The Benjamin Gate have two records under their belt since their 2001 debut on Forefront Records. Unfortunately, and in many ways devastatingly, the band has plans for hanging up their instruments later this year and ending the beautiful sounds this quintet composes. With what is probably the members' final joint effort, we have the Contact DVD Collector's Series release. The Contact DVD pushes the limit of what this series offers. Featuring four different music videos with two versions of two them, eight song clips, a photo gallery and a fun behind the scenes montage, this DVD is just about worth it's seven bucks.

The music videos section includes both of the bands concept videos, "All Over Me" and "Lift Me Up," with the latter being the most enjoyable of the two. Oddly, the DVD includes two "versions" of the "Lift Me Up" video, however, I couldn't detect a single difference between the two from what I saw. The other videos, "Overkill" and "Do What You Say" are comprised of live footage from mostly last Fall's Festival Con Dios tour. Unfortunately a lot of the same footage was used in both videos. There are two versions of "Overkill" with one of them having plain live footage and the second utilizing more camera tricks and visual effects. The most fun feature is, as usual, the Behind the Scenes featurette that shows the band in the studio jamming, Adrienne cutting vocals for "Overkill," the group on location for the "Lift Me Up" video, and much more. It could have been longer and could have contained more interview footage, but it was still a neat feature. These DVD's just often feel a lot like long trailers for a much bigger, fulfilling DVD project, but alas all we get are these brief teasers.

I enjoyed checking out the Contact DVD, and it only makes me regret the band's demise is around the corner even more. But this little tribute is a nice final chapter for The Benjamin Gate, because, like the band's career, this DVD is sorely brief yet a wonderful thing nonetheless.

- Review date: 7/18/03, written by John DiBiase of Jesusfreakhideout.com