The Gloom In The Corner Embrace A New Light With 'Villain'

The Gloom In The Corner offer a gritty love story with 'Villain'.

A new song, a new line-up, and a new perspective on their larger lyrical narrative, Melbourne nu-metalcore outfit The Gloom In The Corner hit back hard this week. Their first new material since last year's solid 'Homecoming' EP, 'Villain' is a fierce, energetic and cut-throat new track. Engineered by Alpha Wolf's Scottie Simpson (whose influence upon this band is clear as day) and mixed/mastered by Lance Prenc, 'Villain' rarely ever relents in terms of its aggressive pace. It's a piece crushed full of hectic mosh sections, suffocating darkness, fine-tuned riffs, aggressive vocals, two-step parts, sweet melodic choruses, and easily the best production the band have yet to display on a recording.

At it's darkened literal core, 'Villain' is a lovers tragedy of conflicted thoughts and emotions. The metaphor at play here is that sometimes we (tragically) have an affection and affinity for those who have committed horrible shit in their time, who have made some mistakes that they may not feel guilty about, and who maybe aren't the best of people morally. Yet they're people that we still can't help but love and care for all the same, becoming a "villain" ourselves, despite our own inner torment regarding these matters of the heart. (Also lyrically speaking, the band somewhat take the piss out of their own recurring "God abandoned me" lyrical motif here. What with the lyric: "'Cause God is gone, and so are we/he can burn in Hell for abandoning you and me". A nice little touch for long-time fans).

Directed and edited by Cian Marangos, the accompanying music video for 'Villain' is a well-edited visual affair that flows smoothly between the narrative parts and the performance shots; syncing up with the musical transitions at times for some real added punch. When compared with their 'Witch Hunt' video clip from last year, it's crystal clear there was much more time to plan and further flesh things out, as well as a larger budget to work with here as well. And that all shows in the final product.

[caption id="attachment_1104459" align="aligncenter" width="760"] The Gloom In The Corner, 2K18. Left to right: Paul Musolino (bass), Nic Haberle (drums), Mikey Arthur (vocals), Matt Stevens (guitar), Martin Wood (guitar). [/caption]

The lyrics and video of 'Villain' also introduce one of two new characters to the band's wider "Section Dimension" narrative; a story about heaven, hell, revenge, bloodshed, supernatural powers, and bitter, tragic love. If you're a little lost on this plot, the band pieced together a handy catch-me-up PDF for newcomers and fans alike to refresh themselves with before new music arrives. Or you can check out my in-depth piece with the band from 2017 right over here. Your choice, really, I'm just giving you options. But for now, here's the cliff notes on the current Gloom In The Corner cinematic universe.

Protagonist Jay Hardy - the main character of their 2016 debut LP, 'Fear Me', portrayed by frontman Mikey Arthur - finds his girlfriend Rachel brutally murdered. Her death spirals him into depression, and this leads him to be taken over by the "Gloom"; a supernatural force that possesses people when they're at their most vulnerable (hence the band's name). With Gloom controlling him, Jay commits a series of murders in the hope of avenging Rachel’s death and hopefully righting this wrong. While past music has centred around Jay's side of this story, 'Villain' is where things turn the other way. As witnessing her friends being killed by Jay was this new song's central character, Clara Carne, AKA "the Queen of Misanthropy". (She even got a brief mention back in 'Oxymoron’ too). While not much is given on her own history just yet, Clara was driven to track down Jay’s accomplice in these savage murders: a man who goes by the codename "The Devil Of The Sect" (who was mentioned in ‘Mud’, and who goes by the alternate name, the Hellhound. Totally not confusing at all). Instead of exacting her own revenge, however, this latest song's heroine actually falls in love with this "devil" of a man, with the song and video ending with her accepting him and her own feelings towards him. (We see this torn metaphor play out with scenes of Clara both embracing and then attacking her new lover). As for this unknown male character, expect his story to be revealed when the next piece of the puzzle arrives in the band's following single, whenever that may drop.

Then, on top of all that, the below music video concludes with a sneaky little appearance from Jay himself. Either a nod towards past releases or perhaps revealing that Jay will play a much larger role in the plot of the no doubt second LP that's to come from the group in 2019, we'll all find out soon enough!

But of course, maybe you just don't really care about the band's over-arching lyrical plot, and that's fine too. Because even then, you've still got a wicked new track to sink your multiple sets of teeth into with the demented form of 'Villain'. Enter the new era of the Sect below: