To say simply that the metal world is living in painstaking anticipation of the upcoming Vattnet Viskar record would be a gross understatement. When the news came that Century Media would be releasing Settler on June 16 in North America, all inhabitants of the internet simultaneously orgasmed. Little by little, the band’s been releasing tracks for streaming but now, with the release date fast approaching, a video has been released for the album’s centerpiece, “Impact.” Let’s check it out. 

Starting off with the basics: the video contains no footage of the band. (Thankfully, I’ve been to enough Vattnet Viskar shows to know that they are an attractive enough crew.) What the video does contain is a melange of space images. I’m not talking about pictures of planets. I’m talking about space ships and shuttles and rockets and that kind of thing—the stuff that made NASA a billion-dollar business, once upon a time.

Does the video match the song? Interesting you should ask. No. It doesn’t. Not really at all. But the theme of space exploration on Settler has been quite apparent ever since the album cover was unveiled. So it’s not a shock that their videos would contain that kind of imagery; the idea of esoteric, spliced together imagery from space shuttles makes sense. It’s at least thought provoking. At one point you can even see Earth fading into the background as the shuttle ascends towards what primitive people assumed was heaven.

I almost forgot. The video isn’t entirely just space images. There are also shapes all in the foreground. Those shapes are four triangles suspended from dual cables. What do they represent? Possibly the four members of the band. Maybe they are the triangles suspended in time, trapped in a black hole of space as the progress and discoveries of mankind fly by them. Maybe they are descending from their universe to bless us with the sweet sounds of metal. Regardless, the song kicks ass, so check it out!

-Manny-O-War