New Band of the Week: Perpetual Paradox

London-based Perpetual Paradox have concocted a vicious groove-laden technical metalcore sound that fuses powerful riffs, intense vocals and brutal rhythms, which they describe as “fast, riffy and melodic.”

The band started out as an online project between Spanish vocalist Adrian Caucelo and Brazilian bassist André de Barros during the pandemic at the end of 2020. As restrictions eased, they began to build a lineup that was completed in 2022 with English/Danish lead guitarist Oliver Miles, Portuguese rhythm guitarist Jorge Nuñes and English drummer Will Armstrong. The band’s first music was undoubtedly heavy but, as they tell us, “we sounded VERY different to what you hear now.”

And on the current Perpetual Paradox sound, they told us: “We call ourselves Tech Metalcore. I’m not sure it even exists as a genre, but we felt it captured best what we think we sound like. There’s quite a lot of technicality in our music compared to, say, conventional metalcore bands, but we’re nowhere near as technical as bands like Lorna Shore or Archspire (we’re big fans of both bands). A lot of our new songs have Whitechapel-esque cleans in them, bordering on Bullet For My Valentine-style melodies, so that’s the closest we’ve come to defining ourselves, I suppose. Imagine a metalcore band but with riffs all over the fretboard, shred and blast beats scattered about the place.”

Our latest taste of this is the band’s superb new single Ash and Blood, which was released on Friday. It jumps into a darting guitar over rolling drums setting up vicious opening vocals taking the lead in an intense opening verse. Brutal guitars and drums kick in alongside rolling high-pitched guitar, then drop into low-tuned guitars and wild vocals. Eerie synths join in before stabbing guitars support intense vocals that end with cool fast-paced guitars under vicious screamed vocals, then a funky little guitar solo. That tees up a powerful conclusion, which starts with a wild lick and rolling drums giving way to intense vocals.

Speaking ahead of the track’s release, the band told us: “We’re beyond excited. We feel like it’s both taken ages to get to this point, but also like it was only yesterday that we were playing our first gigs. We’ve really taken our time crafting our new sound, a sound perfectly embodied in Ash and Blood. We’ve tried to create a sound that is bold and laden with riffs, groove and shred, but also as melodic and technical as can be. It’s been a tricky one to carve out, but we’re so stoked for people to hear this new era of Perpetual Paradox. People should expect to hear controlled ferocity – I think that’s how I’d describe the track.” Check it out in the video here:

The track comes from Perpetual Paradox’s upcoming debut album Deathwish, which will be released on 27 June. On the album, they told us: “Deathwish is a culmination of years of work, experimentation and, crucially, trial and error. We’ve had to grind to put out a piece of work we’re proud of and have been blooded crafting this sound in the London Underground (our favourite place in the world). We’re beyond excited, honestly. We’re quite confident that no track on the album sounds the same, yet each is very obviously Perpetual Paradox.

“This new work is very different from our previous stuff. You can sort of hear where we were going on our last EP, Condemnation. We’ve just taken it to new levels this time. We all love a riff and how a brutal, musical passage collides perfectly with a well-placed breakdown, always leaving space for melodic sections and clean singing. So I think that’s what people can expect – a far more intricate, thoughtful and sophisticated record beneath the surface of which lies an intensity and rawness that we don’t feel has been done before.”

As they allude to, the new album promises to mark a new era for the band. However, it’s well worth checking out last year’s third EP Condemnation, which starts out with the huge Depths of Depravity. It offers something a little different in the more melodic Speaking in Tongues and Harbour, alongside the superbly intense The Vice and Altar of the Lie.

The Perpetual Paradox sound has been shaped by everything from deathcore and metalcore to old school thrash and metal. Will is a massive Iron Maiden fan, Ollie “would die for Megadeth” and André is big into his doom. And the band consolidate all their influences as such: “Imagine if Lorna Shore and Bleed from Within had a baby that grew up to be Bullet for My Valentine, who ended up dating Lamb of God who was best mates with Sylosis, Fit for an Autopsy and Machine Head, all of whom would go on holiday at Iron Maiden and Metallica’s house.”

And on what inspires them to write music, the band explains: “Anything and everything really. We like to look at society as a whole and use our music as a medium for commentary on it. We’re not above the topics we cover and share this planet with a lot of people, so what we say in our music is more general observations about how we all live our lives – the good and the bad. Love, pain, taking more than we need, giving what we have when we can – that sort of thing.

“As an example, the album title actually came from when I was watching a skateboard documentary and some of the skaters were sponsored by Deathwish Skateboards. I thought it sounded cool, and then we thought about ways we could bend it to fit a message we liked. We had a few talks and ended up deciding we wanted to talk about societal decay, in the sense that we’re all on a slow march toward the end, and even though we know something needs to be done, we can’t stop (almost like a deathwish). All the songs are loosely tied to this theme of being the architects of our own downfall, but being so accustomed to a way of life that we struggle to change our ways = something that, like I said, we’re not above as people.”

Perpetual Paradox’s debut album Deathwish is out on 27 June. The band has a host of great gigs coming up, some of which they can’t talk about yet, and working on securing festival slots. And, from what we’ve heard, this is a British metalcore band worth getting excited about.

The band added: “We’re open books and share what we’re up to regularly on our socials. I guess, just the obvious – keep going to local shows and support bands when and where you can, either with merch or social media support. A little goes a really, really long way and helps us do this. We’re very fortunate to have some really committed and kind fans, and it’s people like them who enable us to charge forward. So yeah, keep supporting your underground bands!”

You can follow Perpetual Paradox on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.