Graphic Nature unveils its first album.
As you can imagine, the English band composed of Harvey Freeman (vocals), Pete Woolven (guitar), Matas Michailovskis (guitar), Charlie Smith (bass) and Jack Bowdery (drums) are going to talk to us about mental health with a mind waiting to die, which is released by Rude Records.
The album starts with 404, a disturbing introduction which announces modern Nu Metal sounds confirmed by Sour, a chaotic track which immediately reminds us of the 90’s and its uncontrollable rage. Samples and heaviness borrowed from the American scene perfectly fit the atmosphere developed by the band and its abrasive groove completed by explosions of violence, followed by Into The Dark which more or less uses the same elements to spread its message with a fairly sustained rhythm. The noisy samples bring disturbing sounds to team up with this tormented atmosphere that lets a final break crush us before Killing Floor allows us a short moment of respite, followed by a devastating explosion and extremely jerky heavy riffs. We will find again a fiery final, followed by Sleepless, a short composition that struggles to contain its rage and that will let a very straightforward and syncopated rhythmic take care of the survivors. If you’re still standing, White Noise will knock you out with its mix of heavy riffs and screaming harmonics complemented by the raw vocal parts before 90 offers some respite with soaring but disturbing sounds. The energetic influences quickly resurface, followed by Bad Blood which takes the band’s codes to spread its saturated and abrasive sounds, whether slow and heavy or more vivid. Twisted Fear takes over, giving a more important place to the anguished samples before making them disappear and reappear to launch the moshpart, which continues with Headstone, a perfect composition to federate a crowd while ensuring a very mobile and motivated audience. Death Wish, the next track, leaves little time to breathe before swallowing the new wave of rage the band develops between suffocating sounds and simple riffs, followed by the melancholic A Twin, which stands out from the previous tracks thanks to its almost… soothing introduction. We still feel all the depth of the band’s message in this icy and distant track, which will break to let The Downpour close the album on a much more aggressive and lively touch, then very contrasted with this chorus welcoming softer sonorities.
Born in visceral violence and expressed with modern tonalities coupled with raw chaos, a mind waiting to die allows Graphic Nature to make a first step in the worldwide scene with rage while assuming its Old School influences.
85/100
Few questions to Harvey Freeman and Pete Woolven, Graphic Nature’s vocalist and guitar player.
Hello and first of all, thank you very much for your time! Could you please introduce yourself and the band Graphic Nature without using the usual Metal “labels”? Where does the band’s name come from?
Harvey & Pete: Hey it’s Harvey and Pete from Graphic Nature. We’re a band that plays very heavy music? Haha. We got the name from a Deftones track and just love the way it explains the band fully without even needing to hear the music.
a mind waiting to die, your debut album, is about to come out. How do you feel about it? Do you already have some feedback?
Harvey & Pete: Excited and nervous. Excited because it’s our first full length and we’re really proud of what we’ve created. Nervous because there’s something very vulnerable about pouring your literal heart and soul into art for the world to criticise, whether good or bad! We’ve had some really great feedback so far so we’re very grateful for the support.
How would you sum a mind waiting to die up in only three words?
Harvey & Pete: Real as fuck.
How did you deal with the composition process for this album? In hindsight, do you think some things could be improved for the future compositions?
Harvey & Pete: We wrote the album during lockdown so it was a lot of back and forth between emails and WhatsApp tweaking the songs for quite some time. I think however we really got our stride when we finally entered the studio with Sam Bloor and just let our creative process go wild. Everything can be improved in hindsight, but that’s a task for album 2.
Graphic Nature doesn’t hides its influences from the American Nu Metal scene, especially from Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, how did you achieve to take those roots to create your own universe?
Harvey & Pete: We were all the kids who grew up listening to that kind of music, and I feel it really broadened the styles of music we listened to with the blend of Hip Hop and Electronic elements with guitar based metal music. So I think because of this it just came naturally to include different styles in our music, similar to those of Slipknot and Limp Bizkit.
I noticed a lot of worrying and disturbing samples alongside jerky and effective riffs, how did you pick them to darken your sound?
Harvey & Pete: We use a program called Splice a lot to pick samples, usually we just know when one feels right, or has a Graphic Nature feel to it. Anything that feels industrial, electric or sinister fits. It could be any sound, Killing Floor’s main sound is an EDM didgeridoo, you just know when the sample is the right mood you’re trying to get across.
You announced to focus on personal experiences about mental health issues during the lockdown periods, did it help to create music about those topics?
Harvey: Of course, you can’t force these subjects. If it’s something you’ve never been through, then how can you write about it sincerely? It’s my job as a vocalist to get the message across, and I will always do that for mental health awareness for as long as this band exists.
Maybe you have a favorite song on this album? Or the one you just can’t wait to play on stage?
Harvey & Pete: Killing Floor! We can’t wait to play that because the reception has been amazing on social media and YouTube etc. We’re excited to see how people react to that track when we perform it live.
Do you already have some plans for the band’s future?
Harvey & Pete: We have a headline tour in April, Download Festival in June. And I’m sure a lot more will come up throughout the year! Only time will tell I guess.
Are there any musicians or bands you would like to collaborate with? Whether it is for one song, an album…
Harvey: Charlie Simpson from Fightstar. He has a phenomenal voice so I’d love to get him on a track!
Pete: Aphex Twin.
With which bands would you love to tour with? I let you create a tour (or just a single show) with Graphic Nature and three other bands!
Harvey & Pete: Slipknot, Korn, Limp Bizkit. Nuff said!
That was the last question for me, so thank you very much for your time and your music, last words are yours!
Harvey & Pete: A Mind Waiting To Die – out February 17th on streaming platforms and physical media. Thanks for your time!