VIDEO ROUNDUP: FROM EXILE AND SHINING

This morning brought news of two brand new videos that hit the silver screens overnight, and neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay us in the swift completion of our appointed rounds in delivering them to you. Both songs are amazing. Both videos are beautifully made. In other words, these are must-see offerings.

Two weeks ago we posted a feature on the very impressive new EP by Atlanta’s From Exile — a compilation of four covers from the extravagant songbook of Nine Inch Nails under the title Just Like You Imagined. The band have now released a video for one of those songs, the ephemeral, otherworldly “A Warm Place”. Of the four excellent songs on the EP, that purely instrumental piece made the deepest impression on us.

As we said in our review: “From Exile’s take on the song magnifies the rush and power of the sound, and a more flowing, reverberating guitar lead/solo by Emil Werstler (Daath) replaces the isolated keyboard notes of the original. Werstler’s contribution is a superb and all-too-brief piece of instrumental extravagance, thankfully reprised again near the song’s end.” The simplicity of the video suits the song — Werstler standing in an empty upper floor of a church, doing his thing, illuminated by the natural light filtering softly through stain-glassed windows.

The seventh full length album from Sweden’s Shining is called VII / Född Förlorare”, which in English means “Born Loser”. It was released this month on the band’s new label Spinefarm Records, and includes guest appearances from Erik Danielsson of Watain, Chris Amott of Arch Enemy, Peter Bjärgö of Arcana, and Nordman, who is one of Sweden’s biggest pop stars. Shining have now released an official video for the song called “Förtvivlan, Min Arvedel” — which is the first video the band have ever released in their 15-year history. The video is expertly filmed and edited, and it’s powerful. And the song — the song is simply fantastic. (more after the jump . . .)

Perpetually behind as we are, we still haven’t gotten around to hearing Shining’s new album — this video was our first introduction to the album’s music. Based on Google Translate, the Swedish song title means “Despair, My Inheritance”. It’s almost two songs in one — a galvanizing charge of groove-inscribed black-metal catharsis and a haunting melody carried by acoustic guitar and clean singing. Yet those two creations are twined together, the one flowing seamlessly into the other and back again in a way that makes perfect sense.

As noted, the video is superbly made, interspersing scenes of the band performing the song and episodes of drug use and self-mutilation. The lyrics are in Swedish, but if the subject matter of the video is faithful to the lyrical content, the song deals with addiction. I don’t see it as any kind of glorification of drug use, nor do I think the scenes of self-mutilation are gratuitous; they’re in the video for a reason.

I suppose some people could criticize the content. At least Shining suspects that will happen: “We know we are going to get heavily criticised for some of the scenes” commented front man and founder Niklas Kvarforth, “but it’s nothing more than you will see as soon as you switch on a television or watch a move, or walk down a city street come to that.  But we’re SHINING and it’s always open season on SHINING when it comes to people who have neither understood, nor taken the time to try and understand, where the band is coming from”.

The video comes in a censored and an uncensored version. We’ll put both of them in this post because, YouTube being YouTube, I suppose there’s always a chance someone will get their panties in a bunch and make YouTube take down the uncensored one. Below, the uncensored on appears first.

Okay, we’ll have an end to the words now. Hope you enjoy these two vidz, and the music, as much as I did.

From Exile’s new EP is available for free download at this location.