Introducing: Illusionary

Brisbane band Illusionary fuse progressive elements and, in their words, “angry, heavy vocals” in an aggressive but captivating metalcore meets deathcore sound that they describe as “integrity, truth, and pulling no punch.”

The band started with Japanese guitarist Ari and his drummer wife Azu, who showed an interest in playing drums for the band when she listened to his demo songs. So he gave her an Iron Cobra double kick pedal for her birthday. Ari onboarded vocalist Wade through a local Facebook community for finding band members then bassist Geordie discovered the band through Gumtree.

Describing the sound they’ve honed since, Ari told us: “People say we sound like Lamb of God, Veil of Maya, Jinjer, After The Burial, Fear Factory etc… One of our loyal fans found a genre category for us as Spiritual Groove Metal. I call it progressive metalcore on psychedelic twists with deathcore vocals on top.”

Our latest taste of this is Zombie, which was released in September. A building guitar and bumbling bass build up to an explosion of wild vocals, that double kick drum, and a twisting guitar lick. It continues in a highly rhythmic mass of intense vocals and technical guitars leading into the huge chorus of wild screamed vocals “Zombies, All around me, Eating my brains, Zombies, Eating my brains.” Crushing guitars and cheeky drum rolls take over then huge screams set up a breakneck outro.

On the track, Ari said: “We are having great reactions from people. It’s an energetic moshpit making song with heaps of cool complex riffs, extra heavy vocals and gang chants, and heavy breakdowns. The song has taste a bit of Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Season era.”

Zombie follows on from several singles through 2023 and the band’s debut EP BAKU, which was released last year. We especially enjoy the sound of Vigoroot, the second track on the BAKU EP, which features a delicious driving riff and powerful drums under Wade’s powerful vocals.

All of Illusionary’s songs bring a thrilling raw energy alongside musical complexity and oodles of groove. That includes the exceptional Dream Eater, which was released in July and features a really cool middle section that ends in a laid-back guitar solo before blasting into a huge riff, drums and powerful vocals. And if violent riffs and vocals are your thing, go and check out the absolutely vicious Brain Dead:

The Illusionary sound has been shaped by a wide range of music, including the likes of Veil of Maya, Periphery, After The Burial and Dealer. While Ari tells us he grew up on bands like Nirvana, Limp Bizkit, NOFX, Slipknot, Breaking Benjamin, Snot and Machine Head.

And on what inspires them to write music, Ari explains: “I want to express my inner high energy, complexity, and entertainment passion through music. I have themes before and during the writing process. Not only having an image of atmosphere, tempo, groove, but also things come up in mind through life and philosophy.

“Wade writes all the lyrics and they are often about the dark side of human beings, anger, and mental struggle. He uses a mixture of stories and his own experiences/thoughts.”

It’s been a little while since we wrote about any Australian bands, with this being just the fourth in over two years. And, since we’re going to Australia early next year, we thought it’d be wise to get the band’s thoughts on their local scene.

Ari told us: “Major cities like Melbourne and Sydney seem to have a great local metal scene there. In our city Brisbane, It’s hard to find bands sounding similar to us. It’s the standing point for us and also our weak point. Luckily we are having more cool local bands to share stages this year. Hoping to involve many more music lovers in the scene and we want to prove that it’s worth spending time more for local bands, not only big names.”

You can see Illusionary if you happen to be in Brisbane as they play at Tomcat on 15 December then King Lear’s Throne on 16 December. They’re also releasing a new single BLOODLETTER on Friday (8 December) and plan to release their second EP early next year.

And Ari adds: “We are a DIY band who produce, mix, master, film direction and edit everything ourselves, and we all enjoy the process and the activity. If you are sick of generic shits all around the heavy music scene, I tell you Illusionary brings fresh air to you with headbanging music and psychedelic twists. We appreciate your support by watching our videos, streaming our songs and following our socials. It means a lot to us.”

You can follow Illusionary on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.