HiM - Wings of a Butterfly (2005)
*** (of four)
The band HiM comes across a lot better in a spooky music video than it does onstage, where the antics of the guitarist (whose dreadlocks swallow his upper body whole) and the heavily tattooed frontman (who resembles an unholy genetic trinity of John Mellencamp, Adam Ant and Billie Joe Armstrong) are not to be taken seriously for a second. His Infernal Majesty is all gothed out and Satan-friendly, but how badass can you be when your breakthrough song is about butterfly wings? Even if it is about ripping off those wings.
No, "Wings" is more pop than anything, and it's a wildly catchy pop song at that. The uncredited sixth member of the band? The omnipresent HiM logo, which is projected from the top of a skyscraper, Batsignal-style, and on the back wall of the big empty building the band is lip synching in. It's even embedded in someone's retina during an extreme closeup and hangs like a Public Enemy wall clock around the neck of one of the band members.
Now you're wondering what this logo looks like. Try a pentagram with Mickey Mouse ears on top - it's hard to imagine which party this association would offend more, Michael Eisner and the Disney Corp. or the Devil himself. (SATAN: I know I've dealt humanity some low blows, but come on - Bambi 2?! Who gets shot this time, Bambi's baby brother? Do they roast Thumper on a rotating spit? Christ, how derivative.)
The outdoor sequences in this Meiert Avis video - mostly of grainy, dark-blue-tinted swirling shots of the band logo being projected out into the night sky - are more convincing than the indoor scenes, which have the guys in the band performing into odd apparati that look like press conference microphones merged with unusual dentist chair accessories. There are also a lot of giant perpendicular magnifying lenses. You'll have to see the video to know what I'm talking about.
Just set your DVR for the "T-Minus Hits" show on MTV2 - "Wings of a Butterfly" is currently perched at a robust #6 on the countdown, between Kanye West and Busta Rhymes. And, sorry Infernal Majesty guys, I know you sacrificed a lot of virgin goats to the Dark Lord to get this sound, but I swear this song is the '00 decade's "Counting Blue Cars." Which was a soft-ass pop song about telling all your thoughts to a female God. The whole thing's come full circle, and Bambi's little bro just got shot in the head.
The band HiM comes across a lot better in a spooky music video than it does onstage, where the antics of the guitarist (whose dreadlocks swallow his upper body whole) and the heavily tattooed frontman (who resembles an unholy genetic trinity of John Mellencamp, Adam Ant and Billie Joe Armstrong) are not to be taken seriously for a second. His Infernal Majesty is all gothed out and Satan-friendly, but how badass can you be when your breakthrough song is about butterfly wings? Even if it is about ripping off those wings.
No, "Wings" is more pop than anything, and it's a wildly catchy pop song at that. The uncredited sixth member of the band? The omnipresent HiM logo, which is projected from the top of a skyscraper, Batsignal-style, and on the back wall of the big empty building the band is lip synching in. It's even embedded in someone's retina during an extreme closeup and hangs like a Public Enemy wall clock around the neck of one of the band members.
Now you're wondering what this logo looks like. Try a pentagram with Mickey Mouse ears on top - it's hard to imagine which party this association would offend more, Michael Eisner and the Disney Corp. or the Devil himself. (SATAN: I know I've dealt humanity some low blows, but come on - Bambi 2?! Who gets shot this time, Bambi's baby brother? Do they roast Thumper on a rotating spit? Christ, how derivative.)
The outdoor sequences in this Meiert Avis video - mostly of grainy, dark-blue-tinted swirling shots of the band logo being projected out into the night sky - are more convincing than the indoor scenes, which have the guys in the band performing into odd apparati that look like press conference microphones merged with unusual dentist chair accessories. There are also a lot of giant perpendicular magnifying lenses. You'll have to see the video to know what I'm talking about.
Just set your DVR for the "T-Minus Hits" show on MTV2 - "Wings of a Butterfly" is currently perched at a robust #6 on the countdown, between Kanye West and Busta Rhymes. And, sorry Infernal Majesty guys, I know you sacrificed a lot of virgin goats to the Dark Lord to get this sound, but I swear this song is the '00 decade's "Counting Blue Cars." Which was a soft-ass pop song about telling all your thoughts to a female God. The whole thing's come full circle, and Bambi's little bro just got shot in the head.
posted by daytime at 4:28 AM
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