Music Video Analysis

Holy Diver – Killswitch Engage

This song was originally by ‘Dio’ but ‘Killswitch Engage’ covered it in 2007. The Dio music video featured the lead singer acting as a barbarian, going round turning people into rats with his sword. The Killswitch Engage video is very similar to it, set in a medieval time with a knight in shining armour attempting to awake a fair maiden from her sleep. There are also some performance shots of the band in a castle courtyard with some flames behind them and aggressive playing. This is a very typical feature of a heavy metal music video.

There are no obvious links between the lyrics and the visuals in this video. There are a few references to “Shiny diamonds” and a blacksmith hands the knight a shiny sword and other references to steel which would fit the medieval genre. Apart from this there are no other obvious links.

The pace of this video is relatively slow compared to some other metal videos but it still cuts to the beat well and develops with the music. During the break down of the song the editing speed up slightly and there are some shots interlinked with a few very fast white flashes. This also happens several times with a chord change or a drum fill throughout the song. The visuals emphasise solo instrument parts when they come along in the song. For example near the beginner the guitarist slides his pick along the strings which is shown during one of the performance shots. Also during the guitar solo the guitarist are shown in between narrative shots. I quite liked this as a guitar solo can really be effective with narrative shots. In this video an evil wizard is shown getting angry with a crystal ball, the guitar solo really emphasises the energy and aggression of these shots.

The video has slightly more narrative shots than performance shots; it is usually the other way around with rock and metal music videos. There are a variety of camera shots used during the performance sections which keeps the audience engaged and adds energy to the video. The band is seen playing outside in a castle courtyard with flaming lanterns around them. The editing is relatively fast paced which helps convey energy and liveliness. The way the band is playing also helps give the video an aggressive feel. This is very typical of a metal band. There are a few shots with the guitarist throwing his guitar away from himself while the strap is still attached so it swings around, and lots of head banging. This too adds to the violent and in your face feel. Several close-ups are used of the lead singer; this shows us that it is the real band playing real instruments which again is a conventional feature of heavy metal music videos.

There are some aspects of voyeurism in this video, for example when the knight bursts into the castle at the beginning. The king is surrounded by four girls feeding him and wearing small dresses. This is often something you see in music videos as it grabs the audience’s attention and makes the video more sexual and enticing. However this conventional representation of females is smashed to pieces at the end when the “girl” the knight is trying to awaken from her sleep is about a foot taller than him, has big sideburns, a hairy chest and hairy hands. This is definitely not conventional thing to do, more something you would expect to see in an Aphex Twin video and he is not someone known for his conformity.

In conclusion there are lots of conventional features of a music video in this one, such as the aggressive nature of the playing and the performance shots and the beautiful girls surrounding the king. However there are several very unconventional features like the slightly heavier weighting of narrative shots to performance shots and the tall, hairy sleeping beauty.