Friday, 20 June 2014

Why are heavy metal music videos recently so obsessed with LARPing?

LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing) is an activity in which a bunch of nerdy adults dress up in fantasy/historical costumes and fight mock battles against one another. I didn’t know it was a thing until sludge metal band, Red Fang, introduced it to me in their 2010 music video for ‘Prehistoric Dog’. Watch it below:


For some inexplicable reason this niche activity seems to have become the focus of several other metal music videos recently, the latest being Mastodon’s ‘High Road’. Is this purely an accidental trend? Are metal bands conspiring together to promote LARPing? Will LARPing become a future component of all heavy metal music videos? 



Protest the Hero pit Trekkies against Jedi Junkies.


Mastodon's brand new single. This one's even got a storyline and jeez it's pretty emotional.


Arthurian LARPing in quite possibly the worst/most hilarious music video I've ever seen. That scream at 2:15 is my favourite part. Do watch this video. It's genuine comedy gold.



Oh, wait this isn't even metal. Looks like LARPing is crossing musical boundaries. Which genre next - trap rap?