About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

A bilious lesson on partying and hilarity from Metal Blade’s road warriors.



Pros

• Gut-wrenchingly funny.
• An accurate glimpse of a metal band’s life on the road.
• Hilarious celebrity cameo.

Cons

• Not enough on the band’s music and life outside of partying.

Description

• Released May 12 by Metal Blade Records.
• The Black Dahlia Murder’s last studio album was Nocturnal (2007).
• The Black Dahlia Murder hails from Waterford, Michigan.

Guide Review - Black Dahlia Murder - 'Majesty' DVD

The Black Dahlia Murder’s DVD Majesty is one part Jackass, one part Animal House and one part metal video. The band members smoke colossal amounts of weed; chug gallons of beer from two-story tall funnels; vomit prodigiously; gulp whiskey and Jagermeister from the bottle and eat every processed meat sold at truck stops.

On the tour bus they are nude, wearing ridiculous pajamas or falling down drunk. They don’t get gored by a bull a la Johnny Knoxville although bassist Bart Williams skateboards down a bustling San Francisco intersection. Between the licentiousness BDM finds time to rock out at clubs and metal festivals around the world with energy to spare.

The entire time you are watching Majesty you expect Dean Wormer from Animal House to show up and put The Black Dahlia Murder on double secret probation. Beefy vocalist Trevor Strnad is a perfect stand-in for Bluto. Clearly the band is living poet William Blake’s axiom that “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”

What makes this DVD so funny is also a shortcoming. You don’t get to see the band in more contemplative moments or learn much about their writing process. What made Metal Blade’s Cannibal Corpse DVD so compelling was that you left the viewing with a complete picture of the band and their music. That's not the case here. The Majesty DVD set also contains a second disc with live performances and video. The audio and visual quality is excellent, but seeing the band live is a better option.

The Black Dahlia Murder won’t be able to party like this forever, unless they are gifted with Lemmy’s constitution. If you want to see a young band throw caution to the wind and don’t mind projectile puking then you will get a kick out of Majesty.