After six years, two EPs, one single and a commanding presence in the Melbourne live music scene, 2020 sees the debut album release from Alt-Metal 5-piece, Figures! The album announcement also welcomes the drop of the single “Underpaid Machinery“, which premiered over the weekend on BBC Radio 1 with Daniel P Carter, received subsequent play on triple j’s The Racket on Tuesday night and has been added to rotation on The Faction.
Figures today unveil the details of their brand new record ‘Operating in Unsafe Mode‘, which will be released on Friday July 17th, with pre-orders for the record going live this Friday June 12th, along with the first taste of music from the record, a taut, progressive, politically-charged single entitled “Underpaid Machinery”. ‘Operating in Unsafe Mode’ will be available for pre-order at http://figuresband.com.
Add to that, on Friday night June 12th, Figures will be hosting a very special livestream performance to celebrate the announcement and launch the single. The livestream will be produced by Woohah Productions at Studio 45 and will be going live at 8pm AEST at Figures’ facebook page.
‘Operating In Unsafe Mode’ follows two acclaimed EPs: Figures ‘Self Titled’ in 2016 and ‘Chronos’ in 2017. The band’s distinctive take on melodic alternative metal is familiar, but violently ramps the intensity up in a significant way. With equal parts soaring melodies, blistering riffs and rage, their alternative rock and metal influences are all unabashedly on display with a subtle but noticeable peppering of prog to keep the more refined local gig-going connoisseurs coming back for seconds.
On the release of ‘Chronos’, Metal Hammer UK had painted Figures as “…one of the most promising bands leading the charge, boasting a sound that’s a muscular prog amalgamation of churning, drop-tuned riffs, scintillating melodies and multi-layered density…”
New album ‘Operating in Unsafe Mode’ explores themes of dehumanisation, isolation and oppression, all through the idea of mass media influence and manipulation. The record was produced by Luke Cincotta and Figures, recorded by Luke Cincotta at Sing Sing Studios and Debasement Studios, mixed by Luke Cincotta, mastered by Forrester Savell and the artwork and cover design is by Will Devereux.
Vocalist Mark Tronson says of the new single – “I wrote Underpaid Machinery in the middle of all the wage theft scandals that were dominating headlines in Australia, specifically among hospitality workers being dangerously overworked and flippantly under-compensated. As I was a worker in that community that had been personally affected by these scandals in the past I had a lot of first hand experience and pent up rage about it. There’s a definite wartime battle ground aesthetic going on and I wanted the vocals in the verses to imitate lobbing grenades, explosions and machine gun fire.”
On the new album, he said that “We talked about themes of artificial intelligence and weird technology as an aesthetic basis for the music, but over time the idea warped into a malfunctioning, broken version of that, which then came through both lyrically and in the vocal performance. We wanted it to sound powerful and yet unhinged, even broken – to have a big polished sound suited to the music of today, but to maintain that visceral and uncomfortable intensity of the very early works of Deftones: Around The Fur and Nine Inch Nails: The Fragile.”
With a live resumé featuring an LA showcase, opening for international acts Hed (p.e.) and Pop Evil, local legends Mammal, Voyager and Twelve Foot Ninja, as well as being PROGFEST regulars and headlining 2018’s AMPED Festival, the band has distinguished themselves as leaders in a new wave of heavy Aussie exports.
