Style: Groove metal, progressive metal, deathcore (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gojira, Fit For An Autopsy, Shokran, Lamb of God
Country: Greece
Release date: 25 April 2025
Humans have had a long-standing fascination with technology, dreaming of grand cybernetic implants1 and attempting to bring a primal touch to its steel and silicon creations. This fixation has even bled into music: the crux of pop act Magdalena Bay’s 2022 Mercurial World tour was imparting humanity into a robot named Chaeri by ‘feeding’ her secrets sent in by listeners to a voice mailbox, then having her come out onstage and dance. Oria sits in a similar state, trying to find their humanity after years of calcification into machine. Does their latest release, This Future Wants Us Dead, transcend its metallic form or are we left with a heart of steel by its end?
Oria’s schematics can be traced back to two sources: Gojira and Fit For an Autopsy. Swirling around chunky grooves, crushing the listener under crunchy breakdowns, and exuding a biting humanist lyrical bent, This Future Wants Us Dead explores myriad compositional ideas while sticking steadfast to its rigid sonic framework. A bevy of vocal styles are used across the record, including mechanical cleans (“Tantalia”), half-shouted spits (“Pirates, Parrots, and Parasites”), and full-bodied deathcore harshes (“Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.”); Oria even throw in some throat singing for good measure (“Clouds of Anatta”). Structurally, This Future Wants Us Dead loosens and becomes more organic across its runtime, beginning fairly regimented in its compositions and allowing them to flow and breathe a bit more near its end.
So how does Oria handle its transition from machine to man? Well, when getting settled into any new body (an experience I’m sure we’re all familiar with), growing pains are inevitable. Opening track “Metamorphocene: The New from the Shell of the Old” in particular feels the most like a machine trying to recalibrate to its limbs, as its straightforward grooves are serviceable but missing a bit of punch to make them stand out. Additionally, the vocal performance is the record’s weakest, the harsh vocals lacking bite and the clean vocals coming across as stilted and robotic, and not in a way that is likely intended. Nevertheless, vocalist Leonidas Plataniotis seems to become more comfortable in his performance over the course of This Future Wants Us Dead. He fully comes into his own on “Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.” as he harshly bellows ‘Taste the agony of freewill’ before the listener is absolutely cudgeled by a breakdown. On the climax of “From Wastelands to Vile Hands”, he charismatically proclaims ‘We—will—rise—on top of the bile!’ and “Clouds of Anatta” sees a clever call-and-response of half-harsh rasps and throat singing. The lyricism matches this evolution in confidence, showing a steadfast conviction to individualism and self-agency.
The instrumental work betrays a much more subtle growth, beginning with a set of groove-heavy tracks that eventually become more generous with their breakdowns. The verses of “Pirates, Parrots, and Parasites”, for example, contain a bouncy core, guitar grooves rebounding off of punctuated snare hits and holding back from crushing heaviness. Later tracks like “Chthonic Uprising” and “Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.” are centralized by their breakdowns, using weighty chugs and group shouts to build into steamrolling climaxes. Moreover, it’s quite remarkable how easily Oria explore ideas within the relatively narrow framework of grooves and breakdowns, changing their formula up enough on a track-by-track basis to instill a strong identity and avoiding the trap of samey-ness commonly present in more groovy approaches to metal.
However, within these standout moments emerges a subtle flaw: song flow. In any given moment, a track has something engaging and fun going on, but when trying to piece together the progression of a piece, it’s difficult to make out its intention or trajectory. What’s missing is some kind of central idea to hold compositions together—yes, many tracks happily sit in a verse-chorus structure, but repetition of ideas is not quite enough to coalesce a piece into something cohesive. “Terragenics”, for example, sits in a similar groove across its runtime, establishing a Meshuggah-with-extra-squeals riff in its opening moments. The track ends with a surprising and engaging black metal-ish section, but the two parts don’t feel particularly related. The establishing staccato off-grooves are all but abandoned, and so I end up confused about how we got here. Each piece without a doubt has interesting moments and compelling vocal melodies, and I wish that tracks were more faithful to their best ideas instead of stringing together passages that happen to occasionally land on genius.
The closing moments of This Future Wants Us Dead tap into the missing nuance and elegance in its compositions, transforming from a ponderous fledgling into something wholly organic and finessed. The last two tracks in particular showcase songwriting mastery from two separate angles. “Tantalia” is sharply focused and tight, stubbornly ruminating on a tumbling groove led along by clean vocals. Occasionally, the rollicking trems get knocked into heavy breakdowns, but never without purpose or clever transitions, deftly pummeling the listener into the ground across its runtime. Conversely, “Slow Down, Take a Breath and Bury the World that Was” is a slow-burner, beginning with sparse percussion, subdued vocals, and quiet guitar picking. More layers and more intensity are added as the track progresses, taking a detour with an Inmazes-style (VOLA) solo on its way to a triumphant climax. As Plataniotis proclaims ‘We embrace our power within’, the track opens up, the agency demanded from the lyrics expressing a cathartic release as an ascendant djent groove triumphantly soars in newfound freedom.
Despite its cold and robotic exterior, This Future Wants Us Dead is remarkably human in both its desire for independence and its imperfections. Regimented and stilted in its introductory moments, Oria wield their appendages with style and focus by the record’s end. There are certainly still kinks to work out in the machine, though: a stronger focus on tight songwriting around their best ideas and a more persistent confidence in the vocal delivery will help to augment their output considerably. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to recharge my cybernetic arm-gun.
Recommended tracks: Slow Down, Take a Breath and Bury the World that Was; Tantalia; Pirates, Parrots, and Parasites
You may also like: Nostoc, Ahasver, Interloper, Hippotraktor
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives
Label: Theogonia Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Oria is:
– Leonidas Plataniotis – Vocals, Guitars
– Thanasis Kostopoulos – Guitars
– Stefanos Papadopoulos – Bass
– Jordan Tsantsanoglou – Drums
- I’m still waiting on my Mega Man-style lemon shooter. ↩︎
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