Watch Metric Embrace Optical Overload in New Video for ‘The Shade’
Metric released “The Shade” — the anthemic first single off their forthcoming sixth album, Pagans in Vegas — back in May, and now the Canadian synth-pop band have debuted a prophetic video for the song. Watch the new clip below.
In the video, the band is seen playing on a sun-drenched rooftop. The performance footage is interspersed with a variety of images, ranging from serene nature scenes to more unsettling clips of riot police and a garbage dump filled with mementos of the Internet age.
“We live in a world inundated with imagery,” lead singer Emily Haines says of the video. “Pictures, videos and graphics permeate our consciousness all hours of the day. That’s what we wanted to capture in ‘The Shade’: humanity and nature caught in patterns and loops of beauty, destruction and decay.
“When I say, ‘I want it all,’ this is what I’m talking about. Look at the world around you. Don’t shy away from what you see, even if it’s ugly. Own up to yourself and be prepared to be thrown your share of shade.”
Pagans in Vegas, Metric’s sixth studio album, follows up 2012’s Synthetica. In advance of the LP’s September 18th release, Metric have rolled out a few other massive preview tracks. So far, they’ve shared the glitchy “Cascade” and the celebratory “Too Bad, So Sad.”
Along with their new album, Metric will contribute music and avatars to the new indie-rock game LOUD on Planet X alongside Tegan and Sara, Fucked Up, Metz and more. The arcade-style game will have players progressing through levels that include a hometown gig, traveling through a portal to another planet and battling aliens.
Metric will play Philadelphia’s Made in America Festival on Labor Day weekend and head to Las Vegas for the Life is Beautiful Festival a week after the new album’s release.