I’ll warn you now that this video has some very violent scenes and is not to the taste of some people. The band’s advisory at the beginning is there for a reason.
Actually, it could be worse. I’ve seen the uncut (no pun) version where the main character is repeatedly stabbed. I’m glad they eventually cut that, rather than her; it would have been well over the top.
Having said all that I think it’s brilliant. Ambage is a new-ish project of the singer here, Tommy Blixt, who also trades in a solo role as ‘Known as Tymm’ in which he adopts a sort of pseudo-religious persona. An interesting bloke. Ambage is a mix of prog rock, emo and psychedelia.
Ambage have a track record of producing great videos but excelled themselves with this one, the work of Hannes Hollender, but having seen Tommy Blixt’s own videos before and having commented on his ability to build atmosphere, both aurally and visually, I reckon he had a hand in this one as well.
This song was released about a year ago and I reckon it’s sufficiently good – irrespective of the video – that I included it in my (global) Top 10 list for 2019.
‘Blank Vision’ is a song about experiencing a panic attack. The story takes place in the mind of the character played in the video here by Swedish serial Vlogger Katrin Berndt. I believe she’s related to one of the band members.
She’s one of the best known Vloggers in Sweden and beyond with over 400,000 subscribers, and who is recognised for her various varieties of Vlog on her eponymous channel. She often posts about makeup, tattoos (she seems to be covered in them), and her own personal life. It isn’t known if that personal life includes panic attacks but she does a pretty good acting job here.
The message is that you as a person can experience terrible things in your mind to the point that it feels as if you're killing yourself.
Having been subjected to a few such unpleasant attacks myself, I can’t recall ever feeling like I was being drowned, tortured, or pulled apart, or like hanging myself, and I certainly didn’t dismember my teddy bear.
But the black and white minimalism of the video, allied to the almost subliminal snatches of blood red, intense lyrical content, subtle imagery, and a manic, pulsating beat really can convince you that such outcomes are conceivable.
You can find her on Facebook.