Every month, Decibel scribe Shane Mehling reviews the four videos that appear in the monthly metal mag. under “Decibel’s Clips of the Month at Metal Injection.” This month, watch picks from Abbath, Venomous Concept, Beastmaker and a classic clip from Mastodon
Abbath – Winterbane
Let's be honest here, metal videos are often nothing more than a loosely-connected pile of images that look menacing and only tell a cohesive story if you watch them 30-40 times with a whiteboard and pinch of mescaline. So this one, starring someone in the woods pulling out their heart, and costarring a wolf and some chains and the universe itself, loses me pretty quick. Still, there is a lot of Abbath looking cool as hell and his drummer looking Slipknot as hell, which makes it all… fine. It's fine.
Venomous Concept – Anthem
Oh, and if the metal video isn't a vague mash-up of cryptic images it's likely an animation with a socio-geopolitical message. And here we have a bunch of scribbly children learning about the evils of nationalism, protesting against it and then there's a war and nukes are launched and then it's over. If you're wondering why the children are these black, spiky, Atari-looking motherfuckers, that's the band's new mascot, Ook. And no, I don't want to talk about who Ook is or what Ook does, so let's move on.
Beastmaker – The Mask of Satan
The era when I would be juggling 2-3 retro videos every month is no more, but I still get an occasional gem. And while I usually love nothing more than criticizing all the faux grainy footage and thrift store clothing choices, this video is mostly a bunch of old-school Satanic movie clips which, I think, is from a film called Black Sunday. Or not, I'm not sure. But it doesn't matter cause really that is all we're seeing here. Maybe the long-haired band dudes show up for a little bit, but mostly it's cool clips from a movie. I can't really do much with that, so we're moving on again.
CLASSIC CLIP: Mastodon – Blood and Thunder
Did anyone else forget that this video looks like something Rob Zombie put together? I guess angry, debaucherous clowns and stripper zombies are popular with bands whether or not references to Dragula are involved. Anyway, that is pretty much this whole video, with Mastodon in Shriners hats, a bearded lady and another clown trying to get a condom out of a bathroom machine. Isn't this song about Moby Dick? Is that book about a guy in a giant novelty cowboy hat moshing? Because maybe it should have been.
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