Population: Declining is the new album of a Canadian metal band. For its launch the band’s decided to go bigger than just Myspace. On their behalf, interactive company Grand created HailtheVillain.com, which lets you sneak a peek into the band’s imaginary universe.

Here is a demo vid outlining most of website’s features.

Hail The Villain from Grand Creative on Vimeo.

Hail the Villain is an interactive exploration of a fictional city named Metal City. Horrific human vices play out graphic novel-style as you are investigating an accident that happened in the city.

Of course it is nicest to play with your headphones on. While you struggle to figure out the point-and-click action, Hail the Villain’s ambient music plays in the background, adding a sense of film-noir to the drama. You also have the option to explore with webcam on/off, though it is not clear to me why you need this.

During the gameplay you can dig in everywhere to find out more clues; don’t miss accessing the radio if you want to check out samples of the band’s new tunes.

There surely is a lot to do in Metal City. However, if this experience is too immersive for you and you just want tour dates, merchandise, all this is available on the home page, where you can choose whether to enter Metal City or not.

Don’t miss to check out the website, even if you are not a metal fan, i am not, too, but this is not the point. I certainly give major creativity points to Grand for the interactive experience they created.

HailtheVillain.com