We seem to have fallen into a video kick this week, which is unusual for us. But the one we saw for the first time today is far and away the best of the lot. Actually, it’s the best of the lot by a few light years.
It’s a video for the song “Combat” off the new album Invictus by Heaven Shall Burn (which we reviewed here). “Combat” is about child soldiers, which explains in part why the song is so full of fury. It’s a harrowing, slashing, anguished, bone-rattling piece of music, but it also includes a beautiful keyboard melody and some surprising electro-beats.
The video is an animation created by Animaatiokopla from Finland and was premiered by Amnesty International Germany. It’s visually arresting, and it enhances the emotional power of the song. In carefully selected places, something happens in the video — like the stitching of machine-gun bullets across a muraled wall — that’s in sync with a burst of rhythm or a riff in the song.
But this isn’t one of those videos that’s full of strobing imagery set to the frenetic pulse of the music’s beat. Like the song, it’s about the ripping away of innocence, and in the main, it uses slow-moving childlike graphics to tell the tale as the music scorches with anger. Do check it out (after the jump).
11 Responses to “COMBAT”
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One word. Awesome. Never really been into the band much, but maybe I should give them another shot.
Beyond that, powerful message. Children faces the terrors of war every day like their adult counterparts – and suffer more for it. Even more, some children are turned into suicide bombers. These are children. Kids. As weapons. It’s not right.
Thanks for posting this.
I’ve always been a fan of HSB’s music, standing alone, but I confess that I’ve also admired their steadfast interest in trying to use their music to make people aware of social and political issues. The practice of kidnapping children and turning them into brainwashed killers is particularly repulsive. I know far too little about it, but I thought the movie “Blood Diamond” highlighted the issue in an effective and powerful way.
I haven’t got “Invictus” but I might have to get it.
The little card looking soldiers freak me out bit. The colors in the video go well your site, it makes the post look awesome!!!
Uniformed Masses = One Mind! = Unconscious Slavery!!!
Thanks man! Unobservant numnuts that I am, I hadn’t even noticed the color similarity.
That was one of the first things I noticed, it’s looks Mad!
It really is remarkable. I chalk up my complete blindness to lack of sleep. (That sounds better than admitting I’m a moron.)
Wow. That’s one of those videos that will stay with you forever.
Indeed — definitely the best metal video I’ve seen this year (not that I watch a lot of them, but still . . .)
Agreed. Maybe it’s that it involves children or the style Animaatiokopla chose for this, but it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful, both as a metal video or for the children or war message, any other way.
I keep coming back to this (or rather, going to it on my hard drive). I snagged both HD versions and have been watching it full screen. It’s just too awesome of a video to only watch once or twice.
On the merits of this song/video alone, I think I’m picking up Invictus later on, but I don’t know if I should wait to see if there’s going to be an Iconoclast box set first or not; an interview I stumbled across said that it’s been discussed. After that, hit the rest of the band’s discography.
It makes sense to expect an Iconoclast box-set. My favorite is probably still Antigone, just because it’s the first HSB album I heard, and I listened to it dozens of times. But I really do like this new one too. I haven’t yet watched the HD version of the video full-screen — but I think I now know exactly what I’m going to do immediately after I finish typing this.