MÉLANCOLIA reboot heavy music by striking an uncanny balance between an uncompromising extreme metal beatdown and an earthquaking nu metal bounce. The Australian quintet—Alex Hill [vocals], Joshua Taafe [guitar], Billy Morris [guitar], Toby Thomas [bass, backing vocals], and Mason Page [drums]—level up by breaking boundaries without apology, introducing an incomparable signature sound in the process.

Gaining international buzz, the band continue to innovate and instigate disruption on their full-length sophomore LP, random.access.misery [Nuclear Blast].

“From the word ‘go’, the vision was to marry our image and our sound more,” says
Alex. “We’re throwing back to the music of our formative years, nu metal, while still maintaining the atmosphere we’ve come to be known for. The title is a play on ‘Random Access Memory’ or RAM, which is a form of electronic computer memory. Overall, the vibe was to ‘upgrade’ from our Windows ’95 aesthetics, so we’re leaning into Y2K and cyber aesthetics even more-so.”

The group initially emerged during 2022. A year later, they made waves with the eight-track HissThroughRottenTeeth highlighted by ‘Horror_Ethereal,’ which cracked 100K Spotify streams and 129kK YouTube views on its music video. HEAVY hailed the album, “This shit is heavy and evil as fuck,” and Brave Words applauded how, “The four-piece have crafted a unique sound that has already catapulted them to new heights.” In its wake, they toured Australia with Cattle Decapitation in 2023, joined Ingested for a European tour in 2024, and returned to Europe with Suffocation in 2025.

Throughout 2024, MÉLANCOLIA co-produced what would become random.access.misery with Declan White. This time around, the musicians fully embraced their formative influences, revisiting classic albums from SLIPKNOT, MUDVAYNE, KORN,, and SPINESHANK as well as nodding to WHITECHAPEL and VEIN.FM. It led to a rawer execution.

“We focused on landing somewhere between polished and raw,” he goes on. “We really emphasized the drums, trying to find that classic nu metal snare. We tried less comping and aiming for less perfection vocally.”

The intro and lead single “ALL_IS_RUST” finds the band firing on all cylinders. A bold drumbeat gives way to double bass barrage punctuated by eerie riffing and piercing screams. Its sacrilegious screed scorches as Alex proclaims, “No one will miss me when I’m dead.”

“Musically, this was written as the intended opener,” he says. “It gives a taste of what to expect since there’s a piece of everything from the album in there. Conceptually, it takes place in the mind of a dying man who has committed suicide after losing faith in religion. Following the tragedies in his life and his faith having done nothing to help him through it, he curses God in his final thoughts and accepts his fate of absolute
nothingness.”

‘Lithia’ [feat. Hunter Young] opens with the echoes of spacey clean guitar. At first, the vocals barely crack a whisper, cutting through the haze. The mood turns on a dime, and the guttural guitars and rapid-fire drums launch a full-on sensory assault led by Alex’s venomous command, “Martyr, spit out!”

“The album’s character is struggling with addiction and ‘What if’s?’,” he goes on. “The song is about a time in my life where drug addiction had me spiraling in an almost atheistic psychosis similar to that of a religious psychosis. I had become consumed with the idea of nothing after life and spiraled into nihilism. To this day, I despise organized religion for the horrible things it has done to society, but I no longer hold
tight to the ideals of nothingness.”

A palm-muted chug tosses and turns beneath the surface on ‘Picking Scabs.’ The drums kick into high gear and vitriolic lyrics singe on impact, “Fuck me dead, picking scabs off my innocence, noises…”

“This was the moment everything clicked, and I started incorporating more electronic
elements,” he goes on. “Conceptually, the song is about an unhealthy man whose wife has committed suicide; he’s struggling to come to terms with it. Before passing away, she donated blood to him. In his depression, he cuts himself, lets it scab, and picks those scabs as a keepsake of her.”

Then, there’s ‘SPIT!’ [feat. Christopher Mackertich]. A groan of distortion dissolves into another punchy beat. The raw refrain seesaws on top of bludgeoning groove in a call-and-response, “I hope it makes you feel…SICK IN YOUR MOUTH.”

“It’s inspired by the story of Elisa Lam who was found floating in the water tank of
the Hotel Cecil 13 days after she went missing,” he notes. “It’s written from the perspective of the ghost of the protagonist’s wife, mocking her husband who ignored her cries for help.”

Underneath the scabs, MÉLANCOLIA is unearthing the kind of truth you can’t turn away from.

“Random.access.misery is us finding our sound and truly maturing in our own space,” he leaves off. “This is blackened nu metal. This is our own thing. This is unapologetically us. Love us or hate us; you will fucking remember us.”