Band: Mutilation Rites
Song: “Axiom Destroyer”
Directed by: David Hall
Album: Chasm
Release Date: July 20th, 2018
Label: Gilead Media (US), Argento Records (EU)

The band said of the song and video:

‘Axiom Destroyer’ is a song about being forced to watch a loved one tortured in front of your eyes. Everything that makes life stable and normal to you is being destroyed in a depraved, perverted exhibition.

In this video, a person is being forced fed a skewed reality by an authoritarian government with mind-altering drugs and propaganda videos. This could be anyone you have in your life on a daily basis that is having their mind and life changed by propaganda, such as advertisements, radical mouthpieces or corporate lifestyle.”

Regarding the clip, bassist/vocalist Ryan Jones explains:

“I wanted to use David Hall to direct and edit the video because I had a great experience collaborating with him when I was in Today Is The Day. He designed video projections for our live show and we used elements of a full length film he did for a Today Is The Day album. I have a fond respect for his style and creativity, and the theme of this song clicked immediately between us. His vision was perfect for what we wanted to represent: mind-bending, thought-provoking, spastic, epileptic, psychedelic, erotic, hair-raising, pure evil.”

Director David Hall adds:

“The inspiration for the ‘Axiom Destroyer’ video was Voivod’s video for ‘Astronomy Domine’ and the ‘two minute hate’ video featured in the book 1984 by George Orwell. Based on the title – ‘Axiom Destroyer’ – I got a real cold war-ish scifi vibe from the song and I knew I wanted to create something colorful, stark and cold… for me, anything sci-fi and metal related always means Voivod so after watching their ‘Astronomy Domine’ video a bunch of times I came up with a concept… Brainwashing. To me ‘Axiom Destroyer’ sort of means ‘truth destroyer’, and the idea of making a video in which an unknown citizen is submitted to brainwashing films came to me. The plot of the video revolves around a person being forced into a sparse room, strapped to a chair and forced to watch propaganda films for some unknown totalitarian government with the agenda of making it’s citizens subservient, mindless pawns. I designed a logo for this government and incorporated it into the video as a test pattern for a government run tv channel… as viewers we are submitted to the brainwashing video (which includes footage of Mutilation Rites performing – shot by jack-of-all trades band member Michael Dimmitt) the unknown citizen is subjected to. The brainwash film is a strobed-out montage of animation, military footage, cartoons, text and various ominous clips. The main character manages to get free of his binds but rather than try to escape he kneels before the screen broadcasting the brainwash film transfixed and changed… big brother has won… truth has been destroyed and earned one more lemming for the cause.”

Pre-order:

  • Gilead Media webstore
  • Big Cartel
  • Bandcamp
  • [via Metal Injection]