Obscure music/video identification needed
May 3, 2010 11:52 PM Subscribe
Help me ID this (likely obscure) song from a half-remembered music video.
I remember it in slivers but here is what I have:
1. Song no earlier than mid 90s and more likely mid 2000s
2. It is heavy/aggressive, has a strong repetitive guitar line with distinctively raw and deep (but not death metal deep) male vocals
3. Relentless lyrics and music, the overall impression of someone coming completely unhinged with horror and pain
4. Repeat lyrics may be "oh, humanity" and "when will I see you again"
5. Images extremely violent: war atrocities, bombs
6. One repeated image that particularly stands out looks like it was borrowed from a particularly dark noir film: a man in a suit staggers down a road, flashing in and out of visibility with passing headlights, looking as if he'd been beaten or was very drunk, maybe holding a booze bottle
It was riveting, and I've never forgot it, except that I have. Know what I mean?
I remember it in slivers but here is what I have:
1. Song no earlier than mid 90s and more likely mid 2000s
2. It is heavy/aggressive, has a strong repetitive guitar line with distinctively raw and deep (but not death metal deep) male vocals
3. Relentless lyrics and music, the overall impression of someone coming completely unhinged with horror and pain
4. Repeat lyrics may be "oh, humanity" and "when will I see you again"
5. Images extremely violent: war atrocities, bombs
6. One repeated image that particularly stands out looks like it was borrowed from a particularly dark noir film: a man in a suit staggers down a road, flashing in and out of visibility with passing headlights, looking as if he'd been beaten or was very drunk, maybe holding a booze bottle
It was riveting, and I've never forgot it, except that I have. Know what I mean?
Hurt?
A scrim had been dropped in front of the band on stage, onto which various images, such as war atrocities, a nuclear bomb test, survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad, a snake staring at the camera, and a time-lapse film of a fox decomposing in reverse, were projected to add visual symbolism (depicting various images of death, destruction and loss) to the song's subject matter. A spotlight was cast on Reznor so he could be seen through the images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails_song)
posted by uncanny hengeman at 2:12 AM on May 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
A scrim had been dropped in front of the band on stage, onto which various images, such as war atrocities, a nuclear bomb test, survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad, a snake staring at the camera, and a time-lapse film of a fox decomposing in reverse, were projected to add visual symbolism (depicting various images of death, destruction and loss) to the song's subject matter. A spotlight was cast on Reznor so he could be seen through the images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails_song)
posted by uncanny hengeman at 2:12 AM on May 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
It's almost certainly Hurt as uncanny hengeman says. Here's the video
posted by thekiltedwonder at 10:02 AM on May 4, 2010
posted by thekiltedwonder at 10:02 AM on May 4, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks everyone for trying but it is not Hurt. I don't think I emphasized the obscurity of the song enough. Also my intuition is that it was less about personal pain than a catalog of modern horrors, and that it was a lot more political. It was an extraordinarily angry and dark song. That drunk man in a suit filmed in black and white and weaving along the street looped throughout the video very prominently, over and over -- and is my clearest memory, so if the video does not contain that image it's not the right song.
I'm sort of resigned to never finding it. But thanks again.
posted by melissa may at 10:27 AM on May 4, 2010
I'm sort of resigned to never finding it. But thanks again.
posted by melissa may at 10:27 AM on May 4, 2010
Hmmm..... not Hurt. Could it have been something Industrial? Ministry, KMFDM and Skinny Puppy all come to mind though I can't think of any specific video that meets those requirements.
posted by thekiltedwonder at 7:57 PM on May 6, 2010
posted by thekiltedwonder at 7:57 PM on May 6, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nadawi at 12:12 AM on May 4, 2010