Fueled by a sincere love for cinema and by an utter disdain for the current state of the industry hard-to-classify DIY thrashy grind hardcore punks are back with their 4th full length “Examination of Violent Cinema”, Volume 1, to be released on December 7th via Vitriol Records (PRE-ORDER HERE). Sharing the very same love for cinema and praising the band’s engaging craft has motivated us to team up with them and uncover all the stories behind “Examination of Violent Cinema”, track by track, movie by movie. Read below and GO HERE to learn a lot more about this new release.
Graf Orlock’s music stands on its own: an instantly recognizable sound built on fragmented hardcore punk and bursts of thrash and grind, held together by lyrics that are in fact dialogue from films. Freedom is the name of the game: songs twist and turn, a mix of blastbeats, breakdowns, and sweet-ass riffs, unfolding without structure but designed for maximum impact, and administered in a raw fashion that is more in line with Black Flag’s later recordings than with most modern-day perfectionism.
“Visceral, life-affirming violence” is how the band likes to classify it.
GRAF ORLOCK will hit the East Coast in January:
Jan 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Barbary
Jan 12 – Providence, RI @ Al Dios
Jan 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus
Back in the Ground
Based on John Wick 2. There is much to be said for revenge (see later descriptions) and this is the most classic form I can imagine, even more so encouraged by the replacement of some romantic figure with the death of a man’s dog. The crux of this song is meditation on the multitude of different ways one can dispatch an enemy and the relative ease one can acquire the materials to do it. Kind of along the lines of what Virgil called the “rage of Achilles”.
Alternate Route to Mexico
Based on Logan. We all are aware that the mutants in X-Men are metaphors and that this is somewhat ham-fisted to begin with, but how could you not discuss the clear parallels of this fictional world to our own governmental mess of discriminatory legislation and moronic law. We all also know what happens when you take the once glorified science of gene theory and eugenics to its logical extension, resulting in mass demographic disaster. I guess at the same time this song is about young and old people, the majority of which on either side of our own transitory age, we dislike.
A Man Named Suicide
Based on War for Planet of the Apes. There is a lot to unpack in this one but if you take the elements of animal rights as well as the direction of eco-politics and scientific engineering, you get an army of apes fighting against the waning power of people. I love the connections of some of these ideas, although fictional, to what is happening in our own world, all encompassed in the motif of a heinously violent and suicidal human colonel. What else is there?
He Jumped off a Roof
Based on The Foreigner. This is about revenge, which is a main theme for us, but also about someone being out of their element and totally having the upper hand. A guy whose daughter is killed in a public bombing goes back to wreak havoc on all involved. Contains political deliberation over the post-Troubles history of Ireland while at the same time discusses a massive list of items that can be used to rig highly destructive, yet mobile shocking capability. In most cases, the definition of the word terrorist is a matter of perspective.
Steps to Eggroom
Based on Alien Covenant. This is one of the two songs on the record dealing with AI, androids or replicants, but is really a conversation between two service androids and their views of crappy humans. One is programmed with less autonomy, which renders it effectively neutered in the sense of rebellion. It is the age-old ignorance is bliss issue. Is one happier knowing nothing or momentarily happy in that knowledge although it tears them apart? If humans cease to exist would their creations resurrect them? Song is also about Xenomorphs, but hopefully No, to the latter question.
Dominant Species
Based on Kong: Skull Island. Much like the WWII Japanese soldier Hiro Onoda who refused to surrender until 1974, continuing to fight in the Philippines, this song chronicles the misadventures of an American lost on an island in a separate part of the same fascist-smashing war’s wormhole. It begs the question of what civilians actually know about the wars their countries propagate and how much do we really know about the world in the far reaches we have yet to trample with putrid tourism. The answer here is we know nothing and insane creatures wait in these shadows to kill/conveniently ally with us.
Five Stars General
Based on The Shape of Water. For those of us born prior to 2010, the Cold War was something that was always in the background and informed just about everything (including political and popular culture) prior to 1991. The U.S. race to beat the Soviet Union drenched everything, including all of the weird shit each of them did to get ahead and a metric shit ton of dead Cosmonauts and Cosmodogs. Sheer ridiculousness at the future’s expense.
Go Away (To Paradise)
Based on I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore. I would imagine that most in the medical field spend most of their days fighting mortality in every form and adhering to the oath of Hippocrates. Now imagine being so jaded with that altruistic existence that you revel in smashing some rando’s head in in their own driveway. This song approaches the ancient question of why we should bother anyways if we are in the end, inexorably driven back to the carbon dirt nap from whence we came. Sometimes everyone needs a day off.
Minimum Freedom
Based on Brawl in Cellblock 99. Although Vince Vaughn’s character is in ways an “everyperson” this song in some strange roundabout peers into the complete insanity of the prison industrial complex with face-punching violence. Tangentially about someone’s relationship with their unborn child in prison but also the inevitable situation where he will be “shot trying escape”. Real fucking bummer premise set over an even more bummer series of events/riffs.
Extreme Measures
Based on Mayhem. If we lived in a world where we could blame our felonious mischief on some type of momentary virus, where would we be? Imagine the majority of American litigation was based on this idea. Place yourself in your most hated working environment with an anti-union management and a whole bunch of people routinely trying to kill each other and you get an idea of this song’s direction.
Rooftop Anarchy
Based on the Belko Experiment. A not-so-strange premise of a multinational company based in Colombia that operates a kind of workplace Battle Royale. Song brings in a frankly vague critique of corporate America and its role in post-Cold War developing countries. Reminded me of the doc When Banana Ruled about the extent of the United Fruit Company’s destructive destabilization of young central American countries. Classic U.S. foreign policy, ripper song.
Almost Human
Based on Blade Runner 2049. We like the idea of twisting a story arc or an image from a film in a particular way. This one is about the level tests these replicants need to go through to make sure they are still marginally objective. I love the idea that the humans in the mix are the true replicants as their individuality, like that of the androids, is totally artificial and self-referential. I suppose another bleak outlook on humanity but more than likely an accurate depiction of Los Angeles in a few weeks.
