One single shot of James Hetfield, which is more than you'll see in Metallica's new video
Seeing that Metallica's newest album Death Magnetic is, in many ways, a throwback to the ferocity and complexity of 1988's ...And Justice For All, it's not surprising that the band has returned to the narrative silent film style of their first video, "One," for the nine-minute "All Nightmare Long." However, the band may have delved too far into the concept and strayed too far from the music.
The story line is pretty cool, combining elements of horror movies like "Reanimator" and "Night of the Living Dead" and cold war films such as "Fail-Safe." The plot involves some alien or meteor explosion in Russia that reveals a new scorpion-like life form whose DNA is capable of reviving dead tissue. Following years of research, the entity is used in a lethal biological weapon, which is dropped from a hot air balloon on the U.S. in an effort to contain America's use of nukes on the Soviets. The contagion quickly spreads and zombies spread across the nation, consuming all in their path.
The biggest problem with "All Nightmare Long" is it doesn't feature any shots of the Metallica -- not even as zombies. Also, the story doesn't really parallel the lyrics of the song. So, in the end it's kind of like blaring Death Magnetic while watching a creepy old movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. That the video is nine minutes long only adds to the dissociative process. Damn fine song, though. Click "more" to watch the mini-movie and let the carnage begin.
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