CINEMETAL ROUND-UP: NEW VIDEOS FROM FIREWIND, RIVAL SONS, SHINING, MURDER CONSTRUCT, AND SPHERIC UNIVERSE EXPERIENCE
I’m going to put about as much effort into this introduction as the United State government put into letting Randy Blythe know that he was wanted for manslaughter in the Czech Republic.
We begin today with Firewind’s new video for “Edge of a Dream,” which harkens back to the early 90s, when having a bunch of metal dudes (and one hot chick) play a power ballad on a beach didn’t seem totally ridiculous. Unfortunately, it’s not the early 90s, and so this video is inadvertently hilarious. That being said, Gus G. does look completely at home playing a solo on the edge of the cliff. Poor dude might have been born ten or fifteen years past his time, for real.
Speaking of being born too late, we continue with Rival Sons’ new clip for the song “Keep on Swinging.” This video takes a long time to get going — it’s over a minute before the actual music kicks in — but it’s actually well worth the wait. For one thing, it looks gorgeous; for another, it’s thematically coherent, which an element often overlooked in modern music videos; and for yet another thing, the performances from the actors are uniformly excellent. I mean, there are people in this clip who are basically glorified extras that still give it their all, and totally stick the landing — there are very quick, single shots of people sitting the church that made me crack up. Even the special effects are pretty godo! Director Greg Ephraim deserves a big round of applause. Bonus: the song is catchy as hellfire.
We continue with video for “Tillsammans Är Vi Allt” from Shining (in Vince’s words, “Not the Blackjazz Shining… the depressing, suicidal one.” Possibly the best way to differentiate the two bands ever.) This video is ALSO really, really sweet, and actually makes kind of an interesting companion piece to the Rival Sons clip, because it also deals with themes of religion and ceremony — but does so in a completely different way. It’s far more formalistic; The Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? is probably the most obvious influence on the Rival Sons video, but this draws more from filmmakers like Jodorowsky, Kubrick, and Lars Von Trier — artists whose work feels more theatrical than naturalistic, but with a strong, well-thought out intention behind that formalism. Heads up, this is NSFW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iULz19Cc7yw&feature=youtu.be
And, hey, guess what? Murder Construct’s new video for “Red All Over” is also really cool and also NSFW… albeit for different reasons. Like so many other death and grind videos, this one focuses on hyperviolent imagery; but director Mitch Masse’s visuals are considerably more innovative than those of most such clips. The editing is great, too. Impressive all around!
And we conclude today with Spheric Universe Experience’s video for “The Day I Died.” The video is… fine. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but there’s nothing especially remarkable about it. That being said, I strongly encourage you to check it out — I agree with Vince that these dudes write great songs and are totally worth your time.
-AR
