photos by David Brenner
The apex of LoHud/NYC-based GRIDFAILURE‘s unraveling five-album concept series, Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III continues to follow the death of our planet’s ecosystem and humanity’s renaissance of self-mutilation with the project’s most ambitious work to date.
The first three albums in the arc – Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery I, II, and III – span the current unraveling of society, oblivious to the ongoing Anthropocene in which we’re immersed, the violent chapters of this triptych embody a harbinger, prophesizing the post-apocalyptic terrors to be told on the impending closing chapters of the album series – Teeth Collection and Drought Stick.
The subtitle for the first chapter of this ominous GRIDFAILURE sequence was Survivor’s Remorse, the second was As Resources Are Depleted So Are Morals, and now, the subtitle for Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III, bears the subtitle Acquiring A Taste, as humanity embraces and exalts this downfall. Depicted within Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III is the mass-enslavement of populations, rampant cannibalization, prevalent desire and addiction to homicide, and more, amidst ever-worsening extreme weather disasters, with humanity losing the war we’ve waged on our own planet. With over eighty minutes of GRIDFAILURE’s demoralizing and 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 merciless post-industrial foundation. As with the rest of the series, Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III 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 was written by GRIDFAILURE creator David Brenner who performs primary vocals and an array of guitars, bass, drums/percussion, keys, synth, violin, theremin, field recordings, and other instruments/tactics, while orchestrating the project’s most extensive cast of collaborators to date. The album features additional lyrics, vocals, and guitar from Steve Austin (Today Is The Day) on five of its fifteen songs, as well as performances by Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum, Ionophore), Mac Gollehon (live/session for David Bowie, Duran Duran, Onyx, Blondie, Héctor Lavoe), Benjamin Levitt (Megalophobe, GRIDFAILURE-live), Richard Muller (Giant Spider, GRIDFAILURE-live), Greg Meisenberg (A Fucking Elephant, Dead Register, GRIDFAILURE-live), Lane Oliver (Yatsu, Diminishing), Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, Deeper Graves), Christopher Henry (Fuck Your Birthday, Humans Etcetera), Graham Scala (US Christmas, Interstitia, Bleach Everything), Dan Emery (Thetan), BJ Allen (Zero Trust), Clayton Bartholomew (Mountaineer), No One (T.O.M.B., Dreadlords), 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.
With some of the guest contributions recorded by the respective artists, Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III was performed, recorded, arranged and mixed by David Brenner at The Compound in Valley Cottage, New York. 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.
A video for the lead single from Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III, “Extermination Level Eventuality,” is now playing at THIS LOCATION.
Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III will be released through all digital services and on cassette, alongside a limited cassette box set containing all three Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery albums, on October 3rd. Find preorder options, merch, and more at Nefarious Industries HERE. Digital presaves and additional videos/singles will follow over the weeks ahead.
Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III Track Listing:
1. Subdividing The Survivors
2. Extermination Level Eventuality
3. Hybrid Warfare In Defense Of One’s Habitat
4. Anthropophagiae Nationis
5. Drunk On The Blood Of My Neighbor
6. Vestiges
7. Ration Distribution/Processed For Storage
8. Communal Taxidermy
9. This Was More Than Just Killing… It Was Art
10. Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III: Acquiring A Taste
11. Maria
12. Necrotizing Fasciitis
13. End In Sight
14. Species Deconstructivist
15. Transmissions Cease
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