Band of the Day: Diploid

Australia has a thriving, organic  heavy music scene and it's one of the best on the planet. It's been chronicled on other blogs before so I won't get too much in to it but I will say that I am immensely proud of the bands. Australia has exorbitantly high ticket prices, so by creating this small, DIY scene, these bands have offered cheaper culture for the people around them. Hats off to them!

My current favorite band from this scene is Diploid from Melbourne. They burst onto the scene with a self titled EP in 2012. It was a unique, bitter, misanthropic fusion of Black Metal, Grindcore, and old school screamo an. It sounded fantastic and flowing and proved to me that Black Metal and Screamo are two sides of the same unloved, frozen, forest dwelling coin.

Their newest release, Human, keeps all of the traits that made that EP special while introducing some interesting new ones. Although every song is punishing, they each have a jagged, At The Drive-In-esque sense of melody. This is very present in the track "On Going", a personal favorite of mine. It has real weight and momentum behind it.

"In The Toybox" starts with a riff that is very nearly Pulled Apart By Horses but it soon derails into a nasty, paranoid audio diatribe.

What is so remarkable to me is how fully formed these songs feel,  despite their brevity. The longest song is two and a half minutes but it feels like an epic. These guys can clearly play and it shows. The vocals do a nice job of tethering the music to the extreme music world. They're pissed and disgusted and guttural. Rohan Harrison (of Australia rippers Extortion) is performing guest vocals on track "Follow The Trails of Tape into the Forest."

This record is fantastic. I'm crossing every available digit in hopes of a full length.

Also, big props to the cover artist. This pop-art, collage style is rare for this kind of music. It turned out great.
http://diploid.bandcamp.com/album/human