As one of the most reknowned, perennially endearing live bands to ever grace the genre of heavy metal, Slipknot's concert performances have been adequately represented on take-home media, but with a new(ish) studio album under their belts comes another opportunity to prove just what a powerhouse this group has become on the festival circuit. Representing the nonet's first ever show in Mexico City, Day of the Gusano is a DVD/CD set (a Blu-Ray version is also available) that aims for a definitive portrait of the Slipknot concert experience, and pretty much succeeds without really lifting a finger due to just featuring the broadest selection of catalog material of any live memorabilia this always-fire band have put out to date.
Interspersing both band and fan interviews between songs, the DVD/Blu is one of the more impressively captured live videos of recent memory, with a seemingly endless army of camera operators capturing every inch of the stage and venue, a visual omnipresence that allows for capturing a 360-degree feel of performers and venue alike.
There are no bit players in Slipknot, something not lost on director M. Shawn Crahan (also known as band member Clown). From intimate close ups to sweeping overviews of an impressively large crowd draw, Day of the Gusano captures both the forest and the trees, not to mention interstitials shot on location on the streets of Mexico City itself.
The CD accompanying this set is culled from the same set, but features additional songs and is sequenced in a different order than the DVD. Presumably it's the DVD that was edited into a different order, considering the interstitial interviews would make it all too easy to do so seemlessly, but either way that's par for the course on live albums and doesn't detract from the listening/viewing experience. There aren't any extras at all on the DVD, unless you count the actual interviews themselves, but in spite of the fact that Slipknot have previously released live DVDs that feature a lot more easter eggs than Day of the Gusano, from a performance standpoint it doesn't get any better than this.
Score: 9/10
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n0GRckCptQ[/youtube]
