ONCE HUMAN Feat. Ex-MACHINE HEAD/SOULFLY Guitarist LOGAN MADER: 'Gravity' Video Released

“Gravity”, the new video from ONCE HUMAN, the band featuring former MACHINE HEAD and SOULFLY guitarist Logan Mader, can be seen below. The song is taken from ONCE HUMAN‘s upcoming album, “Evolution”, which will be released on February 10, 2017 via earMUSIC/eOne.

Mader states: “We shot this new video once again with director Ron Thunderwood, because he gives us a lot of freedom to be ourselves. He is mostly a one-man army, so the convenience aspect is awesome. We love his passion and wanted people to see his versatility and skill outside of a controlled room.

“We worked with all-natural light so we had a small window of time. The wind was so strong that we almost lost the drone and Ron had to chase it. We were not expecting the wind and the dust, but we went with it anyway and in the end it really seemed to fit with the lyrics. The lyrics and the vibe of the video are nearly the same: constantly cloudy, unexpected, messy, racing complexities of the mind, and only a moment of clarity.

“This new video also officially marks the debut of Max Karon on guitars. He’s an amazing guitarist and played a big role in the creative process with Lauren [Hart, vocals] and I on our new album, ‘Evolution’.

“We are releasing this song as the second single because it shows the more progressive elements within our album, has meaningful lyrics and displays Lauren‘s diversity as a vocalist.”

“Evolution” is not just the title of ONCE HUMAN‘s sophomore release, it’s an armor-plated declaration. Having made waves with their 2015 debut, “The Life I Remember”, the band have dramatically progressed beyond the melodic death metal sound of that release into something more complex, emotional, distinct, and devastatingly heavy.

“Having been focused on recording, producing and developing bands, I had not picked up the guitar out of passion for twelve years but as soon as I started writing with Lauren, I fell in love with what we were making, and I wanted to play in the band and get back on stage,” states Mader, whose name will be familiar to metalheads not only for his production and/or mixing work on records from the likes of GOJIRA, FEAR FACTORY and DEVILDRIVER, but also as the original guitarist in MACHINE HEAD, and his late-’90s stint in SOULFLY.

“Our first record was getting the ball rolling, but now it’s as if we’re a totally different band. We really found our sound and our identity, it’s quite unique and I think what we’re doing is really on fire.”

Armed with this track and the eight others comprising “Evolution”, ONCE HUMAN intend to build on the groundwork laid down by the two tours they did in support of their debut, and make it damn clear that this is a band to be taken seriously.

“It’s only been a little more than a year since we put out our first record, but we were so driven by the new sound that we forged that we needed to get back into the studio and capture it,” Mader explains. “It was also important to prove to people that this is a real band. It’s not just a project I felt like doing on a whim, this is a band that’s going to have a full career, and now we’re really getting started.”

With the lineup rounded out by drummer Dillon Trollope, bassist Damien Rainaud and guitarists Skyler Howren and recent recruit Max Karon, everything about “Evolution” makes it clear that this is a band pushing itself to deliver something that truly stands apart. “Our first record was getting the ball rolling, but now it’s as if we’re a totally different band,” says Mader. “We really found our sound and our identity — it’s quite unique — and I think what we’re doing is really on fire.”

With the intensity and range of Hart‘s roar having drastically increased, she unleashes it across complex and constantly shifting time signatures, and thick, contorted riffs that land with sledgehammer force. However, this is not only about bludgeoning the listener into submission, the violence often juxtaposed with eerie atmospherics and dark melodies to create something with great depth.

“Evolution” track listing:

01. Flock Of Flesh
02. Eye Of Chaos
03. Mass Murder Frenzy
04. Gravity
05. Dark Matter
06. Paragon
07. Drain
08. Killers For Cure
09. Passenger