German thrash metallers ASSASSIN are set to release their first ever DVD, entitled Chaos And Live Shots. The release will be available via SPV/Steamhammer on November 23rd in Germany and November 26th throughout Europe (North American release date tba).

Chaos And Live Shots will include two DVDs in a digipak + 40 page booklet + exclusive voucher to enter the competition for a Fernandes Tremor Bass guitar.

Blood and gore all over the place, smelly feet in a car with closed windows, and as if that wasn’t enough, there are roadies crawling through grotty attics, interspersed with wild parties, plenty of drugs and hectolitres of alcoholic beverages – somehow you can’t make up your mind which of these countless choleric excesses of a wonderfully and thoroughly uncivilised cohabitation you’d most like to have been a part of.

Assassin were there all the way. Which is why they will probably be the last survivors of the human race when Planet Earth plunges – as predicted – into the abyss this coming winter. Mind you: should Armageddon really materialise, they at least had a good time. Where? In Frankfurt and Hagen, in Lichtenfels and Bochum, in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, but also... wait for it... in Osaka!. March 2010 saw eight cameras witness Assassin conquer that Japanese city, pulling out all the stops at the True Thrash Fest.

Not only were Assassin’s two furioso shows caught on camera, but also the every-day madness this chaos squad lives with. So should the world not come to an end after all, you will be able to watch all this and much more on double DVD. Chaos And Live Shots is the title of that footage (which is anything but confidential), presenting a thoroughly anarchistic band. Any questions?

Well how about this one: why is guitarist Michael Hoffmann pulled across the poker table like that? Or - why does drummer Björn Sondermann smash up his… hmm… well-kept Honda van? Why do the phones of the other band members ring all the time so they can’t ever seem to get down to some serious meditation? And why does this damn mobile have to ring when they’d much rather cheer on their favourite football team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, at the stadium?

Find answers to all these essential questions on Chaos And Live Shots, plus bizarre anecdotes and wild film sequences from the career of this five-piece trash band from Germany. ‘Uncle Tom’ Angelripper has his say, and the guys from Violent Force and Deathrow also feel called upon to voice their reminiscences, complemented by comments from original Assassin drummer Psycho Danger (the name says it all!), the band’s first manager, and various ex-bassists. And in between, there are lots of hard-as-nail thrash metal tracks courtesy of Assassin. Live from Osaka! Which we already mentioned above.

It’s a miracle that all this has meshed so well. Well, perhaps not quite. In fact it’s the merit of Julius Krenz, director and producer of this unusual double DVD. Julius Krenz appears to be pretty normal, earning his bread and butter at WDR TV. But Krenz happens to be into metal, so he couldn’t help but assist Assassin in their monumental project. A fatal decision, as he has come to realise. But at some point there was no way out. The result is a good three hours long, presents a number of the most important Assassin songs from the past 25 years and documents the ordinary madness of an extraordinary band. But then – what is ordinary in this day and age?

Having said that, it’s not exactly extraordinary that a band which was founded in 1983 has lots of stories to tell. And it’s not extraordinary that lots of wild thrash recordings were cut during that time. On the other hand, the way all this comes together on Chaos And Live Shots is pretty extraordinary. But Assassin wouldn’t be Assassin if the band hadn’t ignored all conventions when they got down to putting together the material. Chaos And Live Shots is brilliantly chaotic and wonderfully alive – which we already mentioned above.