ORIA: Future Shock With A Groove

Image courtesy of The Metallist PR

This Future Wants Us Dead is a dark, heavy, and profoundly alive statement of intent from a band that refuses to stagnate. With this album, ORIA doesn’t just want to be heard—they want to wake us up.

Hailing from Greece and armed with a groove metal sound that snarls with progressive ambition, ORIA’s upcoming album This Future Wants Us Dead (out April 25 via Theogonia Records) is one of the most vividly thematic metal releases this year. For fans of Gojira, Mastodon, and Lamb of God, this is not something to skip—but even those references don’t really capture what ORIA has conjured. Their sound is feral yet calculated, apocalyptic but driven by hope. It is a sound that almost cannot be classified; you just have to take a listen.

Sonic Pharaohs of a Dystopian World

Artwork by Nasia Stylidou

ORIA’s new material feels like it was forged in another realm—a post-human, spiritually scorched future where machines bleed and emotions glitch. On the opening track, “Metamorphocene”, the vocals are militant and have a mechanical, mantra feel, yet it works with the fateful theme. This is a cybernetic lament of survival and rebirth. “Pirates, Parrots and Parasites,” a blistering social critique, is delivered with snarling wit and explosive rhythm.

But it’s “Guided By The Hand of G.O.D.S.” that showcases ORIA at their most visionary. According to the band, this track was always destined to be a single. “It felt like a strong representation of the more blunt and groovy side that This Future Wants Us Dead explores,” they said in a recent interview (below). Lyrically, the song dissects a society shackled by technological dependency, where AI systems dictate even the most intimate choices in life.

“The song’s theme generally comments about technological dependence, AI domination and how over-dependence on such systems can threaten our sense of free will,” the band explained. With its sleekly directed video (Lefteris Pasalidis) and devastatingly tight performance, the track is a perfect entry point into ORIA’s world.

Groove Meets Intellect

What sets ORIA apart is the way they take the most unusual compositions and make that complexity feel natural. While earlier material reveled in technical showmanship—polyrhythms, odd time signatures, and elaborate breakdowns—their current sound feels more focused, more intuitive. It’s easy for anyone who’s written music to tell these guys love experimentation. 

Drummer Jordan Tsantsanoglou’s performance is especially standout. His rhythms are never just time-keeping—they’re narrative. Alongside bassist Stefanos Papadopoulos, the rhythm section forms a molten backbone that lets guitarists Leonidas Plataniotis and Thanasis Kostopoulos stretch out and explore.

Concept with Clarity

At its core, This Future Wants Us Dead is a concept album about the ethics of progress. Set in a world teetering on collapse, it tackles everything from AI to environmental ruin and isolation—but never forgets the human heart beating at the center of the chaos. “We didn’t want the album to be too pessimistic,” the band explained. “There had to be at least a glimmer of hope, even if it’s overshadowed by the issues.”

And there is. In every crushing breakdown and soaring riff, there’s a sense that ORIA believes in something better. Their music invites us not just to rage against the machine—but to outthink it, outlast it, and transcend it.

Scroll on down and read the full, uninterrupted interview below this magnificent video.

Full Interview:

Photo courtesy of The Metallist PR

1. The song and the video, "Guided By The Hand of G.O.D.S." is particularly powerful. What's the story behind this track, and why did you choose it for a music video?

From the moment that opening riff was conceived, we knew we had something special. While the song was being written, it was all the more evident that it was destined to be a single, as it felt like a strong representation of the more blunt and groovy side that “This Future Wants Us Dead” explores. By the time we had to pick a single for the release, it was a no-brainer to go with that one.

The song “Guided by the Hand of G.O.D.S.” illustrates a walled society where its inhabitants are solely dependent on the “Generative Omniscient Decision-making System” known as “G.O.D.S.” to unburden them from having to make a choice in their lives. The system can go from curating a specific breakfast for the user, to deciding which partner is more mathematically viable for them as a mate, based purely on statistics. The song’s theme generally comments about technological dependence, AI domination and how over-dependence on such systems can threaten our sense of free will.

2. Your album balances apocalyptic themes with messages of hope and resilience. Was finding this balance intentional, and how did you approach it?

This was indeed a conscious decision by Leo and Stefanos who were collaborating on writing the lyrics at the time. The album is relentless from track to track, both lyrically and musically, with little to no breathers in between. We thought it would be interesting to explore more dystopian sides of these technologies, but didn't want the album to be too pessimistic as it does not align with our values as people. There had to be at least a glimmer of hope, even if it’s overshadowed by the issues the album talks about.

3. You're described as blending the heaviness of groove metal with the technicality of progressive metal (perfect description). How do you balance technical complexity with emotional resonance and accessibility?

We’re glad you like the description! Lately it definitely comes down to pure intuition and creating something that we want to hear within our musical structure, regardless if it’s complicated, easy to play, dissonant or beautiful. While we love experimenting, we generally try to find a balance between coming up with an idea that we think is compelling whilst also being something that we enjoy performing as a band. 

Of course during our first years, we were excited by the more technical aspects of our music, such as polyrhythms, high vocal notes, playing in weird time signatures like on the song “The Demon Beside My Bed” or writing complex riffs such as the one from the middle of “Blame Yourselves”. While we are very proud of the songs that we created, in the first album “Sublimation(s)”, this ambition still exists within us today, albeit more controlled and refined. The more we progress as people and musicians, the more this energy is harnessed in a more mature way.

4. Jordan’s (drums) work stands out in everything I’ve heard from the album. How do you guys approach rhythm and groove as essential elements in your songwriting?

Groove is a fundamental part of our sound and this came into fruition during the writing of the first record “Sublimation(s)”.

Many of the songs that Leo brought to the table as a guitarist before we became a band, had a lot of death metal elements that yearned for a death metal approach on the drums and bass. But when the four of us joined forces, each member brought their personality which helped construct our sound. We worked a lot on the rhythm section, and a prime example of the approach we adopted is in the song 'Fed to the Wrong' on our first album. The entire song is fast, thrashy, and has intricate death metal harmonies during the breakdowns. The song would have been more than serviceable with regular death metal bass and drums, but instead, Stefanos and Jordan transformed it by bringing their own subtractive groovy-flair to it. You can spot this in a lot of our songs. In many parts the bass and drums are doing their own thing compared to the guitars, but it still manages to come together as a single powerful unit.

For “This Future Wants Us Dead”, we knew each other’s strengths and what elements we liked most from the first album, which made the writing process a lot smoother before we even hit the record button. Now, when anyone from the band is writing a song, they know how Jordan plays, they have Stefanos’ different approach to metal bass in mind, and they’re more familiar with Leo’s vocal capabilities.  

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ORIA is with Theogonia Records