After a decade-long hiatus from songwriting, Logan Mader (ex-Machine Head, ex-Soulfly) decided to re-emerge in 2014, releasing a debut album entitled [i]”The Life I Remember”[/i] a year later by his new band, Once Human. Firmly rooted in the melodic death metal category, Once Human quickly gained attention from established bands, such as Fear Factory and Gojira, aided further by Mader’s return to the fold.
Three years on, Once Human appears more primed than ever to drop their sophomore album, “Evolution”.
Evolution is a necessity in all aspects of life. Within music, it is a way to develop the genre, to attract attention and, most importantly, to remain relevant. With this in mind, it takes a certain diameter and mass of ballsiness for a band to name an album something as direct as “Evolution”. Before any music is even heard, that single phrase provokes instantaneous judgement and naturally increases any pressure that band felt prior to the album’s release to meet this statement of intent.
…show more content…
Firstly, the tongue-in-cheek lyricism has been severed from the band’s songs. Clearly, the band have matured and realised that it takes more than shouting “cunt” a few times to make their music sound abrasive. Secondly, Once Human begins to break their comfort zone by layering their typical melodic death metal with other genres. The opener, ‘Flock of Flesh’ starts off with toxic, industrial riffing, however, after a curtain of melodies falls, the song flexes into a bubbly, djent inspired interlude. ‘Gravity’ and ‘Passenger’ also feature these proggy glitches when Mader’s riffs suddenly twist into some contorted rhythm section. This refreshing approach works well in Once Human’s favour while they manage to sound jut as uncompromisingly heavy during these more animated