Renowned New Zealand metal band, 8 Foot Sativa, recently released a controversial new music video for their single Sleepwalkers. The video includes a mixture of band performance, staged scenes and undercover footage taken in factory farms and slaughterhouses around New Zealand.
Vocalist Ben Read says, "Making a music video with a strong animal rights message is something we have been wanting to do for some time. We are not filmmakers but were going to attempt the video ourselves when fate intervened and a vegan director offered to make the video for us. Seeing the final cut, it was so much more than we could have achieved ourselves. It's phenomenal." The band had no shortage of expertise wanting to lend a hand. Video director Duncan Eastwood, a vegan passionate about animal rights, donated his services to help make the video. "I've been looking for a way to express my belief in animal rights, and to have been able to do it with a band I admire is great," says Duncan. Meat Free Media, an online multimedia animal rights network, also could not turn down the chance to help. "The opportunity to create a video on animal rights, for a band as notable as 8 Foot Sativa, is something we are very proud to have been a part of," says Aaron Koolen, founder of Meat Free Media. The all-vegan band initially formed as a covers band in 1998 but exploded onto the New Zealand scene with their debut album Hate Made Me in 2002. The band has toured and released albums internationally, and played alongside artists such as Soulfly, Korn, Slipknot, System of a Down, Children of Bodom, Disturbed, Motörhead, Pungent Stench, Shihad and Corrosion of Conformity. SAFE and New Zealand Open Rescue also contributed to making Sleepwalkers. Click here to watch the uncensored version of Sleepwalkers. Lyrics: SleepwalkersCold as all life, and blacker than the blackest pitch
Sunken dead eyes (hearts), sleeping and sullen
Feet dragging, in silence we lumber
Forever treading this well-worn path
Following the bloodied footsteps of our forefathers, the bastards Just as we devour, so too has our conscious been ravaged It hangs in tatters, as a billion hopes dangle by this single thread Waiting to be swallowed by the abyss of human nature As lavish fictions drip from the maw
The forgotten hearts seep concrete Out of sight of the sleepwalkers Born into misery, to die broken and alone.
21 February 2009
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