The meaning behind “Critical Mass”

Visually there are three details that the video shows. First the band’s performance behind an oil extraction field. Then we see a voluptuous woman dressed in black walking with a deck chair to stand next to the band. Finally we notice that the visual product contains subtitles, but they are designed for a child audience because of the typeface used followed by a smiley face symbol, but we notice that it only has one eye, presumably due to the effects of pollution and radiation. We will return to these three elements at the end after analyzing the strong message implicit in the song. The song is divided into three parts.

In the first part we notice a direct criticism of the massive extermination of non-human species, which is one of the characteristics of the Anthropocene. But it also makes clear the lack of interest of our species to reverse the consequences of this slaughter. This will lead us, the song mentions, to a graveyard of non-human species, leaving us as the last ones to start destroying ourselves (cannibalism?).

In the second part the word “greed” is used as the axis of destruction which is directly linked to exacerbated individualism. This sounds to us like pure capitalism which is the one that rules the ways of our civilization, but it is made clear that its destiny is catastrophic because it will produce the critical mass that will leave everything in ruins.

The last part clarifies that we are a self-destructive species, we carry the decoherence being death its evident conclusion leading life to a dark infernal destiny. And he mentions again our indifferent attitude towards destruction and death which exposes us as a species dangerous to life.

We could say that the visual composition and its message fit within an ecological perspective, but the video has deeper elements that basically aim to criticize human nature and its incoherence with a harmonious and inclusive sense of life. The band’s performance in an oil field is very illustrative because it implies that this is the sense that humanity has given to development, the exploitation of natural resources, but the worst thing is our incoherent attitude with the destructive consequences of this model.

In conjunction with that message it makes sense to see a glamorous woman dressed in black posing next to the oil field and enjoying what she sees as if she were on the beach savoring her vacation. What we interpret from this segment is the representation of death that accompanies our development model. Indeed, by not measuring the consequences of the exploitation of natural resources, millions of non-human species will perish having a circular effect that sooner or later will fall on human populations as we are actually seeing happening nowadays with climate change. The delight of death goes further because its joy not only lies in our actions that are leading to the massive death of non-human species, we are the agents of death, we serve it so that it feeds and therefore enjoys what it sees.

One last element that stands out is the subtitling of the video. Nuclear Assault is a thrash metal band and the vocal style of their singer is perfectly legible. It is not death metal like Cannibal Corpse, so the use of subtitles is not understandable. The accompaniment of a deformed smiley face allows us to interpret that the subtitling is not an accident or a whim of the video director. What it is telling us is that humanity is so stupid that it will not understand the visual message, that is why it is necessary to subtitle it. If the message is accompanied by a symbol of the human mutation that the population will suffer in the future, maybe it will pay some attention to the video and to the consequences derived from its self-destructive progress model.

It is September 2023 and the heat is unbearable in many parts of the world while scientists are silently warning of the arrival of a new ice age that will destroy civilization. Things are getting worse and worse and we continue to promote our development model. In other words, nobody is interested in this video because we are still the same stupid humanity that deserves to be destroyed for being insensitive and self-destructive.