“We’re writing songs that we want to hear. We’re going after heavy music that’s forward-looking,” says vocalist and guitarist, Mathew Bosher. “The Futurist” builds upon Domes’ brand of metal with elements of space rock and post-hardcore, blending Deftones, Mastodon and Deafheaven in considered ways.
Recorded on a 1939 heritage vessel moored on the River Thames in London some 18,000 kilometres from home, the track is the product of the band’s experimental approach, pursuit of nuance and sense of adventure. Distilling their accumulated experience across several bands, album releases and international tours, the mission for Domes was to do it all differently.
With the band spread across Australia and New Zealand, we wrote and recorded remotely for a year using an iterative design process. We built a library of riffs in the cloud as we prototyped, tested and re-wrote each others’ ideas. The tracks experienced major developments and we only played together twice before entering the studio. Our experiment was much about agile ways of working as it was creativity—and it was hugely productive. — Bosher
Situated in the old machine room aboard the lightship, encased in a quarter-inch-thick steel hull, the band spent a week at Soup Studio pushing vintage recording gear to hard rock and metal boundaries. Mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, the record is steeped in iconic equipment and its storied past. On the debut single, “Malady,” the band revels in meticulous tonal detail; firing off broad strokes of kinetic energy and juxtaposing styles. The song traverses post-metal tropes with tense intervals and thick sines waves of fuzz. “We crafted the bass tone to be devastating. On this record, we wanted to make moments where the ground falls out from beneath your feet. At least some people said they stopped breathing for a second when that bass first comes in,“ says bassist, Brendon Kahi.
“The Futurist,” intensifies things with seismic shifts between thrash riffs and pop-like harmonic sensibilities. The effect has a compelling if disturbing quality that resonates with the subject matter. “The songs speak to a sort of existential threat—technological, social or perhaps ecological. It’s intentionally not explicit; I hope I continue to find new meaning in these words over time. As with the music, there’s a sense of foreboding dissonance with far-off relief.”
“The Futurist” is out now on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and elsewhere. With this release, the band is fundraising for the Australian Red Cross.
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