Final Coil are proud to present their new official video “The Last Battle”.
“The Last Battle” is a track taken from the band’s new album ‘The World We Left Behind For Others’
out via Wormholedeath/The Orchard/Wormholedeath USA.
“The Last Battle” Official Video
The Song:
The World We Left Behind For Others is a concept album detailing the lives and struggles of two people who lived in the shadow of World War II. If you listen to the album as a whole, it’s quite clear that different songs are being sung from different perspectives and, when taken together, they form a narrative that explores how the social divisions now rife in the West have their roots in the complicated social changes that took place in the post-war era.
The Last Battle is written from the perspective of a demobbed soldier, returned to find a society that seems indifferent to his struggles and focused on an internationalisation that seems at odds with the conflict that has just ended. The natural human reaction in such a set of circumstances is a mixture of fear, bewilderment and anger; and that comes across as he relates his story in tones tinged with bitterness and confusion. His initial reaction leads, as …and I’ll leave suggests, to alcoholism and a battle to cope; so the battle referred to in the title is both a reference to the actual end of the war and to the battle that the protagonist has to overcome to adapt to a society that seems to be changing rapidly around him. It’s a battle he’s destined to lose and, as his attitudes harden, so living with him becomes increasingly difficult.
The video
For the video clip, we were re-united with our good friend Jay Hillyer, who filmed clips for Persistence of Memory. Early on we decided that we didn’t want to do a straightforward narrative for the video, so we started to look at the underlying feeling of claustrophobia and tension inherent in the song and, in focusing in on that, we came up with the idea of a young lady being chased through an eerie, abandoned base by some unseen force, eventually to run into a tunnel containing something still more sinister. It was influenced by a mix of horror movies (not least a shared love of The Evil Dead) and clips by bands such as Massive Attack, who created some truly fantastic videos for the Mezzanine album, few of which have a coherent storyline but which, instead, tap into an almost visceral sense of discomfort that perfectly matches the dark nature of the music.
Filming on an abandoned military base on a cold January afternoon, Jay got the idea straight away, and we had a blast dressing the set for the performance sections of the video. Even more fun was scouting the sprawling base for the various locations that our friend, Lou, would be running through (and oh, how we made her run!) When we came across the abandoned playground and the dark, L-shaped tunnel, we knew we’d hit the jackpot, and we made great use of the environment; although I have to tell you that trying to sing with those damned smoke grenades going off all over the place was a nightmare. We’re incredibly proud of the final result and I think Jay has really captured the lonely, atmospheric feel of the base in which we filmed.
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