Diesect & Melting: In Conversation with Greyscale's New Class of Metalcore Maestros

It's been a big week for recognising Aussie talent.

As conversations continue to spark up across the country - and the world - we're setting our sights back onto the upcoming scene where two standout bands with new material dropping in May are gaining momentum... so much so Greyscale Records snapped them up to bolster their already notable roster

With Melbourne's Melting having already released their latest body of work in the form of You Exist Because We Allow It EP, attention now turns to Gold Coasters Diesect who are prepping to drop their own EP HIDE FROM THE LIGHT - set for release on Friday May 30th.

Today, we bring both bands together - including Melting's Tom Kuypers (bass) and Xavier Morris (vocals) along with Diesect's Damien Bigara (vocals) - for collaborative chat about their new music, signing to the label and what's in store for fans...

Welcome back to Wall Of Sound lads, tell us how life has been since you both announced your signings to Greyscale?

Diesect: It’s been really surreal and super busy! Seeing the amount of support since the signing and on tour has been amazing, and it's honestly been a little bit of a blur up until now as we’ve been knuckling down preparing for the release of HIDE FROM THE LIGHT.

Melting: Absolutely chockers—it feels like just yesterday we signed. Since then, we’ve made new friends interstate and discussed tours for the foreseeable future. Seeing our EP for sale in JB Hi-Fi was a spin out for sure!

Diesect, you have been doing the rounds since before 2021, meanwhile Melting popped up last year and made huge waves with your initial releases - what was a struggle in the early days of your band that now feels like a lifetime ago?

Diesect: I think for us in the early days, initially being based on the Gold Coast, meeting new people and getting ourselves out there was a bit harder being somewhat detached from the local scene at first but we’ve been fortunate enough to tour across the country many times now and make a lot of new friends doing so.

Melting: The band’s inception was a slow burn to be honest, we put a tonne of work into the first two tracks but weren't really sure what we were doing or what direction to pursue, that kind of led to it falling on deaf ears. We struggled hard to get shows from those tracks. But it all really picked up steam once we found a direction and stuck to it.

We felt cohesive as a unit and I think we projected that in our live show. Things have just been on a steady incline since then.

‍There's something special about the fact both Melting and Diesect (and even Reliqa) were discovered by WoS before getting picked up by Greyscale. From your perspective, why is it important for music press/media to always be looking for the next big thing in our own backyard?

Diesect: I think there's so many new bands and artists popping up in Australia all the time and our scene is definitely one that’s super worth paying attention to. A lot of our favourite artists sit in a similar space that we do or have come from so I think it's super important to always be tapped into what’s going on locally and be willing to give newer artists a chance, because any bit of support and visibility can go a long way.

Melting: It’s very much a double-edged sword. Journalists and publishers need to write about well-known bands to gain and cater to their audience, but the market can soon become a little homogeneous. By keeping their ear to the ground and being the first to pinpoint promising talent, they not only strengthen their credibility as being 'in the know' but also foster greater pride in the local community.

There’s so much local talent out there, and whenever I see a write-up for one of our homies, I’m ecstatic.

I truly believe that if more attention is focused on our backyard, it creates a better nurturing ground for future artists.

The exciting news from both camps now is you have EPs on hand ready to showcase to the world - give us a rundown of the inspiration and creative process which has lead to these being ready to unleash on the world.

Diesect: This EP started with the demo for the title track ‘HIDE FROM THE LIGHT” which was me just trying to turn off the stress and pressure I sometimes have when writing and just have fun with it. 

Being from a trap metal background and also being surrounded by so many talented friends I thought to myself: why not try to incorporate new elements and influences that we all have instead of pigeonholing ourselves into a sound we’ve already done previously.

We wrote this EP for the most part together in person after that and it ended up being the heaviest project we’ve done and also something we’re the most proud of, so to see it finally being released after over 2 years is surreal, fulfilling and nerve-wracking but we think if you like our music you’ll love this project and the new direction. 

Melting: You Exist Because We Allow It has a strong thematic presence of control, which kind of feels synonymous with the DIY process of self-producing the record. Alex learned as much as he could about mixing and mastering and that allowed us to create everything on our own terms. We wanted to go far heavier with our sound and drew a lot of inspiration from older sludge metal bands from the 90’s NOLA scene. We took quite a lot of the atmospheric elements from doom as well. And there’s hints of black metal and drone metal stuff in there too. We just wanted to push what could fit under the metalcore banner.

Rather than borrow from our contemporaries to help us carve out our groove in the genre, we felt that borrowing from timeless music will keep our music feeling timeless. There’s a space for bands doing the ultra modern, cutting edge stuff; but we aren’t in that space. We are happy to just hold it down, we know what works.

Tell us about your fav song on the EP and why you can't wait for fans to latch onto it?

Diesect: I think collectively we’d probably say 'THERE WAS NEVER LIGHT'. We were all in the room together when we made it and it is genuinely the heaviest song we’ve ever made, so we really can’t wait for it to finally be out and to see what people think because it is honestly a little ridiculous for us haha.

Not sure how we’re ever going to be able to top that one in terms of heaviness but for now we hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do.

Melting: Our favourite song at the moment is "Guided By Hand Ov Witch and Corvid” which holds a very special place in our vocalist Xavier's heart. It was the most emotionally challenging song to write thematically. Dedicated to his late brother in law. It is the most sonically unique track on the EP, blending every element of YEBWAI into a haunting and powerful veil of noise.

‍EPs are a great sampler for the band currently, but can we anticipate a full length release down the track?

Diesect: Definitely, sooner rather than later.

Melting: Absolutely. We picked up on a vibe that most punters just want 20 minutes of your set to be unfiltered, aggressive, and fun. So an EP allows us to do exactly that.

An album, on the other hand, lets you be a bit more creative with the ebb and flow, we think that will let us explore some more artistic stuff too. It’ll come in due time for sure.

Getting noticed by a label in 2025 is harder than ever before, what was it about Greyscale that drew you into their world and what advice would you pass onto other bands hoping to have their music heard by the industry?

Diesect: We’ve wanted to work with Greyscale for a long time, having seen some of our favourite bands sign with them over the years as well as a lot of our friends and peers, it just made sense for us. In the short time we’ve worked with them they’ve already been such a massive help for us and we really can't thank them enough for believing in us and this project.

In terms of advice, we’d say go as hard as you can with releasing new music and staying active, make sure you sound the best you possibly can live and put everything you can into your art - in our experience everything happens when it’s meant to so.

If you’re consistently getting better at what you do and trying to up the ante with every release, someone will eventually notice.

Melting: My advice to other bands is simple: just give a shit and be genuine. You can create the best music in your room, but the biggest downfall is believing it will succeed on its own. We rise by lifting others—so go to shows, support as many local acts as you can, and have a friendly chinwag with like-minded people.

People can tell when you genuinely have a passion for music which will result in the scene having your back.

Conversely, if your actions are solely motivated by self-serving gains, that’s a stinky way to go about it, and it won’t get your band anywhere. People pick up on that shit as well.

‍With plenty of tours being announced recently, you're all set for a busy second half of 2025 - what bands are you most looking forward to playing with and which shows should we mark in our calendars as one NOT to miss??

Diesect: We’re really looking forward to our upcoming tour with Make Them Suffer, Justice for the Damned and The Gloom in the Corner + being able to hit some cities we’ve never been to before.

We’ve got more exciting news for the rest of the year we also can't wait to share so keep a lookout for that!

Melting: Certainly going to be the last show of the Alpha Wolf run in Narre Warren on June 1st. We grew up just 10 minutes from that venue (which was a nightclub at the time), and now it feels like a full-circle moment.

We’re uniting to do the same thing we loved as teenagers and sharing it with a sold-out audience who also love heavy music. All our mates will be there for us and it feels like a special one for us.

Lastly, being the newcomers in the scene, we're always on the lookout for the next big thing - who do you foresee becoming the next big band in the local/underground scene currently that everyone should keep their eyes on?

Diesect: We think everyone should definitely be keeping their eyes on Darkmatter this year.

Melting: We wish we could name them all. But Gravitate is so sick. We can not get enough of their new 2 track. They are definitely going places and we can't wait to see what they do next.

Interview by Paul 'Browny' Brown @brownypaul

Melting's EP You Exist Because We Allow It is out now. Stream it here

Diesect's EP HIDE FROM THE LIGHT is out May 30th. Pre-order/save here