The Eastpak Resistance Tour 2003 Volume II / 2006 I Scream / 124 Minutes / http://www.iscreamrecords.com / Reviewed 04 April 2006
The first thing that one hears about this DVD is that Madball is actually impressive. The younger fans into hardcore music may not ever know the style of punk-hardcore music that Madball does, but I Scream does them all a favor by putting the band right at the front of the DVD. The band reaches new heights when “Pride†takes it home for the band. “Pride†is a track that uses thrash-metal guitars to tie together the Offspring/Slayer hybrid style of vocals.
If Madball isn’t your speed, the 35 other tracks on the DVD should have one or two things that anyone can find delectable. While a number of the bands here are fairly established in their own right (Sworn Enemy, Death By Stereo), I Scream pulls some bands out of the unknowns (Backfire, Knuckledust, Convict). This has the added effect of increasing exposure to the bands as well as titillating listeners with some great music. Even if the footage is three years old, the spirit in which each of the bands played is still something without comparison. The video is not quite as full of the crazy angles and wide-screen shots as most of the other music videos out on the market, but is simple, allowing the bands to shine with purely their own merit. In regards to the video on the actual DVD, the footage is middle of the road. It may not be the sharpest individuals have ever seen but it will do admirably on a normal-sized TV. The same line of thought goes for the audio, which is strong but maybe not quite at the studio level.
The diversity of sounds found throughout The Eastpak Resistance Tour should be enough to stoke interest in the DVD, and make listeners yearn for those days when tours were not a bunch of bands doing the exact same thing. While The Eastpak Resistance Tour is not planned for this summer, the Persistance Tour does much of the same thing with the same solid lineup of bands (this year, the list includes Hatebreed, Agnostic Front, Napalm Death, Born From Pain, A Perfect Murder, and Bleed The Sky). For a slice of what the tour was, and the ability to see some of the bands that were more on the periphery of things, The Eastpak Resistance Tour 2003 Volume II is a must-see. In fact, the songs captured on this DVD may actually outshine those on the first. Here’s to hoping that the tour keeps its fury and that further DVDs are released in the near future. Hardcore is a diverse movement but it only comes through as the same general type of sound that has been pushed forward by acts like Hatebreed for the last fifteen years. Even if someone is not a fan of “hardcore†music, the quality of the bands on this DVD should far outstrip anything that anyone can find on the radio at any given time, even in the cool and indie college towns scattered across the United States.
Top Tracks: Length of Time “Broken Peaceâ€, Death By Stereo “The Plagueâ€
Rating: 6.8/10