Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe has shared a short film he made earlier this year while on trial for manslaughter in Prague. The metal singer, who was recently acquitted of all charges related to the death of a Czech fan who sustained head injuries at a 2010 Lamb of God show, posted the four-minute video to his blog. “My idea was to show my mindset through film and music during the process of my trial,” he explained in an accompanying post.
Dubbed Prague: The Devil Is the Details, the piece features no dialogue — just a droning, wandering soundtrack Blythe composed himself. Visually, the short intersperses gorgeous black-and-white shots of the title city with warped close-ups of marionettes, which Blythe describes as “a bit of Czech folk culture I came to love while I was there.”
“Working in a creative capacity during the trial helped me to remain calm,” the Virginia native writes in typically sincere fashion. “It is what I know how to do, so I wanted to share it with people. I showed the clip to my lawyer and he advised against releasing it until after the trial was over, thinking the authorities might not understand what I was trying to say with the movie. It is all over now, so here is my poor attempt to try and create art in a time of great personal uncertainty.”
The video ends with a dedication to Daniel Nosek, the 19-year-old fan whose tragic passing was at the center of Blythe’s trial. The Lamb of God is currently working on a memoir about his emotionally (and financially) draining experience, which is due for release in the spring of 2014.
Watch Prague: The Devil Is the Details on Blythe’s blog, and read his full note below.
This is a movie I made in Prague during my trial. I filmed the footage with a Canon EOS 60D, edited it with Final Cut Pro X, and wrote the music using Reason. I wanted to release a slightly different version of the film right before my judgement was rendered by the court (the very last shot in this version was not there until after I was pronounced innocent). My idea was to show my mind set through film and music during the process of my trial, and have a more ambiguous ending heading into my final day in court. I did not know what was going to happen to me, only that I felt I was doing the right thing by being there. Working in a creative capacity during the trial helped me to remain calm — it is what I know how to do, so I wanted to share it with people. I showed the clip to my lawyer and he advised against releasing it until after the trial was over, thinking the authorities might not understand what I was trying to say with the movie. It is all over now, so here is my poor attempt to try and create art in a time of great personal uncertainty.
Note- the Devil plays an important part in Czech fairy tales, and marionettes are a bit of Czech folk culture I came to love while I was there — the marionette hangs in my study now. The Devil is different in Czech fairy tales though, to my understanding- the puppet is representative of me, the way I viewed myself, the way I was viewed by society at different times- all sorts of things. It is not representative of evil- just wanted to clarify that.
