Once Human's new single Cold Arrival is a meditation on loss

SoCal melodeath troupe Once Human have unveiled their crushing new single Cold Arrival taken from their upcoming album Scar Weaver.

Written in tribute to a close friend of the band named Jared who passed in 2020, the song explores the emotional shock of unexpected loss and the weight of grief, channelled into an emotional epic with shades of everyone from Mastodon to At The Gates and Jinjer.

Speaking to Hammer about the single, vocalist Lauren Hart and guitarist Logan Mader opened up about the track's meaning, as well as the impact Jared had on their lives.

"This one is incredibly personal to us, because it was written for a friend that passed away suddenly in 2020 from unknown causes," Lauren explains. "He was a spin teacher, someone very healthy that you wouldn't expect to suddenly be taken away, so it really came as a shock. Cold Arrival was written for him, remembering all the joy that he brought into our lives and how he made us better people – not only physically, but emotionally.”

“We would all go to his place all the time," Mader adds. "He was really good to us; even when the pandemic first hit, he gave us the keys so we would have a private gym to work out in.”

“Plus, he used to play metal whenever we were there," Lauren says. "There would be really old people in the class but he’d do it just for us ha ha. He never told us that he was a professional pianist either; he was an incredible musician and had graduated from a music college. It was a very strange feeling for me, especially as I never really dealt too much with death besides my grandparents so it's the first real experience I had with loss, so all of that stuff went into Cold Arrival."

Watch the video below.

Once Human were formed by Hart and ex-Machine Head and Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader in 2014. At the point of the band's formation Mader had spent a decade away from performing to focus on his production work, working alongside everyone from Five Finger Death Punch for their debut Way Of The Fist to Gojira for The Way Of All Flesh.

Honing in on a contemporary metal sound with strong overtones of melodeath, Once Human have since supported the likes of Fear Factory and, most recently, Cradle Of Filth. The band's third album, Scar Weaver is due for release on February 11 via EarMusic.

Once Human previously released the singles Only In Death and Deadlock from the album, featuring Mader's ex-Machine Head bandmate Robb Flynn as a guest vocalist.

"You generally don't see Robb popping up on other people's albums, so I was really happy when he agreed to join us for Deadlock," Mader says. "We knew we wanted a guest feature vocalist on the song anyway and Robb made perfect sense. He jumped right in and was involved creatively; he really took the reins and wanted to do some arrangement changes, which we really liked".

The video for Cold Arrival was shot on the band's US tour with Cradle of Filth in October 2021 and was directed & edited by Thomas Crane at KillDevil Films, with additional fan footage and thanks to Brittney Rose, Karina Macias and Kyle Castillo.

Scar Weaver is due Februry 11 via EarMusic

Staff writer for Metal Hammer, Rich has never met a feature he didn't fancy, which is just as well when it comes to covering everything rock, punk and metal for both print and online, be it legendary events like Rock In Rio or Clash Of The Titans or seeking out exciting new bands like Nine Treasures, Jinjer and Sleep Token.