Are Slayer fans everywhere salivating over Live Intrusion – footage of the bands’ 1995 Divine Intervention Tour, filmed in Arizona and finally available on DVD format?
Are Slayer fans everywhere salivating over Live Intrusion – footage of the bands’ 1995 Divine Intervention Tour, filmed in Arizona and finally available on DVD format? Let’s weigh it up: Divine Intervention is the first album with Paul Bostaph on drums; now 15 years old, the concert took place only five years after the release of Seasons In The Abyss, only War Ensemble made it to the live list from this album; half the songs from Divine Intervention are absent; the film opens with blood – a scene of a hard-core fan getting ‘Slayer’ carved into his arms for posterity.
Raining Blood kicks off the set. Sending the crowd into a frenzy under the strobing lights, Slayer can be seen playing during, what many will call, the peak of their career – and it captures them with just enough time having past for older songs, like Hell Awaits, Captor Of Sin and Angel Of Death, to safely be called ‘classics.’
What might annoy fans are moments where you’ll be waiting to see Hanneman play a solo, like during the first break in War Ensemble, and yet get little more than a shot of King’s bouncing bald head and a close up of Bostaph’s feet pummelling the kick drums. In themselves, these elements fine, and there are some moments of fret frisking mayhem but, generally, Hanneman’s lead work provides little more than a soundtrack for long shots, Araya’s curly locks, fan-grimacing distractions or stage-divers (South Of Heaven, Mandatory Suicide and Hell Awaits are cases in point). By contrast, King’s playing is much more conspicuous. By today’s standards, the few (thankfully) amateurish post-production visual effects might be disappointing (Hanneman’s solo cues a lame-arse split screen at the 52 minute mark)
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This DVD is a solid 70 minute nostalgia trip, made all the more worthwhile by the additional footage of a signing in a record shop, on and off road band interactions – the more spontaneous stuff. The songs are awesome and so long as they continue to drag out the old goodies, things will no doubt be sweet. Highlights: Captor Of Sin, Angel Of Death, a cover of Venom’s Witching Hour and Araya playing with his dinner.
