Synopsis: A look at the throwback animation style and character development that went into heavy metal band Black Tide's video 'Warriors of Time', including concept art and words from animation studio Motherland, the company that brought the visuals to life.
The first time I watched and listened to the 'Warriors of Time' by Black Tide, I was skeptical. The music itself brought me back to high school, when bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC adorned my walls and ruled my perverse little dreams (there may have been some Duran Duran kicking around as well).
That was a long time ago though, and some things are best left in the past. But after watching the video a few times through, I found myself chanting the song under my breath, and fantasizing about slaying armies of evil robots while waving a lighter in the air.
For the visual story, the crew at New York based animation company Motherland steered clear of the typical rocker music video cliches (no band shots, no head banging, and no Tawny Kitaen on the hood of a car). Instead, they focused on a visual style reminiscent of illustration themed album art, centered on an original character like that of Iron Maiden's 'Eddie'.
“I think the song and the band really inspired the style for the entire thing,” said Motherland Creative Director Lance Sells. “The band itself is a bunch of really young guys but their music already has a mature, classic metal feel to it. To me, they almost feel like Metallica in their early years ... we kind of saw this as something that could come out of the 80's but without feeling old in 2009. It was really taking a heavy metal concert poster and having it come to life.”
The result is an iconic protagonist known only as 'Bastard', a mean,
robot slaying SOB, whose unwavering purpose is to travel through time
to butcher as many robots as possible. But deciding exactly who the Bastard would be, and what he would look like was no easy task.
"The biggest challenge throughout the video was getting the design of the Bastard to a point where everyone was happy and he was iconic enough to last throughout time [pun intended],” Sells explained. “We probably had about a hundred iterations of the Bastard by the time we were done. We were pushed pretty hard along the line but it all worked out toward a better design.”
Make no mistake that the story is simple yet effective popcorn entertainment. (There's probably an elaborate back-story lurking somewhere … maybe Bastard's father was a robot? Oooh, the scandal.) The colors are vibrant, with crisp, clean lines and an animation style that's modern, but understated enough to still work with the retro feel. Whether or not you like this sort of animation, or for that matter, this sort of music, it's a refreshingly original throwback. In a word, it’s ‘fun’.
And for this kind of music, fun is almost necessary. The bad-boy mystique from biting the heads off of bats, drinking prop blood, and weaving reversible satanic lyrics into recordings has become so stale it’s now laughable. To be taken seriously as musicians and storytellers, Black Tide and their label Interscope appear to get it. Metal is fun, not dangerous. It’s an escapist, fantasy genre, meant to be enjoyed. So's the video.