Metropolis, the 1927 sci-fi movie about the struggle between workers and industry titans, serves as the perfect backdrop for a song bashing cultural elitists.
So, working from his tour bus, Coheed and Cambria singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez edited together a music video for one of his band’s songs, becoming the latest creative type to tap the trailblazing silent movie’s impressive visuals.
“The song ‘World of Lines‘ is primarily about what the music press has become in the post-millennium, seeking to create a musical and cultural elitism, and casting those not ‘in favor’ aside,” Sanchez said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “The film Metropolis echoes this basic concept, as it centers around the divisions of the elite who control everything and the workers who don’t have any power over their destiny.”
The video, viewable below, is just the latest twist on German director Fritz Lang’s monumental movie, which has been restored, rereleased and re-soundtracked many times since its release. (A new version of Metropolis, featuring long-lost footage recently discovered in an Argentinian vault, screens Friday at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.)
“The reason I made this video was to expose our fans to an incredible, classic piece of cinematic history,” said Sanchez, who added that the film “draws similarities to my novel, Year of the Black Rainbow, where the characters ‘Coheed’ and ‘Cambria’ are built by a semi-crazed, desperate scientist in order to fight back against the megalomaniac dictator, Wilhelm Ryan.”
Sanchez, whose comic book series The Armory Wars draws from his band’s sci-fi-injected prog-metal music, will be at Comic-Con International in San Diego this month signing books and promoting the paperback release of Year of the Black Rainbow, which hits stores July 27.
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