Great Britain

WITH ITS taste for the epic and the larger than life, rock, heavy rock or heavy metal, whatever you want to call it, has led the world of video a particularly exotic chase. Elaborate storyboards, bizarre - often fantastical - locations, far-out futurist fashion, death defying camera stunts and almost inevitably, lashings of hot women, the powerage promo clip has embraced them all with a loving vengeance. Even the occasional cliché can be touched with novelty and style if the directorial eye is steady. Of course, no video (nor record, nor compact disc for that matter) can hope to reproduce the atmosphere, excitement and sheer volume of a metal band unleashed in the raw; heavy rock is, after all, a live medium in essence and probably always will be. There's just no fireside substitute for crotch-high dry ice, pyro aplenty and Motörhead's Lemmy barking up your particular tree. 'Fraid not, though a well-made video can pump fond memories back into life - as often as you can sensibly stand! - and even add something to the experience; an extra escapist dimension. When you can't get your decibel dose at first hand this 'Kerrang! Kompilation' is klearly the next best thing.... Reel back in ecstasy as the wide-angle and the close-up explore deepest, darkest fantasies, splashing them across the screen in 90 minutes of pure armchair excess. Strap yourself down and reach for the bullet as heads, armoured fists and guitar necks scar the inside of your screen, as time and space warp-shift from past to present to future, as bandits swoop down at you from out of the sun and as firm, well-rounded thighs (male and female, take your pick) melt the aerial and do untold damage to your horizontal hold. Full-blooded and full-colour, this is combustible stuff indeed; don't forget to put out the cat. DANTE BONUTTO (Deputy Editor, Kerrang!)