[MUSIC] THE SAVAGE ANIMAL "The Videography of Stone Sour"
10.17.12
BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
Slipknot reigns supreme as one of the top drawing metal acts out there today. They came on the scene and blew up to represent in an era that needed it most. They have a slew of hits and looks to still continue to move onward. Before Slipknot, vocalist Corey Taylor and Jim Root were in another up and coming band named Stone Sour. That project was put on hiatus when Slipknot took off. In 2002 they got Stone Sour back together again and put out an album. This lead to another and another. Stone Sour is not a “side project”, but rather another creative avenue for those involved.
Musically, the variety is stronger. The majority of the Stone Sour catalogue could be considered “Alternative Metal”, which is a genre that had a pretty wide open scope of creative wiggle room. Today we’re going to hear their biggest hits as we take a look at the band’s music video collection. Let’s see if their videos have the same creative depth as the music is accompanies…
Track: "Get Inside”
Album: ”Stone Sour”
Year: 2002
Director: Hal Carter
I remember first seeing this video when the album just came out. It was one of those “Enhanced” CDs where you could put it into your CD-Rom and play a music video. THIS video was included with the album. It was awesome. The black and white and classy shots are a nice contrast to the full-on bedlam that is going on during this live presentation. The shots are awesome and the energy is in abundance. I remember not being all that impressed back in 02, but I feel like I was mistaken. This is actually one of the better live performance videos I’ve seen in a while. Bad ass song too! Rating: 7.0
Track: "Bother”
Album: ”Stone Sour”
Year: 2002
Director: Gregory Dark
This was the band’s first big single. I remember the album was out for a little while and then this came out and ate up tons of radio airtime. It’s a great soulful down tempo track that really shows off the amazing voice Corey Taylor hides underneath all of those primal screams. The video sees Taylor singing at himself as he starts to decay and age in front of his eyes. The camera angles and atmosphere is really dramatic and brooding. It’s an interesting video, but a bit on the slow side. The theme and subject is cool, but it’s a lot of the same over and over. It’s good, but could have been just a little bit more expansive to match the songs impact on rock at the time. Rating: 8.0
Track: "Inhale”
Album: ”Stone Sour”
Year: 2003
Director: Gregory Dark and Corey Taylor
It appears the band is homeless living under a bridge. They all get up from their makeshift sleeping spots and roam on. Taylor pushes a shopping cart signing along as the band wanders around begging, looking for food, playing music for change, and just trying to survive. They end up around a fire at night and out of nowhere it changes to them all clean cut in suits playing for a rich sophisticated type of crowd. The song breaks into the screaming portion and everyone gets dirty again… but in the suits this time. I had this CD back in the day and I don’t remember this song at all. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, but it doesn’t stand out at all. The video is cool. I like the contrast back and forth and the idea behind it. The narrative is much easier to stick with for the duration of the song. Rating: 7.0
Track: "Reborn”
Album: ”Come What(ever) May”
Year: 2006
Director: Unknown
This video is official, but it’s basically just some candid shots of the band recording this album. There are shots of them recording and playing in the studio and then random stuff other things that I’m sure means a lot to the band, but has no frame of reference to anyone else. It’s not anything worse than what we’ve seen from other “candid in the studio” type of videos, but it’s nothing much more than a tease to their fans for the album that was pending at the moment. Rating: 5.0
Track: "30/30-150”
Album: ”Come What(ever) May”
Year: 2006
Director: P. R. Brown
This video doesn’t really screw around. The band rocks out in black and white in front of a big countdown clock. It sounds simple enough, but then you watch the video. It’s intense and really well done. The glowing energy, the rotation of the shots, the rapid cuts, and the overall anger it evokes is worth checking out. You’ll see pop videos that’ll take on technology like that, but it’s not often you see it in a rock video. That alone, a good rock video. Rating: 7.0
Track: "Through Glass”
Album: ”Come What(ever) May”
Year: 2006
Director: Tony Petrossian
How can you not appreciate this song? It’s clearly one of the best down-tempo tracks to feature Taylor’s vocals and that includes “Bother” and the modern classic that is Slipknot’s “Wait and Bleed”. Hell, it’s probably THE best. The video starts with Corey sitting in a chair singing at the camera. He gets up and is surrounded by a big party. He walks through and wanders around as we see the guests freeze and be revealed as a cardboard cut-out. The band plays in front of a “Hollowood” sign. The cut outs are revealed more and more until all that’s left is the band. It’s a pretty damn good video and creative as hell. I’m surprised no one did this before them, which is always a sign of clever innovation. It’s still hard to argue that this isn’t the band’s best work to date. Rating: 8.5
Track: "Sillyworld”
Album: ”Come What(ever) May”
Year: 2007
Director: Tony Petrossian
This video takes images of evil corporate America and mixes them with shots of rebellion and revolutionists like Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, and Ayatollah Khomeini. It’s a piece that’s just basically taking a look at the worst parts of modern man. Sounds like a billion other videos, but it’s still a really cool video. The way it’s presented is the interesting part. It takes on that trippy zoom-in overlapping layer thing that feels retro and old school. It just works in this video. The colors, the shots, the composition, and how it accompanies the song are great. The vocal delivery has an old school trippy bounce to them so the editing style really compliments it perfectly. There isn’t a “story” here so much, but the theme is clear. Rating: 7.5
Track: "Made of Scars”
Album: ”Come What(ever) May”
Year: 2007
Director: Doug Spangenberg
This is a live performance from the Electric Factory in Philly from one of their old Jager tours. The crowd is lined up and let in and ready to rock. Corey and the guys take the stage and do their thing. I like the look of the video, but it’s a weird choice for a life video. It’s a middle-tempo in the range of the band. It’s not crazy enough to be really exciting until the screaming breakdown and it’s not down tempo enough to be dramatic or “deep”. I like the song, don’t get me wrong, but this just feels kind of out of place and a little one the casual side. Rating: 6.0
Track: "Bother(live)”
Album: ”Live in Moscow (album)”
Year: 2009
Director: Unknown
There is not a whole lot to say about this one. It’s a live video from their “Live In Moscow” album. It’s a really strong performance that captures the raw emotion Taylor puts into the song every time her performs it. In this specific spot he seems to just be having a good time with the enormous and really receptive crowd. It’s cool, but I’ve seen better performances of the song in other places. Rating: 5.5
Track: "Say You'll Haunt Me”
Album: ”Audio Secrecy”
Year: 2010
Director: P. R. Brown
This song got a lot of radio love, but I don’t remember seeing the video. The band is in an old car and have Taylor in the trunk. He is then taken in and interrogated by a hot chick. There is a lot of weird stuff going on with the band members, I guess, seeing themselves rock out. Corey is blindfolded and is haunted by the interrogation woman. In the end, the twist is that she is the one being tied up. Are they one in the same? Did the band have a change of heart? I’m sure it has a direct point with its narrative, but I like the open ended abstractness of the full message. It’s almost like a cool gritty science fiction idea. Rating: 6.5
Track: "Digital (Did You Tell)”
Album: ”Audio Secrecy”
Year: 2010
Director: P. R. Brown
This video keeps the theme of a crazy digital reality. There is a crowd with huge screens above them. A woman straps into a chair and sits in the middle as the band performs in a digitalized world around her. She’s into at first and then slowly gets more and more uncomfortable. She struggles to free herself from the cords and the chair. She gets loose and is freaked out as the next smiling customer sits her place to take the next “ride”. The visuals are really cool in this. I wish I had seen it sooner. Rating: 7.0
Track: "Hesitate”
Album: ”Audio Secrecy”
Year: 2010
Director: P. R. Brown and The Beta Movement
Respectfully, the song just doesn’t do it for me but this is still a cool looking video. The most recent release starts with a roaming freeze frame with police and fireman putting out an exploding home. As the pending doom stands still we pan around to spot Corey Taylor singing. This cuts to flashbacks with the same frozen in time shots. We also get shots of the band and Corey play in the still world of pending explosion. It’s a stunning looking video and the idea behind the video is really interesting and cool. Rating: 6.5
