Cult Rituals, Blood Sacrifices: See Venom Prison's New "Asura's Realm" Video | Page 2 | Revolver

Cult Rituals, Blood Sacrifices: See Venom Prison's New "Asura's Realm" Video

U.K. death-metal upstarts' latest visual is a gorgeous horror short

Back with another hair-raising cinematic creation less than a month since they gripped the underground with their "Uterine Industrialisation" clip, U.K. death-metal rippers Venom Prison have set their blistering new single to an occult horror video to underline the dark terror of the track itself. "Asura's Realm" — which appears on the group's forthcoming second album, Samsara, due tomorrow, March 15th — is a beautifully sweeping yet biting cut that showcases the rising stars' full abilities, building dense atmospheric heft one moment before exploding into an eardrum-piercing rage fest the next.

The artfully crafted video is similarly dichotomous, opening with the natural beauty of crashing waves but adding a blood red wash to warn of the impending terror lurking just beneath the surface. Asuras are power-seeking entities in Buddhist mythology that tend toward evil, and the occult imagery in the clip — robed figures, bloodletting rituals — suggest their search and allure. In one scene, the main figure carries the limp body of a sacrificial being through rainy terrain in an apparent attempt to appease a greedy god. His face tells the story of a broken man, but one desperate to please a terrifying master whose grimace upon receiving the offering is chilling to behold. 

In a unique twist on the traditional performance footage woven amid narrative clips, the bandmates can be seen performing separately from one another, each giving an aggressive showing while perched on a desolate hilltop against a stark gray sky. The aesthetic is steeped in death and suffering, each bleak scene stretching into more disturbing, violent territory as the track descends into a hellish breakdown. A gruesome finale comes when the faithful congregant reappears, fresh blood streaking his weathered face as he's shoved sticks into his forehead in the likeness of a crown. The nauseating final shot shows him dejected and miserable, his physical and spiritual pain muted by sheer exhaustion.