Looking back to old school death metal doesn’t mean being regressive. That is proven once again by Moral Collapse on the intercontinental project’s debut album. Moral Collapse was devised by Arun Natarajan, label boss at Subcontinental Records. While Natarajan endeavored to play most parts on the album, he invited several notable collaborators to join his innovative project. Guitarist Sudarshan Mankad was an ally during long writing and recording sessions. Moral Collapse completed the powerful triumvirate when drumming dynamo Hannes Grossman (Obscura, Necrophagist) joined. Originally invited to India by Natarajan for a series of drumming clinics and workshops, Grossman was enticed by working on a visionary old school record. Originally slated for a 2020 release, the self-titled debut was understandably delayed due to the pandemic. Now Decibel Magazine is thrilled to share Moral Collapse’s new lyric video for the sun-killing single, “Denier of Light.”
The album itself is filled with invigorating artistic choices that coalesce with Grossman’s mixing and mastering expertise. Saxophone rages behind doomy riffs. Djembe enters the percussive fray. Time signatures and rhythms mutate. But “Denier of Light” is an old school gem that could have stomped right out of Florida in 1991. Guitar solos scream from the heavy churn. Bass clangs as the tempo charges in the album’s mid-section sprint. The album’s collaborative spirit extends to a roster of impressive guest performances. Elsewhere in the Moral Collapse debut, Kevin Hufnagel (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia) and Bobby Koelble (Death, Nader Sadek) contribute mind-bending solos. Jazz musicians and shredders alike elevate this record to one of the young year’s most promising death metal debuts. Asked about the song, Natarajan and Mankad offered this commentary:
Sudarshan Mankad (Guitar): “Science fiction and death metal are two of my favourite things, and I’d always wanted to put them together. My idea of writing a song is to always come up with a story, a concept, and then write a background score to this story. That’s pretty much every song. For “Denier of Light,” I came up with a concept where I imagined the human race to originally come from the Centaurus constellation. Two stars which were fueling this dual-starred solar system began to die due to mysterious reasons. Hence, we moved to Earth and life flourishes here. These two stars did not die naturally and it was an evil act of mass destruction. Such a massive destructive act didn’t happen at the speed of light, it moved slowly and was quite horror-filled. This spoke a lot about imploding virtues of the unscrupulous. Hence, the tempo is slower compared to other songs on this album. I had most of the song ready and Arun helped me with arranging the song to its final form. I really enjoyed writing the guitar solos for this song as I wanted to give it that disoriented space feel.”
Arun Natarajan (Guitars, Bass, Vocals/Lyrics): “My role in complimenting Sudarshan was quite simple. He had the backbone of the track ready, I devised some of the chorus-phrasing and looped those parts a few times more. I also tried to rely on the chorus riffs for vocals and the guitar solos, with subtle changes from Hannes on drums and myself on bass. I’ve always wanted to start a song with the chorus. As cliched as it sounds, the song has a good memorable interaction with the listener when it opens with a chorus line, IMO. The song was initially called “Proxima” as a working title, then later got to be known as “Denier of Light.” We tried to capture an old-school, slowed down vibe on this track, which is quite like the closer on the album. You can hear influences from Carcass and early Obituary.”
Murder the lights and blast Moral Collapse’s new lyric video below. The album will release on Subcontinental Records on April 2nd.
Pre-order Moral Collapse’s self-titled debut HERE
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