Here's the video for "Bleed," the standout track from Meshuggah's recent album
obZen. Okay, so maybe the metaphor is a little heavy-handed. The peaceful, bearded and plaid flannel-wearing everyman, both repulsed and intrigued by his own primal tendencies, is eventually transformed by them. But on a purely visual level, this clip is spectacular, with some freaky human/corpse hybrids worthy of a Tool video. Dig the multi-limbed figure that appears towards the end. So serene. So brutal. The perfect incarnation of the
obZen ("obscene" + "Zen") concept. He looks just like Ben Kingsley, yeah? This edit is a couple minutes shorter than the album version, but that's ample time to appreciate the genius of Meshuggah. Listen to Tomas Haake's drumming especially. His feet could be in Mensa.
This video is great! Too many bands just do a video of the band playing, which really gets tedious. It may not be the most sophisticated concept, but at least it's a concept.
Is chained up and bloodied the natural state of man?