I got a copy of this DVD to review for Detritus 'zine a few weeks ago, it sat on my shelf till this past weekend when I had some time to give it a look... I ended up turning it off about 20 minutes in cuz it was pretty stupid. I'll have to watch it in its entirety before I write my review though, which I'm not exactly looking forward to.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Bill Zebub or his "Grimoire of Exalted Deeds" zine, imagine if "MAD" or "CRACKED" magazine covered death metal. Bill specializes in asking band members offensive, silly, random off topic questions (usually trying to get them to bash on other bands, various record labels and their personnel, etc.) to get a rise out of the person being interviewed.
Example: Bill asks the members of S.O.D. "is it true that there's a role playing game based on your band?"
S.O.D. guys: "Huh? What? Eh? No, that's not true."
Bill Z: "So there's no truth to the rumor that you're developing a game called S.O.D.&D.?"
(badump-PISH! rim shot)
...and it goes on and on like that with members of Nevermore, Leave's Eyes, Sharlee D'Angelo, and numerous others. Mind you I've got a whole stack of Grimoire 'zines (some of which contain the same interviews found on this DVD) and I get a kick out of reading'em once in a while, but I think this sort of thing actually works better on paper than on video. On the DVD there are a lot of awkward pauses after Bill asks a silly question until a musician either says "Um, what?" or just ignores the question entirely.
On the up side, there is a running gag (at least I assume it's a running gag because I haven't watched the whole DVD yet) where Bill is begging George Fisher of Cannibal Corpse to sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in a death metal voice, they keep coming back to this interview over and over again and George is clearly more intoxicated each time, and his continued refusals to do it for the camera are pretty funny. Oh, and there are some hot chicks in various states of undress (another Grimoire trademark) scattered around (usually sitting on the band members' laps) during the interview segments.
More or less the video comes off like a private joke that you're either "in on" or you're not.
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"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"
Subject: Metal Retardation 
Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:17 am
