Review – Misery Video Clip
“There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery”.
Those words, written by Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy almost 700 years ago, begin the video that you’re about to see. Powerful words, and profoundly true. There’s also tremendous power in this video, and in the song for which it was so beautifully made.
“Misery” is the name of the song, and it comes from a new album named Surrounding the Void by the Swiss band Palmer, which will be released in a CD edition and digitally on February 24 by Czar of Crickets, with a vinyl LP coming on March 24.
The video (produced by Afrox Film) is one of the best I’ve seen in months, not only because it’s so beautifully conceived, so artfully filmed, and so engrossing to watch, but also because it meshes so well with the song.
“Misery” is heart-wrenching music. It achieves that soul-shredding effect through a blend of punishing heaviness and mesmerizing melody, alternately coiling the tension and releasing it, putting you in the crosshairs of a rumbling avalanche and then sending you aloft like desiccated leaves in a soft wind.
Much of the music’s agonizing force comes from the intensity of the vocals expressed by the shaggy man-mountain of a vocalist (Steve Diener) glimpsed through the shadows, and the video creates a visual contrast just as the music does, juxtaposing the grace and beauty of the aerialist Tina Weber.
P.S. If you like what you hear in this song, I’ve also included two lyric videos previously released for the album (and the second one is a 360° video, which I think you can explore through the YouTube app for your phone).