photos by David Brenner
“Hybrid Warfare In Defense Of One’s Habitat” is the latest video to be released from Lower Hudson/NYC-based faction GRIDFAILURE’s uncompromising Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III, released in October on Nefarious Industries.
GRIDFAILURE‘s five-album concept series continues to follow the death of our ecosystem and humanity’s renaissance of self-mutilation with Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III: Acquiring A Taste, with tales of mass-enslavement of humans for consumption, rampant cannibalism, prevalent desire and addiction to homicide, warmongering conspiracy theorists in power, the reliance on AI, and more, amidst ever-worsening extreme weather disasters, as humanity loses the war we’ve waged upon our own planet. With over eighty minutes of confrontational battery, the record expands the project’s genre-bending experimentalism, with bizarre and theatrical excursions into jazz, classical, techno, folk, black metal, Americana, and more infused into its post-industrial/dark hardcore foundation. The series infuses material spanning GRIDFAILURE’s existence, with recordings dating back to 2015 and elements recorded outdoors during extreme weather events.
Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III sees GRIDFAILURE creator David Brenner supplying the effects-drenched primary vocals, guitars, bass, drums/percussion, keys, synth, violin, theremin, found sounds/field recordings and more, while orchestrating the project’s most extensive cast of collaborators to date. Steve Austin (Today Is The Day) contributes additional lyrics, vocals, and guitar to five of the fifteen songs, which collectively feature Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum, Ionophore), Mac Gollehon (live/session for David Bowie, Duran Duran, Onyx, Blondie, Héctor Lavoe, Madonna), Benjamin Levitt (Megalophobe, GRIDFAILURE-live), Richard Muller (Giant Spider, GRIDFAILURE-live), Greg Meisenberg (A Fucking Elephant, Dead Register, GRIDFAILURE-live), Lane Oliver (Diminishing), Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, Deeper Graves, The Secrecy), Christopher Henry (Fuck Your Birthday, Humans Etcetera), Graham Scala (US Christmas, Interstitia, Bleach Everything), Dan Emery (Thetan), BJ Allen (Zero Trust, Xtinguish The Code), Clayton Bartholomew (Mountaineer), No One (T.O.M.B., Dossang Tempel), Morgan Evans (Walking Bombs), Hazard (Hasard, Les Chants Du Hasard), Pranjal Tiwari (Cardinal Wyrm, S.C.R.A.M.), Jared Stimpfl (Secret Cutter, Orphan Donor), Natan Vee (Cardinal Wyrm, Fyrhtu), Mike Giuliano (Big Happy), Josh Thorne (Cadaver Industry), Alex Haber, Rosa Henriquez, Pete Tsakiris, Isaac Campbell, and Rob Levitt.
Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III was performed, recorded, arranged and mixed by David Brenner at The Compound in Valley Cottage, New York, with some of the contributors’ elements recorded remotely. The album was mastered by Dan Emery at Black Matter Mastering in Nashville, Tennessee (Kool Keith, Steve Von Till, Krieg), and completed with cover art, design, photography, and videos by Brenner.
The new video features footage from Graham Scala – filmed in Western North Carolina in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Helene which changed the face of the entire region – infused into Brenner’s nightmarish and abstract visual style. Scala as well as Mac Gollehon also perform on the song.
Watch GRIDFAILURE’s “Hybrid Warfare In Defense Of One’s Habitat” alongside the series’ prior videos, the limited cassette box set, and more at the Nefarious Industries shop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
The three Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery albums span the current unraveling of society, oblivious to the ongoing Anthropocene in which we’re immersed. The violent chapters of this triptych embody harbingers of the post-apocalyptic terrors to be told on the impending closing chapters of the album series – Teeth Collection and Drought Stick – which will be completed in 2026, GRIDFAILURE’s tenth year of existence.
David Brenner and Mac Gollehon performed on the song “Secret Police,” fond on the fourteenth TODAY IS THE DAY album, Never Give In, and will join the band for several songs during the last show of their ongoing nationwide tour, December 21st in Brooklyn. GRIDFAILURE will also take part in the memorial shows for Darsombra’s Ann Everton, the two-day event taking place in Baltimore February 28th and March 1st, with full details to be unveiled shortly.
GRIDFAILURE Live Actions:
12/21/2025 Gold Sounds – Brooklyn, NY *as part of Today Is The Day’s set [tickets]
2/28-3/01/2026 The Ottobar – Baltimore, MD *Ann Everton Memorial Shows [tickets]
“…its inspirations are vast, with at least a dozen disparate genres forming the foundation of this record… GRIDFAILURE’s massive undertaking here pays off more than it doesn’t. Even if Sixth Mass-Extinction isn’t right about our bleak future, it’ll make you feel like it’s already here.” – Decibel Magazine
“GRIDFAILURE’s aim is to transport you into the fetid jaws of a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has reverted to animal levels of morality… audio panic worthy of a film score. Whether you can stomach it more than once is another question.” – Scream Blast Repeat
“…a compelling listen as the chaos coheres into something uniquely powerful… It is a demanding listen, but one that rewards those willing to confront its diverse yet unrelenting focus.” – Avant Music News
“…completely unique and downright terrifying… GRIDFAILURE must be applauded for creating an album that is this unique and out there.” – Metal Epidemic
“…dread and spiraling paranoia… the cancerous heart pumping away with grotesque animation within it is of a rare bleakness.” – The Razor’s Edge
“In a world scripting its own sixth extinction, this is the soundtrack – nerve-shredding, awe-inspiring in its terrible beauty, and horribly, inescapably on-the-nose. If dissonant thrills are your vice, dive in; the water’s rising, and this time there’s no opening the doors…” – Sentinel Daily
“…less an album and more a full sensory assault – one that blurs genre boundaries while amplifying GRIDFAILURE’s signature vision of sonic ruin.” – Army Of One TV
“…GRIDFAILURE plunges deeper into a world unraveling—soundtracked by apocalyptic soundscapes, collaborative chaos, and unsettling glimpses of humanity’s trajectory.” – Capital Chaos
“The pleasantness contained within makes the cacophony so much more strident, the clarity of sound makes the distortion much more real, and is there hidden beauty within? Or will the darkness take over and rule all?… This is powerful stuff. 9/10” – House Of Prog
https://linktr.ee/gridfailure
https://www.gridfailure.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/@gridfailure
https://www.instagram.com/gridfailure
https://www.facebook.com/gridfailure
https://x.com/GRIDFAILURE
https://nefariousindustries.com
https://nefariousindustries.bandcamp.com
https://facebook.com/nefariousIndustries
https://instagram.com/nefarious_industries