Photograph by Arun Natarajan
FFO early GOROD, GORGUTS, DEATH, ARTIFICIAL BRAIN
Moral Collapse is the brainchild of Arun Natarajan (Eccentric Pendulum), Sudarshan Mankad (Infamy) and the inimitable Hannes Grossman (Obscura, Necrophagist, Blotted Science). The project came about during the early days of the pandemic-induced lock-down in the two countries with a dead-set intention of writing forward-thinking death metal music that perfectly blended the ferocity of the old-school sound with the eccentricity of modern jazz and free-wheeling, avant-garde music. Previously pegged for a late 2020 release, the group had to rework its release schedule given the unfortunate continuance of the pandemic. Moral Collapse is now all set to unleash its debut full-length album via Natarajan’s very own label, Subcontinental Records on 2nd April, 2021.
Stream and watch the terrifying new video for ‘Suspension Of Belief’ featuring world-renowned French painter, sculptor and performer, Olivier de Sagazan. The music video, centered around his signature performance piece ‘Transfiguration‘, is being exclusively premiered by US-based extreme music website, Invisible Oranges, [HERE]. Ivan from Invisible Oranges declares, “Paired with “Suspension of Belief”— one of the few instrumental tracks on Moral Collapse — the physical power of “Transfiguration” is amplified, de Sagazan mirroring the song’s increasingly maddening energy as he drags himself further and further away from anything remotely resembling a coherent human.” The premiere is accompanied with an exhaustive interview with both Natarajan and Grossmann about the band, how it came to be, working with de Sagazan, and everything that’s going on in this video.
Natarajan, a significant figure in the Indian heavy music community, has been writing & releasing progressive death metal music for close to 15 years. In all that time, it’s been his constant endeavour to push known musical boundaries and blur genre-lines every chance he gets. It’s no different with Moral Collapse which sees collaborations with a heavy stack of seasoned musicians from all across the globe including guest spots by Kevin Hufnagel (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia), Bobby Koelble (Death, Nader Sadek) & Michael Woess (Agathodaimon) along with contributions by venerable jazz musicians like Julius Gabriel on saxophone and Mia Zabelka on violin. What started, between Mankad & Natarajan, as an attempt to try and bring Grossmann to India for a series of drum clinics culminated into this new-age, cross-continent project that boasts of some of the most interesting and exciting death metal music in recent times.
While the record was written and recorded only in 2020, the ideas for some of the set-pieces that appear on the record have been around since 2003 when Natarajan first tried to put the band together; at the time with a completely different line-up. A considerable portion of the oddball, free-wheeling music is purely improvised and played with utmost spontaneity. This unhinged nature of the music on Moral Collapse’s debut record sees its conception from themes of stillbirth and a mother’s insurmountable pain, anguish and distress – an interpretation of which is witnessed on the album’s cover hand-drawn by Indian artist, Manisha Mohnani. The 36-min long record was completely mixed and mastered by Hannes Grossmann at his studio in Germany, Mordor Sounds with most of the recording & engineering (sans drums) done at Natarajan’s own studio in Bangalore, India.
Moral Collapse’s s/t record is releasing worldwide on LP/CD/DD via Subcontinental Records on the 2nd April, 2021. Pre-orders for the release and all merch are now available on the label’s Bandcamp, [HERE]. The album will be available on all streaming services including YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music.
Moral Collapse is,
Arun Natarajan on vocals, guitars & bass
Hannes Grossmann on drums
Sudarshan Mankad on guitars
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