"Almost every person I know that is actively involved in touring suffers from mental health issues as a direct consequence of a touring lifestyle," Venom Prison frontwoman Larissa Stupar says of her band's new 30-minute documentary Glitch. "With this film I wanted to explore issues of mental health in touring artists and the stress of continual touring with no home base with touring remaining a vital part of their livelihood." Glitch was filmed by the vocalist while the U.K. death-metal crew was on tour earlier this year with Trivium, Code Orange and Power Trip, and examines how life on the road can negatively impact performers, stitching together bits of backstage action with sit-down interviews with each band member.
"Touring can institutionalize you and make normal life feel odd, feel incomplete ...," Stupar says in the film. "You just want to be out all the time and experience all different things and meet people and just be who you choose to be, because when you're at home, you're just who you are. If you're onstage, you choose to be someone."
Venom Prison admitted that touring life has taken its toll on all the band members, writing in the Facebook post where they debuted the doc, "We (Venom Prison) all have felt the strain of being on the road in different ways." The group says that by relying on one another for support has been essential to keeping them going when times have gotten tough. "It has only been by supporting and being there for each other we have come through our busiest year to date," the Facebook post continues. "Not only with determination to continue our mission of bringing extreme music to as many people as possible, but in a way that isn't at the expense of our health physical or mental."
Watch the full documentary above; you can check out Venom Prison's last album, Animus, on Bandcamp. The band recently completed its follow-up full-length, which is expected early next year, and also created a beautiful zine for Revolver to commemorate their first U.S. tour over this past summer, viewable here.
Below, watch Venom Prison's intense music video for "Immanentize Eschaton":
