Burning Bush

And Moses, clad in shimmering boots of chain mail and a leather frock bearing the skull-crest of the most holy Misfits, spake to the people, saying: Hear, O Israel! Forsaketh thee thy Deftones and cast thine Korn into the furnace. Henceforth, thou shalt followeth only Clutch, whom the Lord thy God hath declared totally sweet and heavy. — Roxodus 6:66

If there were a Bible of rock, then Germantown, Maryland, band Clutch would be worshipped like a god. Unfortunately, in the uninspiring annals of mainstream metal, Clutch — after a dozen years and 10 albums of pure, unrelenting riffage — still wants for followers.

So, in redress, we at the Pitch have taken a few of this week’s artists and given them a fire baptism in the style of Clutch’s latest video (for the song “Burning Beard,” from 2005’s Robot Hive: Exodus), which features the band presiding over a country church full of robot drones and singer Neil Fallon belting paranoid proclamations until, yep, his beard catches fire. The video was nominated for a 2005 MTV2 award; find a link to it at www.pro-rock.com.