much) the band never made it available in Europe before.

My last connection with the band dating back to 2003's album Faceless (then collegue Trik reviewed the 2006 Godsmack IV, posted 17/07/2006) means I'm actually quite in touch with the material on the DVD, as it came in pre-production right after the release of that album. With frontman Sully Erna co-producing, he was very much responsable for the visial shaping of it, and the way he chose to bring it was not the usual concert-video-with-additional-documentary thing, but rather a mixing of the two. So, in between a live set which focusses on the self-titled 1999 debut album (still containing a lot of the live favourites: "Bad Religion", "Moon Baby", "KeepAway", "Voodoo", and "Whatever") and the then new one ("Straight Out Of Line", "Faceless", "Changes", "Serenity", and "I Stand Alone")...with only the title track of 2001's Awake, and Sully & Shannon Larkin's double drum part entitled "Batallia de los Tambores" (actually a succession of historical and influencial, easily recognizable drum parts of other artists which were influencial in the drummers' own youth) to boot...you get several short interviews with the band members and their crew. The DVD starts with footage of the band's manager telephoning Sully about the fact that there's no recording possible at the first location where the band had planned to film, and from there on you get a little presentation of the band members, some further talk about the pre-production of the DVD, and the band members' growing towards the actual day of the live recording. Further footage includes the guys talking about how Sully is the man behind the band whom holds everything together, try-outs for pyrotechnics and the importance the band finds in giving a "big" show, how "luck" has a lot to do with how big a band becomes, how old "friends" may change their attitude towards you because you've become a "Rock Star", some fan reactions, how the guys try to find a balance during the hectic and noisy road life, how the band and their crew are actually part of one big "family", the guys' own family relations in relation to their "job", how the idea grew to develop a two-drummer stage show passage ("Batallia de los Tambores", remember?), and how the guys still can't believe they're living the dream of Rock Stardom (and the liner notes in the accompanying booklet by veteran drummer ShannonLarkin show so very clearly how humble the guys have remained)! Then, during the rolling of the credit list, you get some unseen footage shorties (audience response àfter the show, crazy moments during the filming, etc...), very much in the style like you would see at the end of Jackie Chan movies.

All in all, a very nice and entertaining flick with a total duration of some 105 minutes. Additionally, there's an 85-picture slide show "Photo Gallery" section. Of course, you can chose to view all the live music footage separatedly (weirdly enough, there's no possibility to view the documentary as a separate entity), but that takes away some of the charm of the whole. Anyways, once you've actually purchased the DVD, you can do very well whatever you please with it, ain't that so?! DVD, so no rating!

Tony.