Ozzfest, the annual heavy metal tour headlined by Ozzy Osbourne and/or Black Sabbath depending on what year it is, has somehow managed to become the longest running event of its kind in history. No small feat, considering, but there's no denying that year in, year out, the festival gives fans exactly what it wants - an entire days worth of live metal mixing up newcomers, established acts, and genre gods for one of the most eclectic festivals running.

2005 was the tenth anniversary or Ozzfest and in honor of that banner year, a camera crew tagged along and shot a few different performances. The results are the contents of this Blu-ray release (previously released on standard definition a few years ago) - a mix of live footage, behind the scenes clips, and interviews with the talented people who make it all happen.

While some of the interviews are reasonably interesting, a lot of them feel like filler. Do we really care about Jack Osbourne's memories of first meeting Marilyn Manson? Particularly when Manson isn't featured in this line up? Not really, no. The real reason anyone will want to give this disc is the same reason anyone would want to attend the event in the first place: the music.

The performances contained on this disc are as follows:

Anthrax - Caught In A Mosh
Trivium - A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation
Soilwork - Blind Eye Halo
The Haunted - Bury Your Dead
Gizmachi - The Voice Of Sanity
Rob Zombie - More Human Than Human
Wicked Wisdom - You Can't Handle
It Dies Today - A Threnody For Modern Romance
H.I.M. - Soul On Fire
A Dozen Furies - Aware And Lifeless
Rob Zombie - Dragula
Velvet Revolver - Sucker Train Blues
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
Black Sabbath - Paranoid

An interesting line up, to be sure, but how does it all shape up? Honestly, it's a mixed bag. Most of the bands come off well here, with the final three Black Sabbath tracks standing as the highlight. Velvet Revolver do a good job of glamming it up while The Haunted and Anthrax keep things fast and heavy. Rob Zombie, however, should have stayed home if his work here is anything to judge his performances by. He seems unenthused and out of breath and while his second stage backdrop of old Playboy photographs is kitschy and kind of cool, his voice sounds shot. H.I.M. doesn't fare any better, providing a lackluster and uninspired rendition of Soul On Fire. Thankfully, however, the good outweighs the bad and a good two thirds of this material is rock solid.

WEA has provided an option to watch this disc with or without the interviews (meaning performances only). While it might be worthwhile to watch it with the interviews the first time through, it probably stands to reason that whatever replay value is here will come courtesy of the 'performances only' option. And for those performances that aren't so hot? The chapter selection is timed in such a way that it's easy to get to the next act without any more effort than the simple push of a button.

In the end, it might have been better to see a 'best of the last ten years' compilation come out of the Ozzfest camp. A lot of great bands have played on the roster over the years and unfortunately 2005 wasn't as ripe with quality rock as other years have been. It would have also been nice to see more than one some from some of the 'smaller' acts on the bill, with only the mighty Sabbath and the tired sounding Rob Zombie getting more than one song each. Overall it's an uneven release that is definitely worthwhile for metalheads even if it isn't really an essential purchase.

Video:

Ozzfest: 10th Anniversary arrives on Blu-ray in a 1.78.1 anamorphic 1080i VC-1 high definition transfer. For the most part, the image is good, but rarely is it exceptional. A lot of this has to do with the stage lighting more so than the encoding job but there are moments of softness and some of the darker moments lose fine detail into the shadows. Overall the picture is pretty decent, however. Contrast and color reproduction are decent and skin tones look lifelike and accurate. Mpeg compression artifacts aren't a problem though you might occasionally spot some pixelization in a couple of spots. Detail varies from performance to performance depending on the kind of lighting being used at any given time but for the most part the picture is good and is a noticeable improvement from the SD release.