The Metal Hammer Golden Gods, presented by Orange Amplification and in association with World of Tanks, is about more than just music – there's been some fucking kick-ass videos released over the past year. But which one deserves to be crowned Video Of The Year, Presented by Scuzz TV? Well here's our guide to the Scuzz-sponsored category.
letlive. – Banshee (Ghost Fame)
One of the few bands that massively surpasses the hype about them, letlive. are one of the best reasons to be excited about post-hardcore in 2014. Their third album, The Blackest Beautiful, was released last year and packs enough bounce to make Tigger look like a bed-bound geriatric. The video of their lead single, Banshee (Ghost Fame), is a four minute-long visual tinderbox, complete with a demonstration of their frenetic live shows and a Tarantino-esque narrative, full of criminality, violence and ill-fated lovers.
When The Defiled released the gargantuan Daggers last year, it was like the stars had aligned for the hardest-touring band in metal. Here, after all, was an album that lived up to their intensely devastating live shows, perfectly capturing the band’s ability to slot huge melodies amongst slathering riffs and industrial squirts. As I Drown is the best thing to erupt out of the record, and its video features a bunch of pasty-faced loons breaking their necks in an apocalyptic landscape. Ace.
What’s the most coveted instrument in metal? Maybe Zakk Wylde’s axe? Is it Geezer Butler’s bass? Unless your answer was “the magical tambourine in that Wilson video”, you’re wrong. College Gangbang, the least searchable song on the net, is a beard-fuelled riff-fest, straight off the debut album from Cancer-Bats-meets-Steel-Panther hedonists, Wilson. Its video features a tambourine that bestows its holder with powers that range from fucking to fighting (and everything in between). If you’re worried that metalheads take themselves too seriously, spend three minutes with this and you’ll change your opinion forever.
A far cry from the squawking, shrieking nu-metal absurdity of the early 1990s, the last few years have seen Korn turn from old school devotees to a more focussed, cleaner portion of heaviness. Brian ‘Head’ Welch’s return to the fold on last year’s The Paradigm Shift saw the band mostly spurning their divisive diversion into dubstep and re-applying themselves to a beefier sound. Never Never, the debut single from the album, is a more relaxed, melodic affair which sees the band smashing their shit-up on a giant timepiece to some pretty sweet slow-motion effects.
Steel Panther - …End Of The World
Eighties hair-metal resurrectionists Steel Panther have always used their powers of smut for good. When not promoting the Far East sex trade (Asian Hooker), debating the nuances of fidelity (Eating Ain’t Cheating) or commenting on the cult of celebrity (Just Like Tiger Woods), they’re keen to test out the social implications of hedonism in popular culture. …End of the World is one such study. Featuring the likes of Professor Emeritus Ron Jeremy and genius savant Steve-O (of Jackass fame), the video sees the band tussling with the complexities of drug use, liberal sexuality and ahem gyrating bottoms.
Make your voice heard in the Metal Hammer Golden Gods by voting over here. You can even win tickets to see what will be the best gig of the year.
