AFTER THE BURIAL BLITZ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ODj5ARGAg

It’s a good day to be an After the Burial fan: the band has released not one but two music videos, plus additional dates for their previously-announced Crush ‘Em All trek with Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins.

So, let’s start by considering these videos, “Cinemetal Round-Up” style, shall we?

First up, we have the band’s clip for the song “Pendulum” (above). Now, you may recall that there was controversy surrounding this video, which was actually completed in December of 2010. From Noisecreep:

The video features the band invading an all-girl Catholic school and encouraging the uniformed ladies to engage in some uninhibited fun in their gymnasium. Apparently, when the girls began letting loose and grinding on one another, the chaperones, who happened to be conservative Catholics, went into an uproar. Ultimately, the director and his production company were slapped with a cease and desist notice, blocking the release of the clip.

Already I feel like this story is, well, weird. An all-girl Catholic school agreed to let a heavy metal band called After the Burial shoot a music video there with their students, and then they were surprised when the girls were asked to “let loose and grind on one another?” So had they, like, never seen a music video for any genre of music ever before? MTV is nothing but a visual history of girls grinding on one another! (“Oh, so that’s what it looked like when girls grinded on each other in the 80s. Hm. Interesting. A strong contrast from the manner in which girls grinded on one another in the 90s. I must remember to ask Professor Schlomovitz for his thoughts.”)

And it gets even stranger when you actually watch the video. Because the girls really don’t do anything that wrong. I mean, they basically jump up and down and headbang and, uh, that’s it. There’s a part where they’re all in stalls in the bathroom and there’s a shot of their feet and it looks like one of them slides off her panties, and I really thought that when they emerged from those stalls, they were all going to be dressed like slutty groupies. But, no, they just come out of the stalls and go back to dancing. I spotted absolutely no grinding, although two of the girls do kiss in the tamest possible manner (no tongue). The panties never make a return appearance; they’re never thrown at the band, and it’s never implied that any of the girls fucked the band after the show. Really, I can’t imagine anyone over the age of about thirteen finding this racey.

So were their steamier parts cut out of the video? Is there a piece of the story missing? Were these chaperones really just the most poorly researched people in the history of ever? Am I not conservative enough when it comes to the protection of young girls? All of these possibilites seem realistic to me.

Moving on.

The second video the band has released is for the song “Your Troubles Will Cease and Fortune Will Smile Upon You.” There was no controversy around this clip, so I’m not going to ramble about it for several paragraphs. I’ll just say I think it’s pretty good, probably actually better than the “Pendulum” video, and you should check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQlES3ILT0

And we conclude this abundance of After the Burial news with an updated itinerary for the Crush ‘Em All Tour, which, like I was sayin’ up at the top of this article, also features Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins, plus, on select dates, I The Breather, Structures, Volumes, and Your Memorial. Here are all the dates thus far, courtesy The PRP:

09/21 Grand Rapids, MI – The Intersection
09/22 London, ON – London Music Hall
09/23 Windsor, ON – Blind Dog
09/24 Toronto, ON – Mod Club
09/25 Montreal, QC – La Tulipe
09/28 Pittsburgh, PA – The Altar Bar
10/03 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
10/06 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
10/07 Dallas, TX – Trees
10/08 San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
10/09 Corpus Christi, TX – House of Rock
10/10 Lubbock, TX – Jakes
10/11 Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad
10/17 Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades
10/18 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
10/19 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
10/22 Edmonton, AB – Avenue
10/23 Calgary, AB – Republik
10/24 Billings, MT – Manny’s
10/26 Omaha, NE – Sokol Underground
10/27 Iowa City, IA – Blue Moose
10/28 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge

-AR

Thanks: Raul Jauregui-Volpe