Metal impresarios use 'Music as a Weapon'

Disturbed, Chevelle, Taproot and Unloco had so much fun on the Music as a Weapon II Tour they decided to put together a CD/DVD chronicling it. Both the tour and CD have the exact same music -- excepting a bonus video for Disturbed's "Liberate." \nThe DVD shows the tour's incredible final concert in Disturbed's hometown of Chicago, which includes a lot of head-banging energy and great stage set-ups and light shows from all the bands. The album includes two previously unreleased tracks by Disturbed -- "Loading the Weapon," a brooding instrumental introduction and "Dehumanized," a mysteriously dark song. Amid the chaos, Disturbed does a great but shortened cover of Metallica's "Fade to Black," as well as its own beautifully melancholic ballad, "Darkness." \nSharing the spotlight with Disturbed, Chevelle and Taproot is the lesser-known but nonetheless impressive Unloco. In spite of lacking the benefits of commercial radio play, Unloco is given ample opportunity to be noticed by the mainstream heavy metal community with this collection, and rightfully so. \nBalancing the obscure with the mainstream, Music as a Weapon II wraps up with breakout hits including Chevelle's "The Red," Taproot's "Poem" and of course, Disturbed's "Stupify."\nThis product stands out as truly unique -- it's one of few opportunities, outside lame-brained horror movie soundtracks, to have a good dose of hard-hitting heavy metal.