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Linkin Park – Numb (2003)

Directed by Joe Hahn, the indoor scenes of the music video are set in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic as are the outdoor scenes. The school interiors, the classroom, the corridor and the outside playground are set in Johannes Kepler Grammar School (Gymnázium Jana Keplera) in Prague. The bridge scenes were all shot on Prague’s famed Charles Bridge. Due to vocalist Chester Bennington suffering from severe abdominal and back pains, the band’s performance was filmed later in a matching cathedral in Los Angeles.

The video follows the domestic and social problems faced during a day in the life of an unpopular outcast young female student (portrayed by Briana Evigan). The girl apparently spends much of her time drawing pictures, revealing that she probably has dreams of becoming an artist. She is largely shunned and ridiculed at school, considering that when she is told off by the lecturer for drawing in class everybody laughs at her and teases her, when she trips on the stairs nobody stops to help her up, and that when she tries to join a group of girls at a lunch table they immediately get up and leave. There are also self-inflicted cut marks on her arms, which spell out “NUMB”. During the song’s climax, she is shown in her room, as she ties up her hair with a paintbrush, and throws paint at a canvas in anger. At the end, she runs into the church that the band was playing in, almost as if she heard them, only to find the church left behind empty.

MuchMusic’s 100 Best Videos ranked it at #40. As of 20 July 2017, it has 550 million views, and is the most viewed video of Linkin Park on YouTube, as well as the most viewed metal music video.

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Deep Purple – Johnny’s Band (Longform Video) (2017)

Today, the brand new longform video for the song “Johnny’s Band” by rock legends DEEP PURPLE is being premiered.
Following the four minute video clip for the song, the 13 minute longform serves as a fictional documentary about Johnny’s Band. Its title “From Here To By There” is a clear reference to Deep Purple’s movie documentary “From Here To infinite” which is part of the limited edition of the band’s recent worldwide success “inFinite”.

The video (and song) is an in-depth, affectionate portrait of a fictional band that quickly gains success – and as quickly loses it. Having been scripted and directed by Craig Hooper and Collin Games who are also responsible for the original Deep Purple documentary, it gives a lot of attention to detail and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The members of Johnny’s Band are casted with quite some familiar faces:
in addition to S.E.X.’s Phil Jones, Sassafras’ Dai Shell and Budgie’s Steve Williams, the founding member and bass player of Saxon, Steve “Dobby” Dawson, who is said to be the inspiration for the “Spinal Tap” character Derek Smalls, is playing Old Bill the Bass. The young lead singer of Johnny’s Band, Johnny Jones, is being played by singer-songwriter Steve Balsamo who among other things wrote and recorded together with the late Jon Lord.

The strictly limited collector’s edition single for “Johnny’s Band” is going to be released on August 4th on earMUSIC, both physically and digitally, and includes four previously unreleased songs, all exclusive to this EP.

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Blanck Mass – The Rat (2017)

As humans, we are aware of our inner beast and should therefore be able to control it. We understand our hard-wired primal urges and why they exist in an evolutional sense. We understand the relationship between mind and body. Highly evolved and intelligent, we should be able to recognize these genetic hangovers and control them as a means to act positively and move forward as a compassionate species. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Recent global events have proven this. The human race is consuming itself.

World Eater, the new album by Benjamin John Power’s Blanck Mass project, is a reaction to this. There is an underlying violence and anger throughout the record, even though some of these tracks are the closest Power has ever come to writing, in his words, “actual love songs.”

From ‘World Eater,’ out now on Sacred Bones Records.

Edited by Dan Tombs.