Corrupt Moral Altar are men of few words, but who needs words when their releases conveys their hate, anger and darkness as it is? Stating their music is born out of regret, depression, denial, desperation and drinking, they know exactly how to convey that to maximum impact, mixing in a combination of grindcore, hardcore and sludge. It’s hardly surprising then that two years after launching themselves onto the scene they have enjoyed so much success.
Despite this, there were no grand beginnings for the band, as drummer Tom Dring explains. “It was quite spontaneous, we had all recently moved to the Northwest for various reasons, had a few beers together and decided we may as well kill two birds with one stone and make music while having said beers.”
Although they came together on a simple premise, their lyrics never shy away from tackling bigger topics. They might delve into politics but they retain grassroots honesty throughout their work.
“Life experiences/poor decisions/getting overly smashed. Also politics, but more so how they translate on a personal scale, how your friends and family are directly affected by the bigger things going on in society.”
2014 saw the release of the bands debut full-length album, Mechanical Tides (Season of Mist). As with their other work, the subject matter is deeply rooted in current events.
“Reese had the image of a sea of bodies, victims of modern life all washing up on a shore in his mind for some time, and the title reflects that image.”
From the concept to the cover, Mechanical Tides brutality and unrelenting sound is captured perfectly by the cover art. “We commissioned Lucas Ruggieri to bring the concept to life and it turned out way better than we had imagined! Can’t recommend him enough.”
Mechanical Tides may be the first full-length studio album to hit the shelves since their conception, but Corrupt Moral Altar have been nothing short of prolific previous to that, with a demo out in 2012 and two EPs in 2013. Writing for this band has progressed far further than just an occasional creative outlet.
“We’re always writing, even when we try not to. We’ll take a break at practice, John will be messing around on his guitar then I feel an instant need to sit back at the drum kit and start playing along. We may be addicts…”
“It just seems to come naturally, it helps that I have a studio so we can record as soon as we feel we have enough songs for a release. Once it’s mixed we get bored if we don’t stay productive, in between tours we can’t just keep rehearsing the same songs so we need to fill a creative void by writing new stuff!”
“For the most part, we’d just jam a few riffs together and come up with a song in about 30 minutes. We tend to refine them all the way up to the last part of the recording process though, adding little weird bits of vocals or noise wherever we feel necessary.”
It’s not just writing that comes naturally to these guys, their rigorous touring schedule has already seen the playing extensively across the UK this year, and has landed them a spot at Leeds very own Damnation Festival in November amongst others. Talking about recent shows Dring mentions some dates that really stand out for the band. “Back in March we did 3 dates in The Netherlands which was a lot of fun, we’re back there for Incubate Festival in September and Blooshed Fest in October so really looking forward to that!”
For a band that never takes anything too seriously, their time on the road seems remarkably tame, as Dring goes on to explain.
“Most tours consist of a crap in-joke developed in the first few hours, which lasts the duration of the rest of the dates, they would be far too unfunny to list here. We’ve only done 3 short tours to date so there’s still plenty of time for a decent ‘major incident’ to happen.”
Predictably, it wont be too long before we hear more from the band. Just 2 months after the release of their album, there are already plans to get back into the studio for more recording.
“We will be recording for a split 7” very soon and shortly after that we will begin tracking our next album, also more tours are in the works so watch this space!”
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CAITLIN SMITH
