Reborn Through Hate

Thinking about it, I am somewhat amazed at the fact that in my over five years on this site I have never reviewed this. I am even more amazed at the fact that no one at all has reviewed this yet. Come on, guys. Have you simply erased this from your memory? How could you?? This video makes Immortal's "Call of the Wintermoon" look like Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings"-trilogy in comparison, and it shall forever be remembered and cherished for this unique feat!

Ok, before I get to the good part, there's a little detail that I need to get out of the way first. There's a CD (a compilation of the songs on the video and the band's two demo tapes) coming with this box-set, and in general, for both the CD and the VHS you probably want some musical description. Well, in the simplest of terms, Gloomy Grim are "symphonic" extreme metal, leaning mostly towards the black areas of the extreme metal spectrum. But the extreme metal part isn't really all that interesting, has some nice riffs here and there, but it's pretty generic overall. The "symphonic" part is what's so unique about this band. First of all, there's a reason I put "symphonic" in quotes. This doesn't sound like Wagner or Bach, or even John Williams. And I'm glad it doesn't, because what it sounds like is way cooler! Remember those super-cheesy old horror movies from many decades ago? You know, the stuff with Bela Lugosi & company? Remember the soundtracks? If you do, you're on to what Gloomy Grim sound like.

But enough about that. The music isn't really the important part on this particular box-set. Let me give you a short summary of the two videos (they seem to be two parts of the same "storyline", so I'll review them together):

Well, ok, so the singer is hanging on a gallow with corpsepaint on (him, not the gallow) and is doing his vocals there, while the other guys of the band are goofing off - again with corpsepaint on - in some room with chains hanging everywhere, and apparently burning a bible while making ridiculous faces. So then the female singer comes slowly walking towards them. She is clad in a white robe and has a burning cross in her hands. Yep, you read that right. I don't think the obvious association was intentional, either, I think they just wanted to have her as some gothic romance type of character and were simply absent during segments on American history in high school...

Anyway, she walks around, a little blood dripping from her mouth for some reason, and just goes around beating the other bandmembers in the face with the burning cross. Must be some new breed of Klan feminists. Anyway, as you can imagine, the logical conclusion to this is that being beaten in the face with a burning cross turns the guys into zombies. I mean, isn't that what always happens when people who make ridiculous faces while burning a bible get hit in the face with a burning cross? It's in the news almost every day!

Ok, so now they're all zombies. Well, I think they are supposed to be. With that laughable make-up job they actually look more like zebras. I kid you not, you have to see it to believe it. Anyway, I think they're zombies, and they follow the chick while making even more ridiculous faces. And that's pretty much it. Makes sense, doesn't it? A very thought-provoking conclusion, right there.

It's quite a feat to not shoot one's videos in broad daylight but still be a hundred times more ridiculous than "Call of the Wintermoon". Definitely recommended to people seeking a quick laugh - and a sizeable amount of confusion. The music, as I said, is unique and an acquired taste, but if it's the music you want, just get their records instead.