RM - Biffy Clyro - Many Of Horror (When We Collide) Deconstruction

Band: Biffy Clyro
Song: Many of Horror (When We Collide)
Genre: Rock
Director: Andy Morahan
Audience: 15 - 24
Year Released: 2009


Biffy Clyro’s “Many of Horror (When We Collide)” is entirely performance based music video featuring the three band members Simon Neil (vocals and lead guitar), James Johnston (bass guitar) and Ben Johnston (drums) playing in Battersea Power Station.

Special effects used to distort the vocalist' face

The special effects that are used during the video to distort the vocalists face. Another special effect used is to make it seem electric is coming out of the power controls. This effect starts to be used during the parts of the song when the tempo has quickened, this starts from about 2.02 and carries on till the end of the song. This anchoring the location to a power station and that the band’s equipment is causing this to happen.

The majority of the focus is on the vocalist

Throughout the music video the band are seen to be playing together and separately, with the majority of the focus on Simon Neil. This is a common convention among music videos. This is anchored by the shot types used with the lead vocalist having shots that are either close-ups or shots that start of medium distance but zoom in to become close-ups, the only time these shots aren’t used are when the shot is a group shot of the band. In this case the vocalist is standing in the foreground whereas the other back members are in the background. For the other two band members the shots mainly consist of medium distance with a few close-ups. Another way the audience can anchor the focus is on the vocalist is that there are no shots of the other band members until all the instruments are being played but even then the shot is the entire band. Another common convention used is that the lead vocalist and band lip-sync during the song, during their respective parts.

The entire band performing "Many of Horror"

There has recently been a cover of this song from X-Factor winner Matt Cardle which the show changed the name of the song to “When We Collide” as well as making the song more mainstream, this provoked outrage amongst Biffy Clyro fans who decided to buy their version of the song in an attempt to beat Cardle’s version. Click here to watch Matt Carle's version.