The Gloom in the CornerMelbourne’s The Gloom In The Corner have been impossible to avoid with their crushing, blockbuster singles from their new album Royal Discordance.
The album is a complete level up for the band – channelling their operatic and theatrical sound with My Chemical Romance influences and the best of Australian metalcore.
They’ve been sitting on these songs since 2023 and in 2024 primary songwriter and vocalist Mikey Arthur travelled to Nashville, Tennessee to record Royal Discordance with producer Jonathan Dolese, known for his work with acts such as D.R.U.G.S, Chelsea Grin, and Cane Hill.
Behind the guttural screams and monolithic breakdowns there is a whole cinematic universe and narrative told through the lyrics of each album. To cement this unique concoction they’ve coined the term, cinema-core.
It’s a world that Arthur has been creating and writing about since high school. Some of the characters and the setting for the Gloom universe came from short stories he worked on during his formative years.
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The story officially started from their debut album and each album follows a certain arc of the story. It’s the driving ethos of the band and something that Arthur believes helps them stand out from their peers.
“I started this thing as a concept driven project and it will end as a concept driven project,” Arthur sates from his Melbourne office over a Zoom call.
“We like to call everything arcs, so [the first arc] starts with our debut record Fear Me. The first arc ends with our three -rack EP Ultima Pluvia. This one, arc two, starts technically with Trinity and the The Jericho Protocol and then moves into [Royal Discordance].”
It’s a lot to take in and not always something that every single fan of their unique brand of metalcore has fully comprehended. It also depends at which stage in the timeline the fan has discovered the band.
“I think the reason why a lot of people haven't probably gotten into the story is because that first arc is a very convoluted, chaotic mess, that was originally not meant to be that long,” Arthur admits.
“Originally we were meant to go from that first album into what became Trinity. Then we decided, after that first release that we wanted to kind of explore the universe a little bit more, write like a couple more EPs or singles and whatnot, just to kind of like give ourselves like a little bit of time to build expectation for another big project like Trinity.
“So it has made the story very difficult to get into.”
Arthur gives The Music the abridged version of events for those who are tuning in for the first time at the Royal Discordance era.
For those wanting to get up to speed on the story he recommends at the very least going back and listening to the single The Jericho Protocol and the 2022 album Trinity. For those looking to dive in further there are short stories and further insights available on their website.
“I'd say for this point in the story right now, it's kind of like the mid-point of the arc,” he explains. “In this world, there's supernatural things and there's hell and heaven. Well, less so heaven now, I guess, after Jericho.
“But I'd say that we've kind of hit the point where the apocalypse has started, at least in what we would consider earth. The story that follows is following the leader of a resistance faction that rises up against like the big tyrannical dude that's kind of leading the apocalypse at this point. So that's the short – very short – abridged version.”
Even for Arthur it’s a massive task just keeping track of everything to make sure he doesn’t retcon the universe by creating inconsistencies. This includes “big-ass docs” for each album to track not just the lyrics but the story, its intentions and even the little mannerisms of each character.
Although Arthur has no official education in writing, his depth for world-building is comparable to the books, films and video games that he grew up discovering.
A week after Royal Discordance is released The Gloom In The Corner will be supporting King 810 on their national tour alongside Aussie nu-metal brothers-in-arms Dregg. In slots like this it’s hard for the band to play anything in chronological order, but Arthur is realistic about what is and isn't possible.
“When it comes to the live aspect, we're very aware of the fact that telling stuff in chronological order, especially in a support slot kind of basis, people aren't going to get it,” he admits. “So we’re very much more focused on putting on the best show possible that we can.
“We just take the songs as they are.”
However, there is room for theatrics and story-telling in modern-day metal.
Bands like Ice Nine Kills have taken their theatrical live show to arenas around the world with costume changes, murder, blood and guts live on stage. Parkway Drive reinterpreted their music with an orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in a black-tie event.
One of the big inspirations for Arthur is Sleep Token who are taking over the world with their cloaked, mysterious mysterious, mask-wed members. But this isn’t the main reason Arthur admires them.
“I saw snippets from the Download Festival set and I'm like that production is insane, who has the money to put a fucking waterfall on stage?” Arthur exclaims. “Like that's stupid money. That is stupid money. I don't even see bands like Metallica doing stuff like that. Like that's insane.”
When Arthur imagines a theatrical, chronological live show for The Gloom In The Corner the ideas are endless, but the budget is not.
“It would have to be an album in full and it would probably only be like a one or two off performance just based in Melbourne because all the actors and everything are down here and flying them around would also get very expensive along with the stage props and everything like that,” he outlines.
“I think for now, moving forward, what I would like to do is get at least a lot more stage props and whatnot on stage, which are kind of feasible and flyable and everything like that. Which is what Ice Nine Kills started out doing first when they were on those support slots. They would have costume changes for the band members. I'm not expecting that because that's bullshit.
“But they also had stage props which were permanently set up onstage, almost like scrims and whatnot from back in the day,” he adds. “I feel like something like that's a little bit more feasible compared to plotting out like an entire stage performance.
“We probably won't do anything for the King 810 run but when we come back for the next runs that we do, I'd like to have something implemented for that for sure.”
The Gloom In The Corner’s Royal Discordance is out now, with tickets to their national trek supporting King 810 on sale now.
King 810 – Australian Tour 2026
With special guests The Gloom in The Corner and Dregg
Wednesday, March 4th – Jive Bar, Adelaide, SA
Thursday, March 5th – Max Watts, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, March 6th – Crowbar, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, March 7th – King Street Warehouse, Newcastle, NSW
Sunday, March 8th – Crowbar, Brisbane, QLD
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
