More than a conventional band, Gridfailure is the conduit to a quite unique aural/visual universe. This highly experimental, New York-based project was born from the mind of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, David Brenner, who fearlessly blends elements from various genres, including Black Metal, Industrial, Post-Rock, contemporary Classical music, Jazz, Folk and more. The recently-released Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III is the third chapter of a multi-album saga that might be destined to become Gridfailure's magnun opus. In the following interview, Brenner (who creates most of the project's visual imagery) offers detailed information about the records' concept and accompanying graphics—including the intriguing cover artworks.
Tell us about the concept and themes that form the Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery saga?
David Brenner: Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery is a concept I’m exploring through a five-album series. The first three albums – Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery I, II, and III – are set in modern times and the immediate future, as we’ve already entered the Anthropocene and we’re watching the planet react to humanity with urgent wrath as society consumes itself. These three albums will be followed by the final two albums in the arc: Teeth Collection and Drought Stick. These two massive albums will be set in the post-apocalyptic landscape once we’ve completely depleted the planet of its resources and it’s basically a barren and harsh worldwide Nuclear Winter ravaged by natural disasters.
As resources are depleted, so are morals, and as monolithic
storms ravage the planet, neighbors turn on one another, and once war and
uprising decimate the population, survivors are left to slaughter for survival
in a diseased and polluted wasteland aftermath. Sources of uncontaminated
energy, food, and water are scarce across the grim sphere, and the species’
reliance on technology has left most humans helpless. Themes of cannibalism,
revenge, marauding factions, societal collapse, organ harvesting, nuclear
warfare, pandemic contagion, dystopian rule, the mass-enslavement of
populations, prevalent addiction to homicide, and general underhandedness
towards one’s neighbors amidst ever-worsening extreme weather disasters, with
humanity losing the war we’ve waged on our own planet poetically permeate this
album series.
You have designed all of the albums' graphics. That makes sense, because you are Gridfailure's creator and main driving force.
David Brenner: Gridfailure is my own solo project, although I collaborate
with many friends, allies, cohorts, and family members within the project. I
have been responsible for at least 95% of the artwork, design, videos, and
other visuals for the band over the past decade of its existence. Only a couple
of collaborations, the compilations on which I’ve had material included, and a
few other random pieces have had art/design work by other folks. However,
usually I create my cover art pieces through photo manipulation, layering
photos and design elements.
The cover artworks for Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery I, II and III are (visually and conceptually) fairly similar.
David Brenner: To create the artwork for the first three albums in this ongoing series, I drew towers of human skulls erected in a sort of effigy or art installations and manipulated with tools, spears, and other objects. The idea was to represent killing as art; humanity proudly consuming itself.
Can you offer more details about the creative process and the mediums/techniques you used to craft the artworks?
David Brenner: This series is the first time I’ve created the covers with hand-drawn art...I sketched everything in pencil on white drawing board, then finalized everything through stippling/pointillism millions of dots with technical pens and black ink. I then scanned these several pieces into Photoshop and manipulated them into the three different album covers for Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery I, II, and III, with both digital and cassette versions of the artwork.
You also created imagery for the promotional videos, band merch, etc. This is a very complete visual/aural universe.
David Brenner: All three albums were issued on cassette through Nefarious Industries, and I manipulated the artwork together once again to create a box set slipcase shell for the three cassettes, as well as a separate design for the t-shirt, and another for the overall album series page. The separate pieces are all combined several ways throughout the series. I also loaded the cover artwork pieces into projectors for some of the promo photos and animated some of the art within the five videos for the newest installment, Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery III, which was released in October. I wanted to see the artwork infused into all the visual aspects of the album series to help make the concept feel all encompassing, beyond just in the lyrics. I wanted everything to actually look like a series.
I have a few new pieces under construction for the Teeth
Collection and Drought Stick albums as well, although they will be
in a different style, different from these first three albums. I’ll be working
on completing both of these albums over the course of 2026, which is
Gridfailure’s tenth year in existence.
Discover Gridfailure's complete discography at https://gridfailure.bandcamp.com/
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