Grave Corps Unleashes Madness and Revenge With New Single and Video “Pretty Insane”

The Cedar Falls horror rock band enters Hellfire Asylum for a new story of beauty, madness, and revenge.

Grave Corps releases its new single and music video, “Pretty Insane,” today, August 27. The track takes the seven-piece horror rock band inside Hellfire Asylum, a newly revealed location within its post-apocalyptic Wasteland, with lead vocalist Traci Von Krypt trapped at the center of the story.

A failed experiment has left Traci somewhere between reality and madness. Tormented by the doctors responsible and haunted by visions of the Army of the Undead, she spirals toward one final act of revenge. The ending leaves viewers to decide whether that revenge was real or entirely inside her head.

The title “Pretty Insane” began with a selfie. When Traci asked if she looked pretty, the response was, “Pretty insane.” The phrase stuck, and years later the finished song became the band’s favorite Grave Corps track to date.

Beneath its horror imagery, “Pretty Insane” confronts the expectations placed on women regarding how they should look, behave, and occupy space. It rejects the idea that someone must choose between being pretty or powerful, feminine or aggressive, polished or unhinged. “Why choose?” the band says. “You can be pretty and insane.”

Traci does not simply narrate the character’s breakdown. She becomes its unstable center. Her performance follows the character’s declining grip on reality as the verses grow increasingly erratic, reflective moments interrupt the descent, and the chorus abandons restraint completely. Whether that madness is literal or represents something more personal is left to the listener.

Recorded at Catamount Recording in Cedar Falls, “Pretty Insane” was produced and engineered by longtime Grave Corps collaborator Travis Huisman. The track retains the aggression, hooks, theatricality, and punk-and-metal foundation of the band’s earlier work while emphasizing atmosphere, dynamics, keys, and character-driven vocals. The result is one of Grave Corps’ most complete combinations of music, atmosphere, and story.

Directed by Roman Gamble and produced by Thrash Panda Media, the video brings the asylum to life with a gritty horror-punk, grindhouse style. The production required a physical commitment from Traci, who finished the shoot with bruises as war wounds. “Apparently method acting at Hellfire Asylum comes without a workers’ comp plan,” the band says. “It was physically exhausting, completely chaotic, and ridiculously fun, which is probably the most Grave Corps way possible to make a music video.”

Formed in Cedar Falls in 2007, Grave Corps has built an extensive independent catalog and theatrical live show around the Army of the Undead. The band earned consecutive Iowa Music Awards for Rock Band of the Year in 2024 and 2025, while “Hellfire Boulevard” received the 2025 award for Music Video of the Year. Grave Corps also received the 2025 Obsidian Coffin Award for Most Theatrical Band.

With new music and tour dates underway, “Pretty Insane” gives Grave Corps another story to carry from the screen to the stage while revealing a new corner of their world.

“We’ve spent nearly two decades building this monster,” the band says. “Now we’re finding out just how far it can go.” “Pretty Insane” is available now.