Another one of those Best of 2013 things

 Even though Common Era Earth has just turned 2014 years old, I felt that there was still room for one more Best of 2013 list. I think the contents of this list are a bit under appreciated when it comes to metal. I'm talking about music videos. I find that a lot of metal music videos are the band performing while some random shots are thrown in of either band members “acting”, or random people acting, whilst attempting to make a connection to the song. I know that music videos are no longer very relevant since most music television channels no longer focus on music, and even less relevant to metal music because those bands don't get much airplay on music television anyway, but I've always appreciated a well executed music video. While these days it seems that it is a lot easier for bands to release lyric videos, there are some bands that have made music videos an art form rather than just a mishmash of performing and so called acting. This is just a few bands I thought deserve a pat on the back and a snuggle for being able to execute superb music videos in 2013.

1) Outlaw by Watain from The Wild Hunt

The video for Outlaw must have been a stressful one for everyone involved with Watain. The band has been together for about fifteen years and never released a music video, unless you count their DVD, Opus Diaboli, which I don't, so there must have been immense pressure for Outlaw to be above and beyond. Outlaw has got to be my favourite track from The Wild Hunt because of the tribal and animalistic nature that seems to leap from the speakers and drag you back to it's lair. The music video managed to embody all that wildness fantastically. I love the ”vintage” asthetic of it, which may be interpreted as trying to stay trve by having it be shit quality. They were successfully able to piece together vingettes of all kinds of footage like insane asylum patients, animals parts, other blood and gore, nuns doing drugs, a lady who looks like she is committing suicide by sticking her head in an oven, and a band performance. And to add to the interesting vignettes, the fast pace of the song was matched by the transitions of the vingettes and was able to keep my interest. They even managed to make the band performance interesting by keeping it pretty primal. I haven't seen Watain live, but Outlaw definitely gives me a taste of what I could expect; fire, dirt, and blood. I really liked how the band was involved in the vignettes without it seeming like it was just an awkward moment of acting; sometimes they were on motorcycles, sometimes they were creepin' on those insane asylum people, sometimes they were being very Crust Punk by tattooing some poor soul in a disease filled room where I would not be surprised to find GG Allin in a corner covered in his own blood and shit. It's creepy, dirty, and wild. It's perfect. 

2) Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown by Rob Zombie from Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor

Dead City Radio is a boot-scootin' booty shakin' kind of song for me and its video makes me love the song even more. I do a bit of an eye roll when bands do videos in black and white because it makes me feel like they are trying to be too artistic, but I think when it comes to Rob Zombie, and this music video, I'll let it slide. This video is incredibly random but it works for the song and the video doesn't try to do anything else but be a performance piece. I could have done without Sheri Moon Zombie being in it because she is to Rob Zombie what Johnny Depp is to Tim Burton, but I didn't hate her performance and she is still pretty badass in it. It's still got that sassy Rob Zombie feel to it; it's fun and groovy and that's all that matters.

3) Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel by Behemoth from The Satanist

Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel is one of those videos that surpasses the song. For me, the song is a tiny bit borning, but the video made up for that and makes me way more excited for Behemoth's return. The video is chalk full of gorgeous imagery and symbolism that I haven't quite absorbed/grasped from just a few viewings and my limited knowledge of such things. It's in black and white as well, and I'll let it slide even more than Dead City Radio because this video is damn artistic, in a way that doesn't try to talk down to its viewer. I think that this video is a great trailer for what we can expect from The Satanist, which will be released in February, and shows how Behemoth is ready to live up to their name.

4) Häxbrygd by Finntroll from Blodsvept

Finntroll delivered some Mad Max-esque trollness with Häxbrygd. It's nice to see a band that would otherwise get pushed into doing yet another video full of folky aesthetics do something totally different, but still keep some of their roots in there, like the addition of some floppy troll ears and keeping their stage makeup. For me, the end of the video where the band finishes pimpin' their ride and proceeds to ride around town is very similar to the video for Dragula by Rob Zombie, but, I dig it. I could do without the addition of the double bass because I think it is really over done in a lot of music videos. However, drummer Beast Dominator's incredibly sassy moment of giving the camera the finger and the addition of a creeptastic scene with Trollhorn playing the hell out of an accordion tips over the scale for this being an awesome video. 

Honourable mention – In the Navy by Alestorm from Live at the End of the World

This is an honourable mention because technically it's labeled officially on Youtube as a teaser for their live DVD/album, Live at the End of the World. From a band that labels itself as ”bacon powered pirate core”, I don't expect any less than them finally covering this musical masterpiece and while I'm not a huge fan of live videos, this one is pretty fun. I like that they've utilized GoPro technology in this because it sort of update to the age old live music video. The ”back stage” footage you see is decent cause it's not just a bunch of musicians off their tits all the time nor is it just about how boring touring can be; they managed to get a good mix of the two with some nice footage of Australia.

I've missed them playing in Toronto everytime, either I wasn't into them or I was not in the country, and them appear to have played in Finland once. But, I know from reliable sources that what you see in this video is basically what you get; lots of drinking, primarily by frontman Christopher Bowes whilst playing the Segway of instruments, the keytar, pirates, and kangaroos. Although, I don't think kangaroos are all that prominent, but they should be. All silliness aside, the video is a great teaser/trailer/whatever you want to call it for Live at the End of the World and if I wasn't a skint student, I'd definitely buy it. 

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