Disturbed have shared their video for new single Bad Man, lifted from their eighth studio album Divisive, which is released today (November 18).
Directed by Tristan Holmes, Bad Man was crafted through the process of stitching together 10,000 frames of AI-generated imagery via Midjourney AI. Overall, it took around a month for all of the images to be generated and linked together, which were created via individual prompts entered manually onto the AI programme.
The end result is immensely striking, featuring politicians (such as an AI-generated Donald Trump, or at least, someone who looks very much like him) surrounded by lightning bolts, before new scenes of a dystopian, conflict-stricken world appear to spur on an un-nerving and entirely consuming atmosphere. Each gnarly frame is supported by Disturbed's ferocious instrumentation, which is propelled by a sharp-edged, stabbing guitar riff and crashing percussion.
The David Draiman-fronted Chicago metallers aren't the only metal band to adopt AI technology for their music videos. In fact, Meshuggah recently teamed up with visual artist Wizardhead to create an AI-generated visual for their new 10-minute track They Move Below.
Metal and rock fans have also been jumping on the AI trend, and have been creating their own videos to pre-existing hits. For example, there was the nightmare-inducing visual for Slipknot's Psychosocial, produced by AI-systems analysing the song's lyrics, and also the otherworldly, surreal creation for Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun.
Disturbed's new album Divisive was described by Metal Hammer as reassertion of their "claim to the modern metal throne" that "will surely delight their existing fans, while picking up a few more along the way." According to Draiman, it was inspired by both “partisan tribal warfare” and the corrosive effects of society growing “addicted to outrage.”
Watch the video for Bad Man below:
