The Moshville Times - Machine Head drop video for Catharsis

Yeah, so we couldn’t wait for tomorrow’s Video Roundup and we’ve already published today’s… and this is The Guv’nor’s favourite band. Scroll down to check out the spanking new video for the title track from Machine Head’s album. Also check out a ‘making of…’ clip, where mainman Robb Flynn gives you an insight ‘behind the scenes’, featuring Butoh dancers, insane asylums, straightjackets and rose petals.

Butoh dance is literally and figuratively the dance of death and pain. Born from Hiroshima/Nagasaki post-World-War-II-era Japan, the art was inspired by the radioactive wasteland left behind in the wake of the nuclear bomb being dropped. Dancers would paint themselves in ash and adopt a gaunt, deathly look. Facial expressions are agonized and body language is contorted, expressing the pain and suffering that all went through as a result of atomic warfare.

MH mainman Robb Flynn explains:

“Catharsis” was a tricky concept to translate to a visual. How do you express somebody’s catharsis? Frasier, the director brought up the Butoh Dance concept and it tied in so well into the idea of what catharsis could be. And man, when the Butoh dancers began performing for the video… we were blown away, their expressions were so pained, almost horrifying and yet very sad. It was extremely moving.

The other side of Machine Head’s Catharsis video recounts the experiences of mental asylum patients and how often in the 50s & 60s people went through traumatic, often regrettable experiences and those vivid photos still linger today. Robb continues:

On a personal level, I related to this aspect. My Uncle Jimmy lived with us for years when I was growing up. He had experienced some pretty severe drug testing when he was younger and didn’t come out of it very well. For the rest of his life, he would do things like not eat for 7 days straight and talk to Jesus all day. It was a trip to grow up with that at home. So we took these disparate elements and turned it into a cinematic/psychedelic visual to express that sentiment.

I tell ya what man… we love making videos now! There used to be a bunch of rules around what you could and couldn’t do in a music video. Most of it was a boring performance, with us ‘pretending’ to play and sing the song, but now it’s like making a crazy whacked-out movie. You can get weird and strange and have a blast. We are super proud of how well this video tuned out!!

Coming your way on January 26th, Catharsis will be followed by a swathe of “Evening With” dates in May (schedule below) which are already selling very well. Don’t leave it too late!

There is a wealth of pre-order options available from the Nuclear Blast online store, including one with a DVD featuring 21 tracks recorded at The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA in 2015.