I had to think twice about posting this Maelstrom Vale song because it’s kinda like shooting fish in a barrel to hold a video like this up for mockery—it’s just too easy, and I’m not really that mean.

I reconsidered, though, when I realized that I actually sort of love this track and its accompanying video clip, and I think some of our readers might also get the same sort of perverse enjoyment out of it. I love this in the same way that I love The Shaggs or Wesley Willis, or the movies Dangerous Men or The Room—it’s not because the product is simply out-and-out laughably bad, but because its heart is in the right place and it’s rather charming in it’s ineptitude.

Bless their hearts, they’re trying.

One thing I can say for the “Doomed Traveler” video here is that I’ve watched this thing about ten times, which is about 9.5 times more than I watch most YouTube videos of new metal bands. There’s something to be said for making something interesting over something technically proficient. And this video is, if nothing else, interesting.

At times when watching you may ask yourself “can this possibly be for real?”—and the answer is “yes,” Maelstrom Vale is a “real” band (from Canada, if that counts as “real”). Here’s their Facebook page.

Count here with me, the most epic moments of “Doomed Traveler”:

0:05 First off, let’s consider this double-bass. It’s the foundation of everything wrong/right with the track.

0:14 The “foreboding” spoken intro.

0:20 Almost nails that guitar lick.

0:43 Death hanging out at the Metal dumpster. It’s a metaphor for the song itself.

1:00 The bass player’s “melodic” vocals.

1:27 Turn to the left, turn to the right!

2:15 This guy again.

2:25 Chocolate-milk-mustache dirtbag pleads with death near the fuse-box at the warehouse where someone in the band obviously works.

2:41 That head-bob.

3:05 Holmes is straight up channeling Greg Ginn here.

3:31 The bass player gets a bit worn out, needs a break.

4:10 Dual vocal attack!

4:44 “THE LIES!”

5:06 P.S.A. from Maelstrom Vale.

Here’s the best worst metal song you’ll hear today: