Chosen by DJ Astrocreep

Welcome to the first ‘Video of the Week’ feature for 2020! As the bands were seemingly still keeping it low key after Christmas and new year, we gave last week a miss, rather than present only a couple of videos, instead saving them for this week as we have another bumper list of submissions to wade through.

Topping the list, we have American alt-rockers Motives with their new track, ‘Death Throes’, the title track of their new album, with a rather aggressive video, that has quite the twist at the end – not that I’ll give that away here! Harsh vocals mix with a musical approach that meshes melody and more aggressive riffing to create a rather in your face song!

Next up we have American metalcore titans Hollywood Undead with ‘Empire’, taken from forthcoming release ‘New Empire, Vol. 1‘, which comes out next month. The song itself is fairly typical of some of their other work such as ‘Undead’ minus the more screamed vocals at times, while there are also hints towards some of the more modern Bring Me The Horizon elements that have led them to more success, with a backdrop of a video that seems rather ‘90s in its style of creation and filming. The Undead play a one-off show at the O2 Kentish Town Forum on Friday 14 February.

One that we got through last week was The Night Flight Orchestra with ‘Divinyls’, with the Swedish classic rock/AORsters upping the ante a touch further with their upcoming new album, ‘Aeromantic‘. The music is absolute ‘70s/’80s AOR at it’s very best, full of melody, hooks and musicanship, while the video covers two young ice skaters battling pressure from their coaches to achieve their dreams! The Orchestra will  be tuning up at the Assembly Hall in Islington on 6 March. They then will return later in the year to play Bloodstock on 6 August.

And on to our final shortlisted vid, which is for fan favourite song ‘Liberty Belle’ from Fontaines D.C., who I caught live last year. The video is a mixture of home videos growing up and concert footage, written as a homage to what they see as the death of the old Dublin they grew up in, written by people who can’t afford the new one. Musically the mix is of punk and a more rock base, not dissimilar to some of The Clash’s releases, albeit with slightly less in your face attitude, though losing none of the background anger of their forebearers.