Review: Moral Collapse – Moral Collapse

Style: Technical Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Callum
Country: India/Germany
Release date: April 2, 2021

The guitar is the instrument I know. Picking an Ibanez Jumpstart at a young age, and despite shamefully never progressing beyond mediocrity, I was suddenly on the road toward discovering this infinitely wide and obscure umbrella of progressive metal. Naturally, the guitar work is usually what I pick apart first on listening to new music, so believe me when I say I was rocked by the drums on Moral Collapse’s self-titled debut. It’s often more difficult for me to identify drummers by their playstyle but something about the musicality among the inhuman blast beats seemed extremely familiar. It was no surprise to discover that the man behind the kit in this case is Hannes Grossmann of Alkaloid, Blotted Science and Obscura fame, not to mention the seminal tech-death masterpiece, Necrophagist’s Epitaph. I could gush more about these drums but I should probably introduce the rest of the band.

Moral Collapse is mainly a collaboration between Grossmann, Arun Natarajan (Eccentric Pendulum), and Sudarshan Mankad. Impressively, the project was carried out at an extremely COVID-friendly social distance between Germany and India. At its core, Moral Collapse has all the hallmarks of an ultra high quality old school death metal record in the vein of bands like Nile, Carcass, and Morbid Angel. The musical chops are undeniable from every instrument, and the vocals are delivered with the expected aggression and venom. What makes this project special is the incorporation of unexpected nightmarish jazz sections, guest spots from saxophonists and violinists, and the surprising number of hooks amongst the bedlam. You’d think you know where you stand in “Abandoned Rooms of Misspelled Agony”, for instance, as the track begins with fast paced riffing amongst some delicious bass runs and dips into some sludgy, amorphic riffs then picking the pace back up before long. Suddenly, in the final third of the track, while Mr. Grossmann’s solo takes the spotlight, an eerie saxophone begins to creep in from a distance before taking centre stage for a perfectly placed, ever-so-slightly hindustani-tinged solo. “Suspension of Belief” is another track that uses non-traditional sounds and instruments to great effect, and is my personal favorite on the album. It’s a relatively short instrumental that bursts into a blistering blast beat pattern for almost a full minute until these incredible deep, boomy, hand-struck djembe drums drop in to carry the riff from Indian classical and drop it into a chaotic, dissonant Dillinger Escape Plan kind of erraticism. As this happens, horrific screeches and squeals produced by violin are layered in adding to the uncomfortable tension built up and held by the dissonant guitar chords.

Sadly, there aren’t too many further examples of Indian classical style permeating the old school death metal. The four other ‘main’ tracks are incredibly strong in their own right but I was left yearning for more djembe. “Your Stillborn Be Praised” is another stand-out track with probably the catchiest chorus and exemplary of the spectacular bass tone that clangs and pops across the top of the guitars giving a brutally metallic feel to the sound across the record. “To the Blind, All Things Sudden” is another great showcase of the drums going all out, while violin mirroring the guitars add notable depth to the transitions. Several of the tracks also feature guest musicians from acts such as Gorguts and Death, and the influences are tangible. Moral Collapse is structured very differently from more traditional death metal records outside of the aforementioned main tracks. For such a short LP at about 36 minutes, an ambient intro, interlude and outro to the album make up 20% of this run time. While these atmospheric tracks are, on the whole, an interesting use of effects, they perhaps veer too far into the avant-garde realm where the strengths of Moral Collapse clearly lie in the crushing death metal they are capable of.

Recommended tracks: Suspension of Belief, Sculpting the Womb of Misery, Abandoned Rooms of Misspelled Agony
Recommended for fans of: Morbid Angel, Gorguts, Necrophagist
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Subcontinental Records – Bandcamp | Facebook

Moral Collapse is:
– Arun Natarajan (guitar, bass, vocals)
– Hannes Grossmann (drums)
– Sudarshan Mankad (guitar)