The eight minute video depicts a skull-faced king presiding over a draconian society built on torture, torment and murder.
Set in what seems to be a dungeon, the king casually sites on his throne while a series of gruesome torture scenes plays out beneath him. A protagonist, played by James Duval (known for his roles in Donnie Darko and Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy), initially resists the carnage but eventually succumbs to his own graphic fate, inspired by the song’s title. The video concludes with the king surveying a modern cityscape — a clue as to the song’s meaning — and a final surprise featuring two unexpected faces.
“Blood Eagle Wings” is taken from the bands eleventh studio album “For All Kings” which was released via Nuclear Blast Records on Friday 26th February.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante spoke of the concept behind the video, ” Any great city, whether it’s London, Rome, Paris, New York, Los Angeles — these cities are alive because of how many people were killed to make these cities what they are, how much blood was spilled over time,” says Ian of the theme of “Blood Eagle Wings.”
“We created this torture chamber, sitting below this horrible king’s hall,” says Bennett of the video’s setting. “This guy gets to play with his toys and look through the grate in the floor and see this group of people that he’s essentially crushing. The idea is that this power is built on top of these people. It’s brutal and there’s a lot of amazing torture gags happening, but it all serves this concept that progress is brutal. Civilizations progress in a way that is violent.”
Overdrive caught up with Scott Ian last November while on tour with Slayer, where he talked about the new album. Click here to read the full interview.
Anthrax will be joining Slayer for a select few dates in Ireland this coming June. For more information please click here for Dublin date and here for Cork date.
Anthrax will be playing at this years Bloodstock Open Air Festival in Catton Hall, Derbyshire August 11th/14th with Slayer, Fear Factory, Twisted Sister, Mastodon, Gojira, Venom, Behemoth and many more! For more information, just click on the graphic below.
Post: Oran O’Beirne
Photo: Stock Images © Nuclear Blast / Anthrax 2016
