Skinny Puppy's return took the industrial world by storm. Like it or not, you have to admit that TGWOTR made a huge impact when it came out. Personally, I loved it, and I was really glad that they were back.

It makes sense, then, for the band to release a DVD. They had put on a very successful tour and interest in the band was very high. My personal reaction to the DVD is very mixed, however.

Let me start by saying that I was at the Montreal show. Not only that, but I was there with my girlfriend and my boss. At the time, my girlfriend was pregnant with our second child, though we didn't know she was pregnant yet (it was only a few weeks into the pregnancy). So this show is kind of special to us. Having a DVD of it is awesome, and it'll be really cool to share it with our son when he's old enough to not get scared by the dead bodies and other potentially traumatic images.

As I recall, the sound mix at the show itself was probably a bit too loud for the size of the room we were in. It was very difficult too hear all the layers to the sound that you can hear on the DVD. Of course, the sound on the DVD was remastered by Hiwatt Marshall. I'm happy it sounds so good on the DVD, because at the venue it was a bit thick and muddy.

Ogre's stage presence is... awesome. A lot of newer industrial acts are instrumental, and you get a lot of static looking shows with knob tweaking and a little bit of head-bopping. Seeing someone up there who is animated and literally putting on a show is very refreshing. That said, the DVD has very little on-screen time for cEvin Key, probably because he was concentrating on the afore-mentioned knob tweaking stuff. Still, what we see of him shows him to be much more animated than your average tweaker-performer. The other two band members get a fair amount of on-screen time, and put on a good performance both visually and musically.

The problems I have with the DVD stem from how it was put together and mastered. There are obvious editing problems in terms of Ogre's lips not being quite in synch with the audio. And like I mentioned earlier, a little more screen time for cEvin Key would have been nice. As well, the audio on the menus, while very cool, is *really* loud. It scares the shit out of my cat, actually, with some pretty funny scampering-for-cover type of results.

Then there are the technical issues. Wow. My day job consists of compressing video into either web or DVD formats, so I know what goes into making a DVD. This one was not compressed, authored or pressed very well at all. Basically, the light levels and colour information is boosted *way* too high, which screws up the compression to MPEG-2. Also, the press was very badly (or cheaply) done, and there are digital breakup problems all over the place. I actually returned my copy and got a new one after I found out that they were trying to fix the problem. My new copy is much better, but it still breaks up. I've written a full technical opinion of the mastering issues here.

Disc two has some very interesting features, including the Information Warfare documentary put together by William Morrison and co. It's very refreshing to see a documentary piece like this, which is critical of the powers that be, and yet has a constructive, uplifting finish to it. Fahrenheit 9/11, for instance, is very negative and has an ending which basically says "God, does this system ever suck." Information Warfare says "We've just shown you things that your government does that suck. Here are some general ways you can contribute to solving the problem." Very very well done, Mr. Morrison. It's a great piece of work.

There is also the fascinating footage that was edited by Ogre called Eurotrauma. It's a very candid and sometimes hilarious insight into what the band was like off stage on that tour. A lot of it was shot by Dwayne, so it's especially poignant to see things through his eyes.

All in all, the content of the DVD is great, but the technical execution wasn't so great. The only special feature I would have added is a second video track during the concert containing just the footage that was displayed on the screen behind the band. A lot of work went into producing that, and it would have been neat to see it all again. Either way, it's a great release and I've enjoyed watching it very much.

Thank god Skinny Puppy is back!

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