Starring: Members of Slipknot (Corey Taylor, James Root, Joey Jordison and more)
Director: M. Shawn Crahan
Rated: Not Rated

When creating this DVD, you can tell that director and band member Shawn Crahan wanted to produce something beyond the normal concert DVD and interview session. Crahan was hellbent on creating something visually revolutionary. But on nearly all 90 minutes of “Voluminal”, we get a haphazard and incoherent collage of grainy concert footage, and backstage access that provides little insight into the band and their success.

We watch as images bounce back and forth between the band recording their highly successful “Vol. 3” album, and concert footage home and abroad. But instead of getting high quality concert footage, the camera angles and sound are severely distorted and do not allow much enjoyment of the band’s fury. Now, I am all for the occasional shaky camera shot or distorted moment or two, but the grating audio and camera work continue throughout the entire DVD and take away from what this DVD could have been.

At times, it looks as if you are going to get a sense of the band and their everyday lives, including recording sessions for the new album. But just when “Voluminal” is about to get into some sort of order, the footage jumps to something bizarre, such as a nature scene or an island denizen on a steel drum.

Crahan has always been a weird man, with his off the wall comments in magazines to his keeping a almost paralyzing paranoid distance from the media. He considers himself an artist, but if watching scenes full of toilets overflowing is considered “art”, I definitely need to re-evaulate things.

There are a few funny moments in the DVD, such as a manager getting paid 900 dollars to drink an entire bottle of Jagermeister, and some of the autograph sessions turn out to be somewhat humorous. About the only five minutes that go in some logical order are the first five minutes, which is the only time you hear the band interviewed.

What did I get out of the DVD? I know the band members like to say “f---“ a lot, and that “Vol. 3” earned them a lot of platinum records. Sadly, other than that, I didn't learn a thing about the inner workings of the band. And if you are looking for stellar concert footage, be smart and go buy their 2002 DVD, Disaster Pieces instead. I have a feeling most Slipknot fans will be disappointed with this DVD.

“Voluminal” isn’t quite a disaster, but it’s pretty damn close.

Email me at arthatesyou@detroitbuzz.com