Video Review: GRAVEHUFFER Kill For Sport (Animated video) by Dave Wolff

GRAVEHUFFER

Kill For Sport (Animated video)

From the 2017 full length Your Fault

Animation by Skunkwerks Audio Unit

When reviewing Your Fault, Alan Lisanti commented that Gravehuffer are stretching musical boundaries by drawing from crust, punk, grind, sludge, death metal and thrash, arranging these influences as they see fit rather than conform to ideas about how a band should sound or how they should fit together the pieces of what genres speak to them. Also, when emphasizing the point with a promotional video two things can result from it if done properly: you get a visual representation of the song and you get a visual representation of the ideas and concepts behind the song. Following the March 3 release of their latest CD Gravehuffer opted for the latter approach to convey the meaning of their track Kill For Sport. Accompanying it are animated images with copious amounts of violence, horror and gore. The animations, drawn by bassist Mike Jilge, are a nightmare depiction of murderous zombies, based on what could have been the internal mental workings of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas who was convicted of murdering over a hundred and fifty people (Lucas was partly the impetus for the 1986 movie Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). One animation that stood out as I watched was an animation of a zombie running over complete strangers with what a zamboni (which is used to smooth the ice in a hockey rink). Another was of the same combie beating human remains with a salami, which strangely had me thinking of how the opening sequences of 2001: A Space Odyssey would have played out if directed by a madman. Then there was the animation at the beginning with the nameless zombie looking out his window at potential victims, a variety of weapons gathered close by. Some sort of mental instability is depicted in this video as lines and angles are drawn in a way that defies physics and each scene plays like a warped dream, complete with mutilated bodies and flying demons. More promotional videos as well as live videos and song clips can be viewed at Gravehuffer’s Youtube channel. -Dave Wolff