Within Destruction: Leading The Genre Change Craze
If you were under the impression that Within Destruction was a deathcore band, then you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Recent years have seen the band change into something a little more radio friendly instead of just being the ‘aggressive entertainment group’ they brand themselves as. Their latest offering in the form of their new album Lotus gives them a chance to flex their melodic riff writing muscles and show us all exactly what they have learned in the transition to becoming a metalcore band. We caught up with guitarist Howard Fang a little short of midway through their UK tour this month.
“I’m just really happy that it’s out,” he breathily laughs when asked about new album Lotus, “These songs and this material has been in the world for the past two years. When we were touring for Yokai over the past year all I wanted was to play these new songs live because it’s a totally new progression and new stage of our band and the fact that its finally out and we get to play it to our fans is incredible. People are just really appreciating this new direction we’ve gone in.”
It’s no secret that being a musician over the last few years has been no easy task due to the comically large elephant in the room, but being an international band made it even harder for Within Destruction to create content to keep up with their newfound audience off the back of Yokai. “So, due to covid, live shows weren’t a thing. What we needed when we released Yokai was content to go along with the music, but obviously we couldn’t fly anywhere, so we had the idea to match our music with visuals and animes we liked and made music videos like that. We made a video for Bang (B4NGB4NG!!) that utilises a green screen. I was living in the States at that time, Rok (Rupnik) and Luka (Vezzosi) were in Slovenia and our old guitarist Francesco (Filigoi) was in Italy, so we all just went to places with green screens and shot this video and kind of meshed a bunch of anime with us doing random stuff, so that we could work around and be able to get content out there.”
Though their musical style may have taken a complete 180, the writing process and thought behind their instrumentals stayed like that of their previous albums. “The writing process for Lotus was really similar to Yokai, we just pushed in a more mainstream direction. We wanted to pursue that mainstream ‘verse, chorus, pop structure’ style. With Yokai however, we felt that it would have been too much of a dramatic change from our deathcore sound to a more metalcore sound, so we needed it to bridge that gap so when it came to Lotus, we could go all out with whatever we wanted to do and not have it sound too out of the blue because of that steppingstone.”
Within Destruction has found themselves at a sweet corner of the metal market, where they can incorporate influences from a range of genres into their songwriting and have it sound like it belongs there. Far too often there is a quota that bands feel they must hit with trap drum snares or melodic riffs, yet Within Destruction has made these things part of their music without letting them take over everything else.
“To be honest, when I’m writing I’ll write with whatever instrumentation I think feels right. I’ll typically have the guitar, bass, drums, all the usual stuff, with synths and pads ready to go. Everything is always written together so that it feels a bit more cohesive,” says Fang. The band have really mastered a way to incorporate anthemic choruses into their songs without making them feel overdone or without cause. “We just did whatever felt right. It wasn’t really a conscious decision to include trap drums in songs, but if it works then it works. Its not like we’re intentionally trying to squeeze different genres in. When I’m writing I’m trying to find whatever makes the song flow the best and if I end up using things from different genres then so be it. If it works, it works.”
“Rok has the largest grasp on lyrics, but I know he’s largely inspired by movies and animes,” Fang says. “Sometimes he’ll take the perspective of an anime character and write from that standpoint. Or maybe he’s taking something from his personal life to use as inspiration in the song.” He thinks to himself for a second before laughing, “honestly, with vocal lines or meaning I’m not 100% sure but as long as people can have their own interpretation and can attach their own emotions to it, that’s all that matters.”
As the conversation moves on to this lyricism, it also moves toward the band’s favourite songs on Lotus. Dying World is Fang’s immediate answer. “It’s just a departure from everything else we’ve done. I’m sure whenever we dropped Deathwish or Void whoever was listening to that wouldn’t ever think that we would have a song like that where the entire thing is melodic and there’s four or five different harmonies in the chorus. It features Lil Lotus, who is this rapper who sings in this pop-punk style. It’s just something that you wouldn’t expect and that was the greatest challenge; making something that’s totally melodic with our vocals. This is the first time we’ve ever done cleans as a band. In Yokai we did pitch screaming, so Rok would scream but there would be a pitch so there’s a slight melody line that comes with it, but it wasn’t anything drastic. And now we’re doing full on clean vocals with stacked harmonies – it’s just something totally new and Dying World really let us go all out.”
In such an oversaturated market it’s so hard to stand out, yet Within Destruction have made themselves stand apart from the crowd and their competition with a genuine love for the music they create. There seems to be absolutely no pressure to pander to audiences and instead, they go with their gut feeling and create purely for themselves. It’s a refreshing change to see in an industry with fanbases that have proven time and again to nullify the efforts of artists who choose to change elements of their sound, no matter how slight they may be. With Lotus, Within Destruction have shown the wider world that there is so much more to them than just their deathcore roots and given us yet another steppingstone to their next drastic stylistic change.
