Jamie Parslow

To begin: The sound of bombs hitting in the distance and the first few notes of the song indicate war. In my version I would have set the time period of the music video in WW1. Medic vehicle speeds off, camera above flying in, bombs burst in the distance.

First verse: Inside the vehicle, singer/Gerard lies there, center, bleeding to death. Sings to camera the first lines. “Mama we all go to hell.”

Second verse: Surgeons table, surgery begins. Still singing to camera, but this time losing blood, hard. Panic sets in both on his face and the surgery team’s. “We’re losing him” someone mouths, his eyes close.

“And when we go don’t blame us...” First chorus: The world flips over on a turnstile, like a machine. The whole band, in the first circle of Dante’s hell, plays. Possibly riding Charon’s boat.

Visually, this hell is part and parcel Heironymus Bosch’s depiction of Dante Alighieri’s epic work, intermixed with the animation style of #modestmouse’s “Float On” music video. Dark, surreal, and with souls clambering at the boat, much like Hades heading home in “Hercules”.

For every chorus interlude, we delve further and further into a new depiction, or circle of hell. It could be a depiction of Lust, of Gluttony, or of Heresy, but with each new depiction the band plays on, following their sins until we reach treason, the 9th circle.

Third verse: The burial. This one is prett self-explanatory, but during this verse, a family encircles Gerard’s remains in his coffin. He continues to sing as he’s buried, peeking in on his body as it’s lowered into the Earth. A final drop of dirt is thrown by a priest.

“Well mother what the war did to my legs and to my tongue...” Second version of hell. We’re a little deeper now, Ingratitude. The group push great boulders around, eyes gouged, legs festered. He speaks, but with half a tongue, pleadingly.