Mother of All Envisions the Algorithmic Madness of Our "Curators" (Dual-Video Medley Premiere)
Nothing highlights the power of visual imagery and audio combined like a good music video, especially ones that can actually impact how we experience music. Sadly, metal music videos often accomplish that by making the music worse, serving as a watered-down vessel for the members’ vanity or a tired retreading of heavy metal tropes that bypasses any meaning the song might have had. Bypassing those outcomes, the technical death metal outfit Mother of All recruited composer Andreas Hald and visual artist Lichtgedärm to create not only a visualizer for their latest single “Curators of Our World Scope,” but also an accompanying audio-visual collaboration that helps to build the overall message of social distortion via technology.
Watch both elements of the “Curators” medley below—as recommended by the creators, the audio-visual collaboration (“Replicators”) comes first, followed by the single “Curators of Our World Scope,” from the band’s upcoming album Age of the Solipsist.
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“Replicators,” opening with a soft musing soundscape, has its heavier moments partway through, monolithic backbeats with alien-like guitars and reversed vocals. The video flickers like a broken lightbulb, creating an intense pressure and a sense of impending dread.
“Curators of our World Scope,” following it, opens up that pressure into a kaleidoscopic maelstrom. It’s like flipping through a hyperactive, hellish media feed: lining up with the song’s whirlwind rhythm, images of bacteria, cells, humanity, and other indiscernible visuals sweep by, driving the brain into overdrive as it struggles to piece these together into patterns while also coming to grips with the song itself. Intricate and vicious guitar riffs drive the song forward, riddled with small pauses to further disrupt the listener, while vocalist (and drummer) Martin Haumann screams out a rapid-fire litany that just barely fits within the track’s brief confines. Underneath that but fully felt in the mix, Steve DiGiorgio (Testament, ex-Death) adds his fretless bass magic—frankly, death metal has always been a good genre for killer bass lines and that’s a trend continued here.
Without the video, it’s a good tech-death song: the pace is lively and intricate and the riffs don’t skimp. But with it, it becomes overwhelming, in the sense that your mind really can’t process everything that’s going on. That ties into the theme of the medley as a whole, which “deals with the domination and control that algorithms and electronic devices have over our consciousness.” Yes, as content creation continues to increase, some sort of curation is unavoidable, but what’s in place today is a black box with virtually no oversight. Most recommendation algorithms work by suggesting what people like you (read: people who engage with the same content as you) interact with, which works great for fun stuff, but it also serves as an AI-driven gateway from gaming videos to straight-up racism. The solution to this isn’t as simple as flipping a switch or even writing a better algorithm, but it’s also probably not just letting “the market” do what it will. As the blistering riffs and obliviating imagery of “Curators” sweep past, consider this dilemma with any limited brainpower that the combination leaves unoccupied.
Project mastermind Martin Haumann comments:
The first song, “Replicators,” is a very cinematic piece by Andreas Hald. He perfectly captures the vibe of “Curators of Our World Scope” and how algorithms operate and also the mind-numbing experience of dealing with social media, click-bait media and political propaganda. Tobias of “Lichtgedärm A/V” managed to create truly disturbing, claustrophobic, and dystopian imagery. We wanted to have their personal artistic styles shine through, so I gave them artistic freedom within reason, to make an original contribution.
For the second song I’m joined by fretless bass legend Steve Di Giorgio (ex-Death, Testament, Sadus) and guitarist Frederik Jensen. I had to create a totally different rhythmic approach to capture the information-dense lyrical themes.
The two pieces are about technology, but the scary thing is how much technology is mimicking biological processes. Like an efficient, corporate mind virus.
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Age of the Solipsist releases June 11th, 2021 via Black Lion Records
