1. Very delighted to have you guys featured on the site with this interview! Before we jump into talking about the new single, more new material, and of course the Hellbound Cruise, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself and what you do in the band, as well as provide a little backstory on the band and your formation?

Thanks for having me on here! I'm Kynan and I'm the vocalist of Diamond Construct, I also write the songs 50/50 with my brother Braden who is also our guitarist. The band started back at the end of 2014 by myself and Bradz out of another band which was more of a high school band with different members. It was like melodic hardcore and we were always into more metal stuff so when some of our mates left the band to do other things we decided to re-brand into what it is today.

2. When I was doing my previous site, I reviewed Angel Killer Zero and described it as the sound of the Matrix coming apart while the Smith virus replicates out of control; I also described your sound as “metal trap”—if trap metal is rappers influenced by metal and alternative bands, do we call metal bands drawing influence from trap metal “metal trap”? At any rate, the point here is that when listeners, and especially reviewers and interviewers who need to provide a sonic frame of reference for readers, encounter something that is not derivative, we really run into the limitations of language to describe what we’re hearing. I’m reminded of the quote, “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” I’ve likened reviewing music to a combination of a sports scout describing how an athlete plays and a sommelier tasting wine. I’m wondering if you could give us a peek behind the curtain and talk about your influences and what goes into the writing process for you guys.

For sure! We've definitely thrown around the term Trap Metal in the past about our sound. More so with DCX2. I think AKZ is a bit of that but a lot more of the Nu-metalcore sound with our own spin on it. It's hard to put a specific genre to that album because it's vastly different from song to song in my opinion. Tracks like 'I Don't', 'Neon' and 'Clickbait' are all completely different sounds but fall under the same umbrella for us mostly because of the guitar work we do to tie it all together. In terms of influences I'd say our biggest would be 90's and early 2000's nu-metal. Bands like Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit. But also a lot of metalcore bands like Architects, BMTH, Volumes and other sounds like Meshuggah. Although we do listen to a lot of electronic music, rap music like Suicideboys and softer stuff too. So many influences it's hard to put it down to just a few!

3. Speaking of writing, you’ve indicated that you’re working on some new material. What can you tell us about that?

At the moment we've got SO many demos. All in different areas of our sound that we want to pursue. So we've got a few projects in the works. That's the good thing about having a more diverse sound from a couple albums and EP's is that you can see what works and what doesn't. What DC fans love and what misses.

4. The newest released material is the single “Discarded.” What can listeners who haven’t heard it yet expect? What themes does the track explore?

For people who haven't listened to 'Discarded' yet, I'd say it's a bit of a surprise because you think it's going one way and then the chorus is unexpected. But I think it's blended our melodic side with our heavier metalcore side well. It's a sound that we know we'd love to explore more of because every time we seem to do a chorus our fans love that. We don't have many melodic songs to begin with.

5. Last year was a big touring year for you guys, including touring Europe for the first time! What were some highlights from that tour?

It was a big year! There are so many memories and highlights from our first Euro tour I don't know where to begin. Seeing the nightliner for the first time was jaw dropping. Truly a pinch yourself moment when you realise you're touring on one of those. Everyone from the other bands on that bus were just lovely people. We made lifelong friends with them as we went along, it was very hard to say goodbye at the end. I think one of the highlights of the tour was playing Corefest. That was a moment for us where we really stood up to show a bigger crowd what we could do. And at our very first show overseas in Eindhoven, we all gathered before the set and took turns in speaking about how grateful we were to be there.

6. What were some highlights of your Australian dates?

Stray From The Path's last tour was a great highlight from the Aus tours we did. We have a lot of respect for those guys and it was awesome to share the stage with them on their last lap around Aus.

7. You’ll be performing on the Hellbound Cruise in October with some heavy hitters in the metalcore scene, headlined by Parkway Drive. What can you tell us about that?

I can't actually comment on the cruise unfortunately because there's some things in the works around it happening at the moment that will be announced soon! Sorry about that.

8. No worries! Any plans to come to the US at some point?

100% We really want to. Most of our listeners come from the U.S and I feel like we'd go really well there. We're just waiting for the right opportunity for us to go there because it's so expensive. 

9. When I was doing my previous project, I had a conversation with Morgoth Beatz (guitarist, Seven Hours After Violet and Winds of Plague; “genre neutral” producer and songwriter who has worked on tracks for artists such as BONES, Suicide Silence, Scarlxrd, Issues, Kid Cudi, MGK, and Juice WRLD), and in the course of that conversation one of the things we touched on was whether or not there could truly be a post-genre artist/band or if there always was going to be some kind of genre homebase, however tenuous the sonic connection. What are your thoughts?

I think in all honesty, everything derives from one genre at some point. Every single artist draws inspiration from previous works along the way. And the artists we draw from have looked for inspiration from other artists they listen to. It's the beauty of music. The journey of metal music dates back to around the time Black Sabbath were around and it just evolved so much from there. Nowadays with streaming platforms it's getting faster and faster to evolve. So I think that yes there are definitely bands or artists that are post-this or that but those titles make it easier for people to digest what they've just heard.

10. Last question: You’ve been granted magical powers to bring five bands or artists past or present, living or deceased, together, at their peak, for a one-night only show. What’s the lineup?

Ooooooh okay this is good. Linkin Park with Chester, 1999 Big Day Out Korn and Slipknot. XXX Tentacion and late 90's Meshuggah.