The Malloys | Through the Shattered Lens

Are you suffering from anxiety?

Don’t worry, James Hetfield has got your back. In fact, he wrote an entire song about the moments right before someone starts to panic. The song calls it The Unnamed Feeling and this is probably the rare Metallica song to which everyone can relate. St. Anger will probably always be a controversial album but I think it’s aging well. Hetfield was obviously dealing with some serious things during the recording, You don’t need to watch Some Kind of Monster to know that. You just have to listen to the songs. Personally, I like knowing that even a pioneer of thrash metal can sometimes get nervous. That means there’s hope for the rest of us.

The video features the band playing in a room in which the walls are slowly closing in. In between scenes of the band, we watch people dealing with that unnamed feeling. Keep an eye out for Edward Furlong, who previously lived on the edge for Aerosmith.

Enjoy!

i like blood recently told me to put on Amber by 311 because it would make me vomit. How could I not take that challenge?

I didn’t vomit. It is a song I can honestly say that I forgot existed. I’m not sure what memories this conjures up. I wanna say, sitting in a car in a parking lot outside of Togo’s. That’s all I’ve got.

The video, I’m almost 100% certain, I didn’t see it until I sat down to write this post.

What can I say about it?
You can say it’s not very good and you’ll forget it the instant it’s over.
We’re doing a question and answer post again?
Yes.
Fine.

Q: Why doesn’t the camera just go through the beads at the start?
A: Because the video is obsessed with fade transitions. It probably saved them money as well.

Q: Why is he lifting his hand in the air? He does it several times during the video.
A: It’s because melismas were popular at the time. There were a lot of artists who moved their hands around like that.

Q: Why is his face out of focus?
A: They probably screwed up.

Q: Did you notice the 311 St. sign?
A: In between the annoying jump cuts? Yes, I did.

Q: I guess that’s a street known for streaking, right?
A: Congratulations. You looked up that 311 is the police code for indecent exposure. Anything else?

Q: Umm…he has a hole in his T-Shirt.
A: He sure does. Also, we should be listening to Bad Brains instead of this.

Q: Aren’t you going to show some screenshots of stuff that happens outside that room?
A: Nothing happens out there.

Q: Very true, but there is one person people might recognize.
A: Fine. If you look at the scenes where lead-singer Nick Hexum is in the water, then you’ll notice that the woman he is with is Nicole Scherzinger. She was his fiancee at the time, a member of Eden’s Crush, and would go on to do things such as The Pussycat Dolls. The song is about her.

Q: I think that’s it. That is unless you want to make a joke about the campfire bit by trying to tie it to Cabin Fever (2002) and Doctor Dog.
A: I’ll pass. The rest of the video, campfire included, is just a group of people doing things at the beach. It’s as calming as watching other people have fun at the beach. That is to say, it’s really boring.

Q: Wait a second. I forgot to ask who made this thing?
A: The Malloys directed it. They are actually Emmett Malloy and Brendan Malloy who have somewhere between 40-50 music video credits to their names. The video’s first assistant director was John Downer. He has worked as such on around 83 music videos. They’ve all done other work.

Q: Gonna end this with your stupid catchphrase?
A: No. I’ll just end it with their drummer apparently having discovering the language from Arrival (2016) seeing as I only enjoyed that film a little more than this video.