Metallica - Hero Of The Day

What this video is

Released in 1996, 'Hero of the Day' arrived at a moment of significant cultural turbulence for Metallica. The Load album represented a radical aesthetic departure — shorter hair, eyeliner, blues influences, and a wholesale rejection of thrash iconography — that divided the band's fanbase and generated intense critical debate. The video, helmed by renowned Dutch auteur Anton Corbijn, channels this tension through a…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in mid-90s alternative metal video aesthetics, 'Hero of the Day' exemplifies the genre's pivot from performance-spectacle to narrative concept video. Corbijn's intervention brings European art-photography sensibility to American heavy metal, producing a rare artifact that…

The director

Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard (born 20 May 1955, Strijen, Netherlands) is a Dutch photographer, music video director, and feature film director. He began his career as a music photographer around 1975 and became the principal photographer…