Has Slayer gone too far in their new music video?
That’s the question some people are asking. Released two days ago, “Pride in Prejudice” is part of the group’s twelfth studio album titled Repentless. The music video was directed by BJ McDonnell.
The video starts off simple enough. In the final installment of a series of three videos from the album, an older man is at home celebrating a warm, Christmas evening amidst the snowy, cold backdrop of the winter season. Children run around the warm home, joyful and laughing. A woman appears to hand the older man a hot drink along with a sweet, tender, evening kiss.
A young man suddenly comes up to the older man, and whispers something into his ear. The video switches off to images of a prison riot, focusing on two prisoners, a young man wearing an eye patch, and another balder, older prisoner wearing a white, lightweight tank top that allows him to show his physical strength and fitness.
We’re back home. The young man continues talking with the older. Another video suddenly appears. Back at the prison. The younger prisoner holds a shank and walks menacingly towards the stronger prisoner. He doesn’t take his time deciding at what to do. We’re treated suddenly with shots that focus only on the prisoner as a lot of blood splatters on screen; his enemy’s neck has been slit.
Back home. The younger man pats the older man in the arm before exiting the room, leaving us to see him alone, with a very worried expression on his face. Back to the prison. The blood-stained one-eyed prisoner walks slowly down the prison halls, holding something in his hand.
Something falls to the floor. The camera makes sure that we see it: his victim’s blood-soaked head falls slowly on the floor. Pieces of the flesh dangle just underneath his head. Back at home. The older man looks towards something just outside of the camera’s view. He’s dismayed, upset, and infuriated. Then, Slayer’s logo appears.
This entire video sequence takes no less than 28 seconds. The video does contain shots from the group performing their song in a snowy, blood-stained field as the bloody plot continues to unfold in other shots. There’s also a violent scene featuring Danny Trejo, better known for his ultra-violent films, notably Machete. The question that has to be asked is, has the music video’s violent shots gone too far for a video that’s being played back nationally?
Repentless
Not Relentless
My bad. Thanks for noticing. It should now be corrected.
Eyes of The Insane was more intense.
“the Most Extremely Violent Music Video Ever” ? No, just no. There’s a lot of horrorcore music video much more violent than this.
Or have they not gone far enough?
Whoever knows Slayer’s work is familiar with these images described in the lyrics of every album. Plus they don’t get any significant AirPlay on any visual network so no, they haven’t gotten too far.