One of Australia’s most hyped new acts, Future Static have already made a name for themselves between live dates supporting Ukrainian metal icons Jinjer and Eurovision breakouts Voyager and positive responses to their previous EPs Fatalist and Want. Now, on their debut album Liminality, Future Static are ready to cement themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the metalcore genre.
From the album’s opening track ‘Chemical Lobotomy’, Future Static reveal their melodic, pop-infused metalcore sound that elegantly balances catchy hooks and brutal breakdowns. Singer Amariah Cook’s clean vocals soar through this track before crashing down into a deep growl, it’s always impressive hearing a vocalist who can handle both screams and cleans and Cook switches between them effortlessly. Taking clear influence from noughties metalcore icons like Bullet For My Valentine or Parkway Drive, with their chugging, dissonant guitars and half-time breakdowns, Future Static bring a lot of the genre’s tropes up to date with an upbeat energy and focus on catchy pop melodies.
“Future Static are ready to cement themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the metalcore genre.”
Throughout Liminality, Future Static call on guest vocalists to round out their sound including Luke Taylor of fellow Australian alt-metal band Heartline on the track ‘Iliad’ and Sean Harmanis of Perth’s finest Make Them Suffer on ‘Plated Gold’. The former of these tracks ‘Iliad’ is possibly the album’s heaviest, flying out of the gate with blisteringly high tempo drums and shredding guitars backing Cook and Taylor’s ferocious back-and-forth growls. The latter track ‘Plated Gold’, also the album’s penultimate song, takes a more dramatic, melancholic tone, blending emotional clean sections and Harmanis’s savage screams. These guest features, picked from Australia’s best metalcore acts, elevate their songs, adding a deeper dimension which Cook’s voice alone may have not been able to reach.
While wearing the metalcore label as a badge of honour, Future Static actually shine brightest in the moments when they break away from the crowd with several sections that stand out in an album of fantastically executed, if not wholly unique heavy music. ‘…And The Walls That Were Built’ sees Future Static experiment with glitchy trap drums, bringing a distinct cybergrind feel to the song’s first verse, on ‘Iliad’ the band fully let loose, leaning closer to deathcore with frenzied, shredding guitars and intense breakdowns backing machine-gun vocal delivery and on album closer ‘The Embers’ they channel their inner pop divas with huge, melodramatic guitar chords backing Cook’s over-the-top, theatrical voice. These flashes of Future Static as a band willing to break free of genre constraints are some of the most interesting moments on Liminality, hopefully in the future we’ll get to hear this side of the band more.
“These flashes of Future Static as a band willing to break free of genre constraints are some of the most interesting moments on Liminality”
An undisputed highlight of the album is the single ‘Roach Queen’, with its full sounding production and impossibly tight, high tempo drumming this track shows off Future Static at their best. Backing Cook’s barbarous screams and elegant cleans is bassist Kira Neil, boasting just as strong a vocal range to bolster the band’s dynamic frontwoman, paired with guitarists, Jack Smith and Ryan Quailzza, flying between complex lead lines, wild pitch-bending noise and detuned chugs. ‘Roach Queen’ certainly isn’t the most original track in the genre, wearing its modern metalcore influences on its sleeve with Spiritbox and Bring Me The Horizon having the clearest impact, but it’s commendable that Future Static do enough to stand its ground among far more established acts.
On their debut album Liminality, Future Static live up to their considerable hype as Australia’s new torchbearers for the metalcore genre. With excellent musicianship and an incredible vocal performance from electric frontwoman Amariah Cook, Liminality is an admirable first step for a band with a strong grip on their genre and plenty of room to grow.