Just screened 20XIII's new video for the song "Vigilante." Not much in the way of subtlety here. The title of the track pretty much gives away the plot, which is a quite literal depiction of the lyrics for the song, itself straight out of the mid '90s modern rock canon, recalling kindred groups from that era like Candlebox and Pearl Jam.
The clip opens with frontman Pete Harvey fingering a pistol and staring intently at a follically challenged gentlemen, who's bound, gagged and appears to be suffering from a rather significant head wound, as Harvey sings the lines, "So give me one reason to keep you alive/And I'll ease off this trigger and spare your life/You got away with murder/I am the hand of justice that will deal out our revenge."
And from there, you can pretty much deduce the intricacies of the storyline: The lothario antagonist, let's call him Baldo Calrissian, heads to the pub where he succeeds in seducing a few young lasses, luring them back to his lair, where he then proceeds to indulge his homicidal inclinations, showcasing his various, uh, cutlery skills.
His murderous rampage is cut short by Harvey, our hero in hiding, who emerges from the closet during one of Baldo's ill-fated trysts and blindsides the creep with a rag presumably doused in Chloroform. He then proceeds to drag him to a Unabomber-style shack in the woods, where he, ahem, turns the tables on the bad guy. And take it away, Mr Murphy ...
"It's funny how the tables they can turn on you/You quiver like a victim, like one of yours/I can't believe you had the nerve to take their life away/But I have you here now with me and the rope's tied tight/And I'm going to take this slowly and enjoy .../I'll put you through the pain you put in them."
Told you it was a literal adaptation.
Directed by Zack Heimbegner and Bailee Schreyer-Bragassa, the video has a certain straight to DVD feel to it, wherein you get the sense that if you could hear the dialogue, it would likely be rather cringe-worthy with acting to match. Nonetheless, the clip has some decent transitions and, most importantly, a definitive storyline, which most videos seem to lack these days.
