Anthrax have released a video for "Monster At The End”, the latest single from the band’s current album “For All Kings.”
Director Jack Bennett filmed the clip on a set in Florida with Super Sharp HD video still cameras to create an animated, staccato-feel to the flow of the individual images, which he originally planned to shoot with a group of still photographers.
"Video shutter speeds are faster and more reliable than anything we could have done manually,” says Bennet, “and we wanted as big a pool of still images to choose from as we could get. We didn't want fluidity, we wanted the video to have more of a comic book feel to it, like flipbook animation."
Bennett and his crew went one step further, taking a cue from the legendary Walt Disney animators of the 1920s and 1930s, who used the technique of rotoscoping, the art of painstakingly hand-painting individual cels to embellish a primary image.
Employing the fundamentals of rotoscope, Bennett has peppered the video with monsters, tattoos that come alive, explosions, popping eyeballs, speech bubbles, morphed images, and nods to the influence of 'Creepshow.' There's even a frame or two of The Skull King, the evil character from Anthrax's "Blood Eagle Wings" music video that Bennett also directed.
Actor Justin Michael Terry, who played The Skull King, is The Runner in "Monster At The End.”
"We used a lot of stop-motion effects as well as other special and visual effects in the same way as was done in the original 'Exorcist' film," adds Bennett. "We even added a little bit of grain, some dust and some scratches just to give it that analog feel."
"The 'Monster At The End' video takes us back to our love of comics and horror," says drummer Charlie Benante. "We've always loved the 'Creepshow' movies and wanted something like that for this video. Jack is easy to work with, all we did was perform the song, he did the real work with the editing and achieving the look that we wanted."
Prior to the video’s release, the band performed the track on NBC-TV’s Late Night With Seth Myers on August 24.
Produced by Jay Ruston, “For All Kings” debuted at No. 9 on the US Billboard 200 earlier this year with opening week sales of 34,000 units.
Anthrax will hit the road with Slayer and Death Angel for a fall North American tour that begins September 9 in Cleveland, OH.
See also:
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