Damian picks his favourite end of the world videos

November 28th, 2012

What’s so special about peace, love and understanding? While these lyrics were obviously written with a heavy does of irony, I’ve always felt the sentiment could work stripped of its protective, ironic coating. I mean, I’m sure I agree that peace, love and understanding are cornerstones of a harmonious civilization, but at the end of the day do we live in such a world? How can we listen to “Teenage Dream” when the world we live in is anything but? No, peace, love and understanding are the ideals we aspire to but the reality is far darker. I have always be drawn more strongly to music that reflects this and seeing that this week on The Wedge is the “Apocalypse Episode,” today I have picked my favourite misanthropic end of the world videos!

Integrity “Dawn Of The New Apocalypse”
This is simply not a band that can be summed up in a few sentences. Books could and should be written about this band. Few other bands have offer a more dense, reference-heavy and dare I say, poetic view of the end of the world. Given that it is a motif that has dominated their lyrics, one wold hope that they were good at it. This song is one of their older ones but it already shows that over 20 years ago Integrity knew how to do it.

Cro-Mags “World Peace”
Cro-Mags had a picture of an atomic bomb going off as the cover of their first record. Seeing this band live in ’86 at the Ritz would have probably felt like that cover looked: the world ending. The song they play here is World Peace and it is about how it will never come to be. For the sake of my kids, I hope they are wrong. But for the sake of the mosh, I’m inclined to agree.

Latyrx “Storm Warning”
I know I’m cheating by the fact that this is not a video but I would argue that the picture painted by the lyrics make this best enjoyed without visuals – theatre of the mind shit. This song kills! Hopefully we are far enough removed from the storm a few weeks ago so no one is offended because the picture these two MCs paint is pretty vivid.