It’s halfway through the year, and I know most of the staff here are already putting together their best of lists in their heads. Not me. Looking at the best music videos of every month has kept me busy enough as is and this month has been just as busy. May’s music video selection has a repeat, violent offender with more monochromatic misery, genre legends with a monster of a comeback, noisy headache rock music and a pit full of fake blood. I love all four of these bands., and this is probably the only format or list where I could possibly get a chance to write about them all at once. So enjoy. Or not.
Nails – “Savage Intolerance”
If the video for “You Will Never Be One Of Us” was meant to showcase this band and their instruments, the clip for “Savage Intolerance” is designed purely to show off their attitude. Though it’s aimed mainly at a certain extremist group, the lyrics and imagery are unabashedly forthcoming; stick any hate group or fundamentalist group in front of this track and watch them suffer. Another short video clip with a stark contrast of black and white, Nails are merely floating heads in this one. A sickening collage of sharp, shocking images are the real stars behind the thunderous noise and subsequent galloping chug that tears this song in half. Awful stuff. Awfully great, that is.
Despised Icon – “Beast”
It’s probably been about ten years since I watched my first Despised Icon video. One decade later, and they are still tearing it up like nobody else. “Beast” is the track that Icon fans the world round have been waiting for since the first bunch of reunion shows way back when. The video is classic Despised Icon fare and does everything and nothing for the song at the same time. The band are out of focus, silhouetted or shot through misty, wet glass, and we have to persevere through a million jump cuts between members. This is annoying, but whatever, it’s a wild track that veers from classic Despised Icon BREEing to a more restrained version of the same disgusting heaviness that the Canadians are so renowned for. Film the band sat down eating pizza and play this new track over it and people would still watch it. Can you tell I’m excited for the new album?
KEN mode – “Failing At Fun Since 1981”
There are no bad KEN mode videos. Fact. The Canadians always have interesting visuals to coincide with their snarky rock’n’roll’n’noise. “Failing At Fun Since 1981” is another top shelf entry. While I may have been too young to appreciate the heady days of music television in the early 90’s, this one feels like a love letter (or poison letter…) to that era. There’s so much going on on-screen that it’d take a hundred viewings to get eyes on every part of this smorgasbord of stimulants. My favourite part is the rollercoaster riding kid who has his arms up but clearly doesn’t give one fuck. Also, that guy’s golf swing. Majestic.
Carnifex – “Drown Me In Blood”
I legitimately really like this band. Deal with it. Carnifex always put out solid – if predictable – deathcore releases, and their new one should be just as solid, if maybe not quite as predictable. Vocalist Scott Lewis’ proclivity towards black metal seems to be gaining more of a strangehold on the band’s sound, but familiar deathcore music video is familiar. Bathed in red light and blood, Lewis splashes around in a nasty looking pit while his band mates tear apart a pretty fucking fun song. It’s deserving of inclusion here because it is not ashamed of what it is and the contrast between the vibrant red and cold blue and grey is pretty damn striking. The hands pulling Lewis down into the murk at the end is proper horror movie shit too. Gets my vote anyway.