Two videos in one day -- if there are days that playing unforgiving metal feels like a job it would be days like this. Carnifex spent eight to nine hours on each video; the morning shoot for a video to be released later in the summer and the other for 'Hell Chose Me,' the title track from the band's third album. "It got kind of tiring," vocalist Scott Lewis told Noisecreep. As you would expect from the band's two previous videos 'Hell Chose Me' does have the feel and look of a horror movie. "Videos are kind of tricky about what looks good and what looks boring," he said. "We're just trying to make a semi-entertaining video."

Unlike many videos where the director pitches the band an idea and the band gives it the thumbs up or thumbs down this video was a collaboration between the band and director Jacob Avigione. "We went back and forth on some ideas for a little while and we kind of gave him an outline of what we were wanting and let him fill in the blanks. It turned out pretty good. It's defiantly the most elaborate thing we've ever shot."


Lewis admits a conflict took place during the early brainstorming sessions for the video on whether the it should follow the story line of the song, the 1993 Waco massacre from the perspective of cult leader David Koresh. "To make an interesting video you kind of have to sacrifice some things." The band opted to focus on capturing the album cover instead.

"The main guy on the cover makes an appearance, which is pretty cool," Lewis revealed. "I think it will come out real good. I know the makeup department spent a long time working on the actor. It looked pretty realistic when we started shooting."


Much time was spent making sure the albums cover art was exactly what the band wanted, five months in all. According to Lewis the band wanted the cover to capture the exact darkening themes of the album, making the video follow suit as well. But even with 'Hell Chose Me' only being out for a brief time, the image of a hell priest offering up a dead animal sacrifice has caused contentions and misunderstandings from fans.

"A few people looked too literally at the cover," Lewis commented, saying he gets asked if the band is an anti-Christian band now. "It's quite the opposite. I do believe in God. I'm just not religious in any way."

The fact is the haunting cover represents a conflict of outlook many of the songs explore though devil's advocate means. "The album is pretty much a story of a fall from grace and halfway regretting it and half way enjoying it." Lewis further described the conflict as two voices fighting over "self contempt" and "self loathing."

But still there is that isolating darkness that bleeds from that cover and the album's lyrics. Lewis laughed, "I've never written any positive lyrics. For whatever reason the band is my outlet for negativity."

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