Metal music videos have long provided fans a window into the creative minds behind their favorite bands’ creative visions, often pushing beyond what was possible on video.
Alice in Chains’ anti-war video featured real footage from Vietnam War and provided viewers with both chills and insights, creating an unforgettable experience.
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden’s musical contribution to heavy metal is undeniable and unparalleled, but what’s often missed is their impressive videography – not simply because of high production values or clever ideas but as part of their ethos as a band. Over three-and-a-half decades, Maiden flirted with greatness when it came to music videos, even producing some hits along the way!
Irony is a key theme of metal videos, but few bands take it quite as seriously as Maiden. Their iconic mascot Eddie always seems close to death while their use of special effects (foils lunging forward in unison) are equally iconic as their sound. Their video for 2 Minutes to Midnight stands as an exceptional example, complete with swirling skies and painted backgrounds that invoke artwork on its album cover.
Making use of multi-hyphenate frontman Bruce Dickinson’s propensity for writing, directing and acting in his own songs, the band utilized this multifaceted frontman’s talent in creating a complex narrative concept for this single off their Powerslave album. The video brought nuclear brinkmanship themes alive through an epic conspiracy tale about a missile heist; recalling gritty 80s paranoid thrillers such as Threads or Edge of Darkness instantly. Packed with Illuminati imagery (all-seeing eyes and goat heads abound); additionally featuring some interesting pop surrealism within cabinet meeting scenes where TVs tuned to static played the band themselves!
Iron Maiden may well have been among the first bands to make an impressionful animated music video. Here, the band collaborated with former Pixar animators Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon (directors of The Incredibles and Brave respectively) along with BlinkInk to produce a modernized take on classic cartoon aesthetic. As a result, this clip depicts a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with everything from Timbalada percussionists to Chinua Achebe quotations.
Slayer
Metal bands are known for their dark and disturbing themes, making their music videos no surprise that their images often match these themes. This is particularly true of older videos made by bands without professional production budgets; nonetheless, these artists still managed to convey their message visually through art; some particularly unforgettable examples even manage to scare us all the way through.
Slayer’s 1983 album Reign in Blood revolutionized thrash music videos and put Slayer on the map, featuring songs with dark lyrics that combined with an aggressive style to produce an intense listening experience – not to mention themes such as revenge and vengeance that resonated strongly in their lyrics and later music videos with more complex visuals.
Slayer was known for their aggressive musical style and visual art talent. Their musicians often took inspiration from occult or satanic symbols for their artwork, further darkening its appearance and cementing their position within metal culture – something Slayer was no stranger to due to its commitment to extreme music and images.
Though Slayer had an impressively successful period during the late 80s and early 90s, they would eventually fade away. Their final studio album Repentless was released in 2019 while lead guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed away in 2013. Still, the band remains an iconic part of metal music video history.
Technical death metal music can be difficult to grasp at first listen, but with patience you can appreciate its underlying meaning and structure. Lyrically, technical death metal uses complex metaphors and polysyllabic words to convey its messages – truly making listening an enriching experience! Uncovering technical death metal’s themes may prove even more enlightening!
Anthrax
Anthrax differentiated themselves from their thrash metal peers like Metallica and Slayer with their signature sense of humor, creating songs filled with bloody violence while maintaining an overt gallows humor tone on their 1987 album Among the Living. While Anthrax would continue releasing more serious albums after this, Among the Living helped position Anthrax as one of its leading innovators within this genre.
Anthrax frontman Joey Belladonna’s voice is powerful and distinctive like their music. Recognized for his powerful delivery and unrelenting intensity, Belladonna is considered one of the most influential metal vocalists. In Anthrax’s iconic music video for “Madhouse”, which also marked their most successful music video to date, director Kevin Irelan used rotoscope animation–paint individually hand painted cels to embellish an image–to create visually striking pieces including monsters, tattoos that come alive, explosions, popping eyeballs popping eyeballs speech bubbles and morphed images among many other things!
Rob Zombie used his visual-arts background and love of classic creature features to craft Anthrax’s music video “Dragula.” Featuring singer Scott Ian racing alongside demonic companions in a car from 1960s TV show The Munsters, this surreal trip will give viewers the creeps.
Although its subject matter may be disturbing, this video remains entertaining to watch. Along with classic black-and-white film clips, the music video also incorporates footage of actual cannibalistic experiments performed by Nazi scientist Josef Mengele during WWII; such dark imagery appeals to metalheads who love anything macabre; however, its main message aims at encouraging accountability and good morals.
Pantera
Pantera is one of the most iconic heavy metal bands ever formed, originating in Texas in 1981 under Vinnie Paul Abbott and Dimebag Darrell’s leadership. Together they created an intense yet catchy sound which combined heavy weight with bone-crunching breakdowns and rhythmic beats – something fans of metal music find highly appealing.
Pantera is well known for their uncompromising attitude on and off stage. Their 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power defined groove metal as a genre, which blends elements of thrash with hard rock’s rugged edge in one cohesive sound. Their cover art portrays them with an aggressive fist throttling some unfortunate individual – perfectly symbolizing Pantera’s unrepentant aggression.
The band’s music is also extraordinarily complex and multilayered, which explains why their videos frequently include elaborate sets and costumes. Their video for “Rooster,” for instance, features real footage from Vietnam as well as interviews with veterans from this conflict as well as dramatic scenes depicting soldiers wandering aimlessly through jungle areas without knowing what dangers lie in wait – making this video both disturbing and captivating at once.
Though Pantera disbanded in 2003, their influence continues to have an impactful presence. Many members are currently involved with other projects – one being Down. Composed of bassist Rex Brown, vocalist Phil Anselmo and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante as well as several music videos produced over time, Down has long been an iconic name on the heavy metal scene.
Virgin Steele
As one of the greatest metal music videos ever created, this bizarre flick features BABYMETAL singer Kaori Nakagawa transformed into an outlandish headbanger that must be seen to believe. Hilariously entertaining with nods to J-horror like Sadako from The Ring appearing for one scene only; additionally the song itself boasts an amazing chorus and stellar guitar playing from Nakagawa who proves she’s more than just pretty faces in a crowd!
Virgin Steele are an acclaimed power metal band who, unfortunately, have never found the success they deserved despite creating many quality albums and performing excellent live acts – producing some truly epic power metal tracks sure to delight their audiences.
Noble Savage marked a shift towards more metallic elements and more epic song structures on subsequent albums by this group; one such epic piece being The Burning of Rome (Cry for Pompeii), which remains one of metal music’s finest tracks ever released by any band. This culminated on 1988’s Age of Consent when one such track, The Burning of Rome (Cry for Pompeii), stood out as being truly outstanding.
This album marks David DeFeis’ return after an extended absence. Always an outstanding vocalist, on this release he truly shines and reaches his absolute peak performance. Each track on this release is epic in nature with vocals and guitar working perfectly in unison to form an intoxicating blend of metal and melody; DeFeis also excels at using leitmotifs (or themes) within his work which few other metal bands achieve successfully.