This is what every Breaking Benjamin fan has been waiting for since the announcement of the album release date. With all the teasers on social media and the semi-release for the NHL Highlight video that included this song and some of the music video, Breaking Benjamin did not disappoint with an amazing story.
If you haven't seen "Red Cold River", this video may not make much sense to you, so check it out here!
Coming straight off "Red Cold River" the video doesn't give much time for the viewer to breath before the action starts. Immediately, you see the father touch the daughter and they both fall into what seems like hell. While the girl falls all the way down to the bottom, the father lands on a floating island, completely isolated compared to what lies beneath (a little pun there if you didn't catch it). The father is able to get back to his feet a little dazed, but this is where you start seeing the references to Breaking Benjamin's past videos. This isn't the first time they've done this however, but they definitely went a little deeper into incorporating these references in this story. The TV's are reminiscent of Polyamerous. The gravestones, the inhabitants and the woods themselves are a reference to So Cold.
He walks through the woods and he comes up to a mansion that is very similar to the house you see in Diary of Jane, along with Jane's Gravestone This is where you see the Breaking Benjamin Logo hidden in the video. It seems as if they like to put as many hidden nuggets as they can in the video for the die hard fans to catch. As he walks in the mansion, he runs into "Jane", only it's a more demonic version of Jane. It's as if Jane finally passed on to the after life, only to become a monster in her own personal hell. She launches him out of the mansion and he ends up on the other side of the island. He looks over the ledge (reference to I WIll Not Bow) and you can see a path down to where the daughter landed. As he's walking, memories of his daughter comes to him, almost as if he is reminding himself of his mission and how important it is to find her. He walks through the fallen angels (reference to Angel's Fall) as he continues his quest to find his daughter.
He then finds himself in a room with a tree of life, referencing the tree in Never Again. At the top of the stairs you see another reference to the video in the form of the viles that contain the magic fluid being taken from a body by a man in gold. The man then sends his servants to capture the man and the chase ensues. The farther he runs, the more servants come out to join the chase. Eventually he stops and he starts remembering his daughter again, almost as if he has failed to find her and is ready to give up, but you see that his daughter is near. The servants finally catch him. He tries to hold on for dear life, but as he is taken away, you see the daughter being engulfed by a black oil like substance as the video ends.
This video is extremely well done and makes the entire song that much more intense. The visuals of the environments and the actors really put a dark tone for much of the video, further adding emphasis that the father is fighting for both of their lives in hell. Similar to a Dante's Inferno storyline, except it isn't about saving his wife. There's much to be said about the band shots and the performance itself. If the band had decided to stick with band only shots for the video, I think the fans would have been satisfied with that. The performance from the band add a ton of excitement and energy that you can only get from these guys. Even the lighting for the band shots are very appealing to the eye and doesn't cross into the Michael Bay overkill that most videos are doing these days.
Overall, this song delivers amazing guitar riffs, hard hitting lyrics and strong vocals that are matched in every way by the music video. The 2nd part in the trilogy of videos to come for this album is a strong indication that the story is only going to get more interesting. My prediction for the 3rd video is Close Your Eyes. It seems to bring the album some closure and it seems to have a fitting ending for the videos as well.
Check out the video below!
Do you agree with my interpretations? Let me know in the comments below!
-Adam