For a full-fledged metalhead, band's DVD is a must-have

For as long as I can remember, I have loved metal.

I used to have a recording of Metallica's rare "No Life 'Til Leathur" before the band's album "Kill 'Em All" came out in 1993. I saw Slayer in a little concert hall called the Cotillion in Wichita, Kan., in 1985, nearly a year before its album "Rein in Blood" was released. I even got a broken drumstick from drummer Dave Lombardo that night.

My room was plastered with Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Testament and Metallica posters.

I would save my greens for all types of metal concerts — Dio, early Motley Crue, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Megadeth, Anthrax, Ozzy Osbourne — really any band that had loud, screaming guitars, heavy bass lines and blistering drum solos.

Yes, I was what people call a metalhead. In fact, I still am!

Now, before I go on, let me remind you all that this is my opinion.

With that said, I can say with all honestly that I haven't loved any metal band as much as I have loved Lamb of God.

Love it or hate it, the band, based in Richmond, Va., rocks my soul.

Not only does it combine ultra-difficult chord progressions, soul-purging vocals and impossibly syncopated drum lines, the band — lead singer Randy Blythe, drummer Chris Adler, bassist John Campbell and guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Campbell (Chris' brother) — is still as passionate about its music as it was when it formed in the late 1990s, from the ashes of another band, Burn the Priest.

Well, my love-affair (or is it obsession?) with the band jumped up a few notches with its new DVD "Walk With Me in Hell," which was released a few weeks ago.

In fact, I can safely say that I'm not alone in my fandom. The DVD debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Video Music chart. It sold more than 13,000 copies in its first week.

And there's a reason it did so well.

The first disc of the two-DVD set documents the band's brutal 2006-07 tour in support of its major-label masterpiece "Sacrament." It follows the band as it emerges from hot-stuffy clubs to Ozzfest and England's Download Festival, where there it played in front of 72,000 people. It also features six live tunes — "Redneck," "Again We Rise," "Walk With Me in Hell," "Now You've Got Something to Die For," "Blacken the Cursed Sun" and "Pathetic" — all culled from live shows during the tour.

The second disc features "The Making of 'Sacrament,"' which was packaged in special-edition copies of the CD, but it also includes the full set performance of the band's Download Festival gig. Furthermore, the disc includes the video for the single "Redneck" and a mini-documentary of the making of the "Redneck" video.

The interviews are personable and, of course, salted with rock-band profanity. But it shows LOG as a bunch of punks in a metal band dealing with their career choice.

LOG is a band of hard-working perfectionists who are passionate about their work. And just thinking of the DVD shoots a load of adrenaline through my veins. WOOOOOHOOOOOO!

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com