Australia continues to turn out incredible bands, with Mélancolia being the latest to drop an album of the year contender with Random Access Misery . Blending elements of deathcore and black metal into songs that are both beautiful and destructive, the band has managed to carve out a distinct sound and aesthetic while still delivering the riffage that fans need. We spoke with vocalist and songwriter Alex Hill about the Ergo Proxy influence on the new album, watching Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time as an adult, and why it seems like every Australian band is incredible. So what is going on in Random Access Misery ? It seems like there's a lot of focus on psychological torment and futuristic technology, and how scary that can be. Where did those themes come from? Alex Hill: I usually write in conceptual storylines and stuff like that lyrically. This time around, though, I kind of took the approach of wanting more of a vibe and an atmosphere, and then seeing what came from that vocally and lyrically. I knew going into it that I wanted to lean heavier into the Y2K, early 2000s aesthetics, and I think hand-in-hand with that came that cyber theme, as the turn of the century was futurist in a way. So yeah, it's… thematically, it didn't really have a concept to start off with. Every song sort of was just its own vibe. I wasn't really going for a story, but in the end, it kind of pulled together as an all-around concept. Essentially, it's telling the story of a man of faith who has lost hope, renounced his faith, and renounced his life. Each song jumps around chronologically in the timeline, as to where he is and how he ended up there. The first track, “All Is Rust,” is actually the end of the story, and yeah, it just bounces around throughout. You can find a chronological order in the lyrics, though, and it's one of those things I'm gonna let people try and figure out the actual chronological order of the story. It took me a while to piece it together. It kind of happened by accident, and I think that's the craziest part. RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Lore Premieres Video for New Single “Senpai” and Discuss How Anime Is Always on When They’re Writing Did you have anime on or around while you were writing and recording this, or was there any anime inspiration that bled into the album? Alex: My friend Connor, who most people know from his previous work with the band Loathe, he put me onto Ergo Proxy . That was immediately where the aesthetic for this album cycle came from. The main character has blue eyeshadow, and that was the most striking thing I saw immediately. The future dystopian storyline also stood out, of course. I didn't necessarily take too much from the storyline; it was more the themes and the aesthetic that really helped me shape where it was going. That was in the early days of me writing for this album, especially instrumentally. A lot of industrial looks in that series pushed me into an area of industrial noise and a lot of those electronic elements that come with it, so that was a big one, aesthetically. I don't know whether this sort of influences the album at all, but I always do a rewatch of Elfen Lied every single year. There's so much emotion in that series, and it helps drive creativity a little bit. When I started writing the album, I realized I had never watched Neon Genesis Evangelion , and this was around the time when I watched it. As soon as I tell people that’s what I was watching, they’re immediately like “yep, I get it.” So I'd say those were probably the three that I was sitting on the most around that time when I was writing. I hope all of the anime fans out there can pick up the references in the videos and in the lyrics! Alex: It wasn't until I was asked what I was watching when people were first hearing the demos that I realized how much it worked its way into the writing. I don't think I've ever met anyone who was the same person after they finished it. And I was spared childhood depression, because a lot of my friends watched it when they were kids, and I'm watching it, and I'm like, "How are people watching this when they're kids, and A) understanding it, and B) not feeling so depressed after it." You mentioned being an anime fan for a while. Where did it all start for you? Alex: I'd say it started where it did for most of us in the West, Dragon Ball Z . I was about 7 years old when that was airing in Australia, and I remember my older brother and I were really, really into anime and Dragon Ball Z in particular. Our mum got us two VHS tapes, and they were the movie specials of Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug and Dragon Ball Z: Return of Cooler , both of them in the Funimation dub. That version had Disturbed and Deftones, and Drowning Pool in the soundtrack. So the first sort of click was the iconic scene in the Cooler movie with “Change (In the House of Flies)” where Goku's got the bird in his hand. That was the first time it clicked, and then once it clicked, my brother and I would rewatch those movies, rewind all the parts that had all the songs. That was definitely the catalyst. And to this day, I'm a massive Deftones fan. Alex: Because I liked that type of music, I would watch more anime with those kinds of soundtracks because they were sort of few and far between in terms of availability, but I'd always link metal to anime. We'd watch the old Ninja Scroll movies, and then my brother and I would have a Slipknot album on in the background, just to sort of sync it up. But it all started with those Funimation dubs, and yeah, now I'm such a big Deftones fan, I have Deftones face tattoos, and it all stemmed from Dragon Ball Z , which is, you know, still to this day my all-time favorite. It opened up such a world, too, because my mom didn't realize what she was letting us get from Blockbuster. I'd go in there and pull out the Street Fighter II series, which was TV-MA, and that was brutal as hell, or we were getting Ninja Scroll, and that is super intense, and I'm 8 years old at this point now, just eating it up. I remember getting Akira and just having no idea what was going on, but loving it regardless, because the animation was so cool. There were motorbikes, and there was, like, telekinesis, and the dude's arm went crazy. In hindsight, if Mum looked at what we were watching for a second, I don't know if I'd be at this point. RELATED: Employed to Serve's Justine Jones: Dragon Ball Z is Metal Were you into heavier music before watching anime? Or was that truly what introduced you? Alex: It all came together there. Both of my older brothers were into metal. My oldest brother actually ended up showing us Slipknot a couple of years later, and he'd been listening to it that whole time, but this was around the era where Linkin Park was coming out, Korn was on TV, System of a Down, all the big nü metal bands of that era were starting to be in pop culture, so we would watch these movies and be like, "oh, this music's really cool." However, it wasn't until my older sister’s boyfriend at the time worked at a music shop, and he came home with the Disasterpieces Slipknot DVD and Ninja Scroll . That was the first time we had ever sort of heard about what Ninja Scroll was. I just remember him specifically having that, because it was rated R, so Mum wouldn't let us get it at the time. So getting those two things at the same time was the real kick into the heavier side of things. Then we started actively searching for it, going into music shops and looking for heavy bands and stuff like that. But yeah, it all definitely started with Dragon Ball Z on VHS, which is pretty nuts to think that it came from anime directly. Now, my friend Karl, who plays for the band Gravemind and directs all of our music videos, is really into anime as well. We'll watch anime together. One day, he was like, “Have you ever seen Berserk ?” At that point I was really into $uicideboy$, and they used to have AMVs and one that used Berserk . So he chucked on the first 20 minutes of the series, and when the other world opens up, I was just immediately like, "Oh, shit." It harkened back to watching Ninja Scrol l as a kid, how brutal it was. We watched Hunter x Hunter together, and My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba . Alex: I would say that's the thing that's kind of crazy about anime for me, too, and I think I can liken it to how I approach music. I do it in cycles, so I don't constantly watch it. I have a six-month period where it's all I watch, and then I have a break where I'm watching something else. I do the same with music; I write for six months, and then I'll stop. To give a bit of context, I write the music as well, so I sit down in front of a computer with a guitar for six months, and then I don't touch my guitar for six months. Like, it's kind of weird how it works, but those two always line up at the same time; my six-month anime phase is always with my six-month writing phase. And I think it's, once again, it's like, anime has this magic to it that's like an escape. It feels otherworldly, even if it is a slice-of-life anime; it just has this otherworldly escape feeling to it, and I feel that exact same way when we're writing. It feels like I'm locked in this world that no one else can step foot in. It's a nice mental break from the harsh realities of life at times. RELATED: Car Bomb's Greg Kubacki: Anime and Heavy Music Resonate With People Looking For Something Genuine Is that why you think overall that fans of heavy and extreme music tend to gravitate toward anime, or do you think there's even more than just the escape? Alex: I think the fantasy aspect grabs onto a lot of metal fans, because that's where we've all rooted our love for pop culture. Death metal, as a genre, is like horror movies but for music. Then you've got all these other subgenres around it. And think about how many different anime subgenres there are; there's so much you can go into. Like, you can go watch Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma , and then you can switch over to Ninja Scroll , and those are two completely different vibes. I think it's the number of options and the mental escape. To be able to jump into it, you don't always have to just go, "Oh, I want to watch brutal shonen today." You can watch a slice-of-life anime or something like that when you try to have a bit more of a relaxed pace. It's the same with metal. You can go from being like, "Oh, I want to listen to some chill, sort of Deftones-y vibe stuff," and then the next day, I'm listening to Cattle Decapitation. I think it’s the variety that there is. It entices people who listen to metal, for whatever reason, being able to have all these different options in this umbrella of a world, and once again, it's just like, both of those things are an escape. What do you think it is about that that, I don't know, is kind of embedded in the Australian scene in particular? Alex: None of us know. Maybe it's because Australia is so far removed from everything, and anime is another world that we can easily jump over to. It's easier than jumping on a flight somewhere. It is strange, though. I think it's how far removed we are from everyone else from a distance standpoint. Maybe that's got something to do with it. I feel like every Australian band also rules, so…
