With the new Megadeth album Dystopia right around the corner, coming out on January 22nd, the band has announced that five of the new songs will be a part of an unprecedented project for the band. They will be taking the tracks “Fatal Illusion,” “Dystopia,” “The Threat Is Real,” “Poisonous Shadows” and “Post American World,” and turning them into a virtual reality experience. The videos will be directed by actor/director Blair Underwood, most recently known for playing Dr. Andrew Garner on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
To help bring this endeavor to life, Megadeth teamed up with Next Galaxy Corp. to help build the virtual world to the fans. Upon release, fans will be able to purchase the album, with a CEEK Virtual Reality cardbox headset, that will come with a download code and instructions on how to interact with the content.
In speaking with Loudwire, Dave Mustaine had this to say about the project:
“I’m really excited about this. I don’t know anybody else who has done virtual reality performances in metal.” The frontman hinted that he drew some inspiration from films like Planet of the Apes and 12 Monkeys, while envisioning a world that’s gone to hell in a hand basket.
“I thought it would be really cool to show this, where you don’t have a particular antagonist. You don’t have somebody to just be the bad guy because he’s just a bad guy, but somebody who could be so innocuous that he could be anything. He could be an arms dealer. He could be a human trafficker. He’s the bad guy. And Vic [Rattlehead] and this person, he’s the person who is gonna be the cyborg who is on the cover [of the album] with the metal mohawk. That’s Vic’s sidekick who ends up fighting through the videos.”
Virtual reality and 3D media has been around for years and never fully caught on, always coming off as more of a gimmick than anything else. This might just be a cute marketing ploy, or it could potentially be the future of the music video, it’s too soon to judge.
As a friendly reminder, Megadeth will be embarking on a US tour this February alongside Suicidal Tendencies, Children of Bodom, and Havok, and they’re going to have Lamb of God’s Chris Adler on drum duty for the tour.
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