California-natives and heavy metal rockers Death Angel have unveiled a brand new animated video for their recent track “Aggressor,” which appears on the band’s recent album Humancide. The video was produced by Ben Clarkson.
The five-minute clip follows a bald, malevolent warmongering leader dressed in a suit as he wreaks havoc throughout a barren, mountainous landscape as missiles drop from planes above. It all makes for a dark scene as the thrashing metal song pulses throughout, with piercing guitars and singerMark Osegueda’s scream adding to the chaos.
It appears the clip was also heavily influenced by the 1981 adult science-fiction animated film, aptly titled Heavy Metal, which was directed by Gerald Potterton. The film has been a cult classic in the film and metal scene for years. It also boasts a voice acting cast of legendary screen actors and comedians to the likes of John Candy, Harold Remis, Eugene Levy, Jackie Burroughs and Rodger Bumpass. As BrooklynVegan reports, the film’s famed animator, Richard Corbon, who also animated the cover of Meatloaf’s iconic Bat Out of Hell album cover, recently passed, making for interesting timing of the Death Angel clip.
Discussing how the video came to be, Death Angel lead guitarist Rob Cavestany said while the band originally solely planned for the video to be a teaser or visualizer clip, typically used for promotional purposes, they were compelled to expand it as soon as they saw some of the early footage. “The idea started as a visualizer for the song but when we saw the footage we were hooked and knew it had to turn into a complete video,” explains Cavestany. “Ben did an incredible job of depicting the ‘Aggressor‘ concept and his artistic style is unique for Death Angel. The timing of this release couldn’t be better given the circumstances that surround us! See for yourself…”
In October, the band released a surprise EP called Under Pressure featuring a cover of the classic Davide Bowie and Queen song of the same name. Death Angel originally formed in 1982. Humancide marks the group’s ninth full-length studio album.