Best Metal Videos of All Time
Honourable mention 2: Fighting for the Earth—Warrior
An ongoing series until we reach number one. But first eight honourable mentions.
Honourable Mention: Fighting for the Earth—Warrior Total Score = 9
Scoring rationale: 9.5 points for the song but I’m subtracting 0.5 points for the production values.
Why is it not in the Top Ten? This one’s the almost perfect example of a ‘honourable mention’. A+ for effort, B- for execution1.
Oh, come on. Bad production values were normal during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and many eighties metal albums. True. But the actual album “Fighting for the Earth” had fine production values, while the video looks like it’s shot through a tank of snot.
A little low resolution never hurt anybody. And it never made them stars either2.
Heroic lyrics, right. About, well, fighting for the Earth. Don’t try to make sense of the lyrics. That way lies madness.
But what’s that blabbing at the beginning about? That’s the song—well, more like an intermezzo—“PMT 1”, which makes even less sense than the lyrics.
Then why put it there? Because that’s metal. Black Sabbath did it all the time: “The Gates of Hell” before “Headless Cross”, “The Dark” before “Zero the Hero”, “E5150” before “The Mob Rules”, “FX” before “Supernaut” and “Don’t Start (Too Late)” before “Symptom of the Universe”.
Why do they do that? Because something great becomes something unforgettable if it’s preceded by something stupid or inane3.
Don’t say: “Who is the enemy? Everything’s so blurry here.”
Do say: “This song inspires me. I will join the forces to fight for the Earth.”
🤘🤘
Just to mix scoring systems;
With the single exception of the Blair Witch Project;
Like the movie “Wanted: Dead or Alive” (1986) where the hero played by Rutger Hauer walks to the captured terrorist played by Gene Simmons, who has a handgrenade stuffed in his mouth. “You get a bonus because you delivered him alive,” an authority figure says. Hauer walks up to the bound Simmons, pulls the pin from the handgrenade that’s firmly lodged in Simmon’s mouth, and says “Fuck the bonus,” as he walks away and the terrorist’s head explodes. Classic. Just don’t watch the whole preceding movie.