Introducing: Flowers Of Hades

New Zealand newcomers Flowers Of Hades are making quite the impression with a crushing djenty metalcore meets deathcore sound packed with crushing seven-string riffs, vicious vocals and booming breakdowns. The Aotearoa (Maori name for New Zealand) five-piece offer up “to the point lyrics” in a sound they describe as “raw, angry and real.”

The band, from Wellington and Palmerston, started out as a high school project, before Ryan decided he wanted to do something different and play heavier music. He and Mackenzie (Macca) started putting together a new lineup, which began by bringing in Ryan’s brother Ben on vocals – and, for reference later, he’s only 16. As Ryan tells us: “He couldn’t even scream at the time but if you listen to the track that’s coming out… he’s come a very, very long way. He is incredibly talented for his age, he can scream like a demon and sing like an angel… especially for a 16-year-old.”

They soon met guitarist Christian, who approached them on stage at their third gig and asked them if they needed a lead guitarist. And the band was completed by a uni friend who wasn’t into metal but was quickly converted by Ryan and Macca.

In fact, as Macca explains: “The rest of the band, apart from me and Ben, weren’t even used to playing this style of music. It was only recently that they were adopting and inputting their own ways of playing it, they absolutely killed it.”

They set about creating a sound built around being, in Ryan’s words: “fast, ear-crushing with distorted drops and groovy.” And Macca adds: “We’ve come a long way since starting out five to six years ago with no name. We didn’t have the right tone, the right guitars, the right anything. We used one of those shitty Boss pedals live once and man, let’s not go there.”

Our first taste of just how far the band has come since then is their debut single Trigger Warning, which was released last month and, it’s safe to say, has no “shitty Boss pedals” in sight. It’s also very timely and offers a still sadly much-needed wake-up call to gun violence, considering recent events in California.

The track opens up with clips of news reports then a building guitar sound feeds into heavy opening lyrics “Open fire, Kill them all, The bullets start to fly, And the bodies start to fall, Nowhere to run, Nowhere to hide.”

Crushing guitars take over alongside big doomy cymbals before diving into a delicious fast-paced verse, which proves that Ben very much can now scream. A piercing guitar joins in the background over driving guitars and intense drums before another rapid-fire (forgive the pun) verse led by seriously heavy drums.

Chunky guitar chords give way to Ben’s intense vocals “Social heretic, Twisted paradise, Blood runs black, Forsaken haven, Plagued by unworthy leaders,” which drop into a delicious section of stabbing guitars. That sets up an outro of vicious growled vocals and wild guitar sounds.

On the track, Ryan told us: “I guess we want our listeners to be surprised. The song is quite a political one, which shares insight into our views and where we feel we stand. We’re trying to challenge the current state of gun laws and the lack of restrictions for buying guns in some countries, what’s happening in our world and these horrible situations we constantly keep finding ourselves in.. the leaders and lawmakers need to do better.

And Macca added: “Being able to even 3D print a firearm and order in the parts and get away with it? Unregistered? It’s a joke in some places.” Check out this huge debut single here:

Trigger Warning comes from Flowers Of Hades’ debut EP, which will be out early this year. On it, Ryan told us: “All the tracks on there are different, they all have their own identity. I’m most excited for people to hear a new one we just finished up on. It’s a step in a new direction for us but still follows the same heavy sound you’ll hear in Trigger Warning.

Macca says: “I’m looking forward to people hearing Path of Destruction, that’s a real fun one to play live and it’s quite heavy. It’s an easy song to play and flows really well for me.”

And Ben adds: “I’m excited for people to hear Path of Destruction as well. I can’t wait to see the energy of the crowd once everyone gets to know it. I have a lot of energy on stage and just having people scream the words back at me is going to be a lot of fun.”

The Flowers Of Hades sound is influenced by the likes of Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon, Alpha Wolf, Architects, While She Sleeps, Polaris, Spirit Box and more.

And on what inspires them to write music, Ryan says: “Well I mean, Trigger Warning is literally about a real-world situation. Things that I have an opinion for, things I’m passionate about.”

And Ben adds: “I like to write about what is going on in my life at the time, the things I am experiencing. For Flowers of Hades, Ryan writes most of the music and lyrics, and I come in with melody and add where I can.”

It’s been a little while since we featured any bands from New Zealand, but those we have we’ve loved. So we were keen to get the guys’ view on their local scene. Ryan said: “New Zealand’s a small country in general, so that makes the metal scene smaller.”

And Macca added: “I do think it’s growing a bit now though, with bands like Alien Weaponry stepping up and playing internationally. Bands like Crooked Royals, Full Bloom, No Life, Pull Down The Sun, Seas of Conflict and The Rising Tide… we could go on all day and keep naming bands. The list is growing and it’s really good to see.”

You can get an early taster of the band’s upcoming EP by seeing Flowers of Hades live tomorrow night supporting No Life at Moon Bar in Wellington. Tickets are here. The band will be releasing one or two singles before the EP release, which we’re excited to check out when it drops.

And Macca adds a fun fact “We got our band name after Ryan took a biology class in high school and learned about a kind of wood fungus native to Aotearoa called Flower Of Hades. We all agreed that it sounded great as a band name and it stuck, culminating in who we are today.

“And on that note, I think we’d like to give a shoutout to Ryan, because he’s been organizing absolutely everything for the past five years… getting shows and writing all the music. I don’t think we’d be where we are now without him. And our Audio Engineer Lachlan, for (as of recently) helping to finally put us on the map.”

You can follow Flowers Of Hades on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.