Description

Very rare original Moonfog video Satyricon will always be shit on for being that band in black metal. They signed to a major label before most did, and also released this video in VHS back in 1996. Now, lets examine this for a minute. This was in 1996, not 2006. The Internet was nowhere near as expansive in that time and the world didn't really know just yet that black metal was mostly Motley Crue from the dark side, playing songs about Satan and all sorts of heathen topics to piss of the church clergy and send them fleeing for their lives. It was sort of like professional wrestling. Back then, the business wasn't totally exposed and people cared. Now its been exposed, so no one tries, and therefore, former fans don't care. This video reeks of cheese and cliche, but somehow I think that Satyricon was playing up to stereotypes in a troll manoeuvre. No doubt some kid would be watching this, with some girls tits fully exposed on camera, and Satyr running around in the darkened woods, and his mom would find him and scream holy heaven in response. I can't imagine the band took this seriously, and neither should you. It was mostly a gimmick video that played to the preconceptions of black metal that the majority of people had in 1996. This was only a few years shy from the rash of church burnings and Varg Vikernes stabbing Euronymous. The imagery and lyrics was based entirely on the worship of Satan and worldly desires, which scares moral citizens more than some dudes in corpse paint ever did. That was the point, I think, and even though it looks cruddy by today's standards (this is nothing, watch the video for Call of the Wintermoon from 1992, complete with a witchs hat) but there is a certain charm to the overt cheese here. Of course, when it gets knocked for being too dumb and silly, the humour in irony is completely missed. Hell, if I had a black metal band, I would have a video of me running around in the woods with a cloak on and yelling gibberish at people. Its nonsensical because the preconceptions of black metal were nonsensical. What was this video going to be, an hour long discussion about Norwegian history and why black metal opposes Christianity because it is a form of oppression, and Norway is attempting to return to its cultural roots? Nope. Dudes in corpse paint, the forest, night time, and a naked chick. That's a bigger middle finger to the moral majority than any sort of history lesson would be. Track listing: 1. Intro 2. Mother North-cut version 3. Intermezzo 4. Mother North-uncut version 5. Outro