A recent article in Line Out, a music blog operated by Seattle’s The Stranger, asserts that "modern metal videos almost always suck."  It claims that metal videos typically contain some interesting scenes and images which ultimately end up having no point or resolution.  The example cited is the video for Baroness’s ‘Wanderlust,’ which you can view here.

So, is this in fact the case?  Is the state of metal music videos really this pathetic?

Looking back at all the metal videos I’ve seen, an awful lot of them are actually pretty bad, sad to say…  It’s either a bunch of random images or just footage of the band performing.  Sure there are plenty of exceptions, but plenty of examples as well.  It’s disappointing, but at the same time, it’s understandable.

Obviously, most underground metal artists and labels aren’t going to have the cash to throw into producing great videos, so the fact that many metal videos end up this way is not that shocking.  Also, given that most metal bands spend a lot of their time touring to support themselves, along with the fact that metal is a high-energy form of music that’s best enjoyed live and loud, the amount of videos that simply feature the band performing makes sense.

The real tragedy here is that much of underground metal music could be so effective when complemented with visuals, yet the chance is being passed up.  When you play a pop song, you don’t really have any particular metal image associated with it (other than maybe a scantily-clad singer dancing around), but if you listen to, say, a death metal song, images of war, conflict, brawls, and violence naturally appear in the mind’s eye.  How hard is it to tap into these obvious associations and make a captivating video that goes with the song?  Whether it’s brutally aggressive death metal, atmospheric black metal, or ambient doom, the unique opportunity to combine the music with video to create a greater piece of art is being squandered.

Of course, metal videos are certainly not a lost cause yet, and there are many good ones out there.  One of the better videos I’ve seen recently is an unofficial Suffocation video for ‘Synthetically Revived’ which essentially features a guy walking around town beating the crap out of people.  It’s low budget, fits perfectly with the music, and is pretty hilarious.  Ulver’s videos for ‘Dressed in Black‘ and ‘It Is Not Sound‘ are a bit strange, but definitely entertaining.  A fan-made video for ‘Blinded By Blood‘ featuring H.R. Giger’s work also works really well alongside the song.  Meshuggah’s video for ‘Rational Gaze‘ is a great example of taking the feel of a song and translating it perfectly to the visuals.

So, here’s to hoping that extreme metal artists will further embrace the opportunity to enhance their music with quality videos.  Having more of metal’s rabid, technically-skilled fans creating unofficial videos for their favorite songs seems like it can only help things.