Cultural War
From their 2016 full length Anthropophagic Father
Place of origin: Brazil
Genre: Death/black metal
Release date: October 17, 2016
Cultural War is the first official video to promote Anthropophagic Father, the year and a half old full length from introspection. For what people would consider an amateur production job, it makes its point about human nature’s belligerent, warlike side, with nary an effort to lessen its impact or make it more comfortable to watch. Many Hollywood movies about war, regardless of the time they’re set in, are accompanied by poignant soundtracks intended to make you feel a certain way about what you see on the screen. Introspection’s method is somewhat similar, but they don’t filter the images through mournful compositions, ultimately softening the message. Their style of death metal lays bare the horrors of wartime, presenting the idea that destruction and suffering come from warfare, especially where matters of conquest and domination are concerned. This idea was driven home in the literary classics Animal Farm and 1984. The film and TV adaptations of the latter reinforced it with visions of a dystopian future in which war was waged to waste the products of human labor and deliberately stagnate humanity to maintain power. The Cultural War video struck me as having a similar premise, showing the practices of war remain consistent, whether waged low tech or high tech. The grainy black and white scenes of the band performing fits archived films of several wars from throughout the twentieth century. They could have detached themselves from those images, but instead opted not to present them as most documentarians would, from outside looking in. The presentation they chose brings the reality of war much closer to home, without distractions. It’s a bare bones statement that doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to saying what they want to say. Introspection plan to release a new album, entitled Nihilistic Hatred, this year. -Dave Wolff
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