Exciting new Australian band Future Static intriguingly describe themselves as “the Beef Wellington of metalcore” thanks to a deliciously hard-hitting, groovy, melodic and riff-laden sound that they summarise as “heavy, catchy and tasty.”
The quintet of Amariah Cook, Kira Neil, Jack Smith, Jackson Trudel and Ryan Qualizza hail from Naarm in Melboune and got together through their shared love of playing music. Several of them met playing shows in other bands and through mutual musician friends, in their words: “Kind of like barnacles accumulating on a tugboat. When the five of us got together and started rehearsing together, it just felt like the right fit.”
And on the sound they’ve honed since, Amariah explains: “As a band, we come from quite varied backgrounds. We incorporate a lot of different influences into our sound, and bring it back to the heavy to make it cohesive. We’re like the Beef Wellington of metalcore, with the riffs acting as the puff pastry to wrap it all up into a neat package.”
Our latest taste of this meaty goodness is the band’s debut album Liminality, which was released at the end of last month. We had a chat with the band around the release of the album’s final single and opening track Chemical Lobotomy. It opens up with a high-pitched flickering lick and big driving drums that drop into Amariah’s delicate vocals through a mellow verse. The pace picks up before crushing guitars feed into a big catchy chorus.
Seemingly out of nowhere, it goes stratospherically heavy with vicious screamed vocals, heavy guitars and a gothic synth sound, which flows into another chorus. The pace drops with whispery vocals then big atmospheric instrumentals and engaging vocals bring the track to an intriguing conclusion.
On the track, Amariah told us: “The reception for Chemlob has been really positive, we’d already been playing it live for a few months before releasing it, and people seemed to really enjoy themselves in that setting. So it’s really nice to see that the response to the recorded version is getting the same kind of love.
“If you haven’t listened to the track yet, I would say be prepared for a couple of curveballs in the song. We tried to take the track to a few places you wouldn’t expect in terms of different moods and textures. There’s quite a lot of contrast from one section to another, so be ready for some tonal whiplash.”
The album continues into Venenosa, which opens up with a lively riff that continues into a powerful opening verse of clean vocals answered by vicious screams. That feeds into an even more dramatic chorus then huge guttural vocals lead a second verse alongside a really cool darting riff. Check it out in the video here:
Possibly the first Future Static track we heard was Roach Queen, the album’s third track and potentially our favourite. It opens up with a chunky driving riff then fast-paced vocals feed into big screamed vocals before a catchy chorus “Rewind, I can finally guess what was happening, Cut up the pieces, put them together in a brand new way, I was sick and nobody helped me, Get it out, get it out, Something’s inside me, Get it out, get it out, I was sick and nobody helped me.” The second chorus jumps straight into big high-pitched vocals that come to a dramatic conclusion, before a building riff and cries of “I was sick and nobody helped me” tee up a huge instrumental section. The pace suddenly drops, setting us up for a final blast of the chorus. Check out this great track here:
The album continues to deliver with tracks like the stunning Icarus, the huge Waves and Plated Gold, which features vocals by Sean Harmanis of Perth band Make Them Suffer, the absolutely brutal Iliad and the slow-building but intriguing Will I?. They also have much more music to dig into, including the 2018 debut EP Want and the 2020 follow-up Fatalist and their vicious cover of Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina.
Future Static’s members have Bring Me The Horizon dominating their Spotify rotations, in Amariah’s words: “They just find new ways to reinvent themselves and cross genre lines. And that’s something we really respect and look up to.” Other key influences include early 2000s core bands like Killswitch Engage and August Burns Red shaping their guitars and Sleep Token for their melodies and “marriage of multiple genres.”
And on what inspires them to write music, Amariah explains: “I think, specifically for this record, introspection and expression is a big reason we continue to write music. Sometimes it’s hard to properly communicate what you’re feeling to people, and often, yourself. So writing for us is a good way to manifest those feelings through instruments and recording, and translating what we can’t express normally into a language that we, and others can understand a little better.”
Future Static’s debut Liminality is out now through Wild Thing Records and went to number one on the Australian Independent Record Labels Association last week. The band celebrated the album launch by supporting Electric Callboy on their Australian tour and you can see their two end of year shows at The Lansdowne in Sydney on 29 December and The Tote in Melbourne on 30 December. They’ll also be in the UK next year, as they’re listed on Manchester’s Radar Festival in July 2024.
There’s plenty more to come from them too, with Amariah promising: “We have a number of things in the works that we can’t reveal just yet. However, it’s shaping up to be just as big, if not bigger than this year for us, and it’s really exciting. We just can’t wait to share our music with the world.”
You can follow Future Static on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Future Static and more new heavy music on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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