It has been ages since we lost spoke about Hadal Maw and honestly, that’s on us. It’s not like the Australian outfit has slowed down any; late last year they released Oblique Order, a nasty little EP that continues the band’s penchant for dark, dynamic, and oppressive death metal. Luckily, the cold, uncaring universe has afforded us an opportunity to correct out grave mistake in the form of a music video for “Future Eaters”, one of the best tracks off of that aforementioned EP. Want to hear what exactly makes it so good? Scroll on down below for a taste, alongside some bleak, nihilistic visions of despair and consumption.
In case you somehow managed to miss it from the acerbic visuals of the video or the track’s name, “Future Eaters” is all about our rapidly spiraling out consumption of the planet and ourselves. And the music fits the theme, channeling that kind of deep, chasm-like miasmic death metal that made us fall in love with Hadal Maw originally, all those years ago now. Especially powerful, as always with this band, are the drums; they run an interesting balance between being dynamic and unexpected and brutally punchy. They lend a crisp edge to what can otherwise be a genre that’s all mud, turning Hadal Maw’s tones into stabbing knives of metal efficiency.
These ties between the themes of the track and its tone are, of course, no accident. The band says:
“PRAYER WON’T RAISE THE SELF-DEFEATED, GOD WONT WEEP FOR FUTURE EATERS”. We consume like there’s no tomorrow, believing our feast is infinite. We are in danger of eating our future, while naively passing blame or offering prayer and faith instead of action. We are the snake eating itself, time to sever the head! Utilising the lucid minds and eyes of guitarist Nick Rackham and long-time Hadal Maw collaborator Ian Ritter, “Future Eaters” births 3 characters that embody hollow faith, devilish greed and inevitable plague using the bands frontman Sam Dillon as their vessel to nightmarish effect.
Alright! Enough superlatives and extraneous information that distracts from death metal! “Future Eaters” comes to use from Oblique Order, which was released on December 31st 2021 (that’s right) via the uncompromising Blighttown Records. Head on over here to listen to it in full and purchase it (and perchance some sick merch). Do it.