V/A - Brutal Assualt 11

GENRE: N/A
COUNTRY: N/A
FORMAT: DVD
LABEL: Shindy Productions
YEAR: 2007

RATING: 5/10
REVIEWED BY: PSL
PROVIDED BY: Shindy Productions

This DVD was filmed at the 11th edition of the widely known Czech festival Brutal Assault and as far as I can tell this is the first DVD filmed at the festival. The footage was shot during the three days in August 2006. Filmed with four cameras from multiple angles the result is quite good when it comes to editing, but the sharpness of the video recording is somewhat unsteady. A lot of the time it tends to be muddy and quite rough. It really pulls down the overall impression a lot as the visual part is at least 50% of the experience. It's a shame as the sound overall is very good and the layout of the DVD convincing.

The DVD mostly works as a compilation with one or two songs from each band. There are many great bands featured and it's obvious that the Czechs know how to set up a great festival, but unfortunately there are also quite a few bands that easily could have been left out. With a few exceptions most of the smaller bands tend to seem like nothing but filler. Fortunately bands like Severe Torture, Disavowed, Obscura, Sanatorium, Fleshgore, Arsebreed, Skinless, Morbid Angel and Napalm Death add positively to the overall impression of the DVD.

There are some bonus material like a photo gallery, behind the scene material, like festival preparations and the festival atmosphere. It's funny and interesting to watch, but it's most likely something you only watch once or twice. The Brutal Assault 11 DVD has its ups and downs, but judged as a whole it's an effort around the mundane mostly thanks to the unsteady quality of the footage, but also because of the choice of bands featured. Half of the bands on the DVD are probably not known to people outside of the Czech Republic and the rest of Eastern Europe, but can you look past these things then the performances from the earlier mentioned bands are largely able to make up for it.