Femme-Metal Friday: Ann my Guard “Obsidian Tears”

Band photo

Since yesterday was Thanksgiving in the U.S., that means the holiday season has officially started. While everyone else is pushing and shoving at the mall for the best Black Friday sales, I am going to take advantage of the long weekend and spend some time catching up on the music that has flown by my radar, but up to now has not been given rightful attention. So yes, the video is several months old, but good music doesn't have a time limit, and neither should discussion of that music.

Several months back, the Hungarian band Ann my Guard was one of these bands. They define themselves as “doll metal, space witch metal, whatever”, which may not be the most detailed description, but it is certainly an interesting one! What exactly does “doll metal” or “space witch metal” sound like, anyway?

Whatever the categorization, the music is good: a little bit of hard rock, some goth, some alternative...it all fits together nicely. The band's vocalist, Anna (clearly where the group gets its namesake) sounds as though she could have fit right into one of those female-fronted alternative bands from the early ’90s.

The music video itself is filmed in black-and-white, and starts with Anna in the middle of a field, dressed in black. Then a quick shot Anna again, this time dressed in white, clutching a bouquet of wilted flowers, laying perfectly still and unblinking, as if dead. Snakes writhe around her bed, and the band is shown playing in a shed or barn of some kind. A new shot of Anna, looking very bad-ass with a pair of scimitars, of which she wears one on each arm, looking like she's about to do serious business with those snakes!

The video sets a frenzied pace throughout, blurred or frantic glimpses of the band, Anna in white, Anna in black, and the snakes symbolically coiling around an apple. There is a rain (or blood?)-streaked mirror that separates Anna in white from Anna in black. It also sounds like she is singing in Hungarian toward the end of the song. I always like when bands from non English-speaking countries sing in their own native language, so that was a bonus I was not expecting!

For more information on Ann my Guard, visit their official Tumblr page.

Special thanks to Costa Miccas of The Metal Syndicate.