While we all know and love metal for its rebellious spirit and innovative qualities, it’s not known as a genre to produce fine works of art in the form of music videos; I’d go so far as to say they often provide a disservice to the composition at hand. For the most part, they follow a hackneyed formula that reinforces negative stereotypes of the genre’s purveyors, making us all look like a bunch of angry 10-year-olds with intimacy issues. Those recurring themes include, but aren’t limited to, a serial killer torturing a victim in a basement, an inmate at an insane asylum displaying internal agony, a broken love story highlighting both good and bad memories, and dudes wearing “scary” masks that are blatant rip-offs of ’80s horror movies. Oh, and lots of metal babes. On the other end of the video spectrum is the jokey metal band, the one who ironically parodies itself through a cartoonish interpretation of the genre. To be honest, I’m not sure which of the two dichotomies are worse; god forbid if the tween should ever meet. And let us not forget the pinnacle of viewing boredom: the video of the band playing with no narrative whatsoever. Why even bother making a video? So I can identify your gear and scope your passionate headbanging? No thanks.
With that, my sagacious advice after revisiting a year’s worth of videos is this: a good video can’t save a bad song but a bad video can sure as hell ruin a good tune. Some videos included in the Top 10 don’t necessarily soundtrack the best song but they happened to have an above-average video, even if that video touches upon those aforementioned themes of gore and parody. Additionally, tasteless videos, such as Cattle Decapitation’s “Forced Gender Reassignment,” were omitted from the list for providing absolutely no artistic merit and insulting my intelligence. Furthermore, it’s also worth noting the similarities between the couplings of both Pig Destroyer’s “The Diplomat” with High on Fire’s “Fertile Green” and Municipal Waste’s “You’re Cut Off” with Trash Talk’s “Slander”. Talk amongst yourselves and discuss that one in the comments. And lastly, I’d like to offer a gigantic thanks to Metal Videos Rockenweb for maintaining a tremendous database of metal videos, thus easing my legwork.
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TOP 10:
10. High On Fire – “Fertile Green”
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High On Fire – “Fertile Green”
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9. Darkest Hour – “Severed Into Separates”
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Darkest Hour – “Severed Into Separates”
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8. Lamb of God – “Ghost Walking”
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Lamb of God – “Ghost Walking”
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7. Job for a Cowboy – “Tarnished Gluttony”
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Job for a Cowboy – “Tarnished Gluttony”
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6. Trash Talk – “Slander”
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Trash Talk – “Slander”
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5. Alestorm – “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid”
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Alestorm – “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid”
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4. Pig Destroyer – “The Diplomat”
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Pig Destroyer – “The Diplomat”
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3. Suicide Silence – “Slaves To Substance”
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Suicide Silence – “Slaves To Substance”
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2. Nekrogoblikon – “No One Survives”
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Nekrogoblikon – “No One Survives”
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1. Municipal Waste – “You’re Cut Off”
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Municipal Waste – “You’re Cut Off”
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HONORABLE MENTIONS
Revocation – “The Grip Tightens”
Between the Buried and Me – “Astral Body”
Cannabis Corpse – “Where The Kind Lives”
The Atlas Moth video for “Your Calm Waters” blows any of these videos away.
Pfft… No Cattle Decapitation, who’ve released two excellent videos this year.
Wow. 90% of that was absolute garbage…. you couldn’t find anything better, really?
if youre going to post a feature on videos, at least make the videos a decent fucking size!
nevermind forget my last comment, this list is pretty fucking pathetic
So because Cattle Decapitation released a highly offensive video, the other one was automatically omitted? I’m glad to see Municipal Waste and Cannabis Corpse made the list. They were the only two that were worth watching. Next time pull from more than one source. Here is the other Cattle Decapitation video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il5TVnQw30g
Kingdom of Tyrants might be one of my favorite death metal videos of all-time(srs), let alone of 2012.
You’ve made an awful lot of presumptions.
Did someone make a video after the Lair of the Minotaur video?
Huh. Who knew?
The BDSM video for Hoax’s “Fantasy” is pretty intense. Slightly NSFW?
http://youtu.be/kkHAc-xHTqQ
this is the worst list ever, Metal Sucks worthy for sure.
Yeah, how dare you include bands this uncool. You’re just not doing it right IO.
Anyway, I can’t really think of many metal videos off-hand. Did love that Darkest Hour one though, and enjoyed what JFAC tried to do with their mini-movie.
Revocation’s last one was a good laugh. Not a pardoy video, just a nicely clever central conceit, with tongue wedged firmly in cheek.
Oh wait, the Marduk one (Soul for Belial?) was pretty good and done by one of the guys from Setherial I think. And ‘Nyx’ by Secrets Of The Moon, I really enjoyed that one.
If anyone is interested, I am in an Austin, TX doom band called Destroyer of Light. We just released our music video, check it out if you are interested. Here it is, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3kmuNKeoWo&feature=youtu.be. – Steve
Well, that High on Fire video cleared up some lingering confusion on my part about the “concept” of their last album. Now I get that it’s about weed. And lots of it.
thanks, great work!
I must say that municipal waste is the most inspiring group of young gifted musicians I have come across in my blechhhhhhhhhh academic research so far. Kudos.