Written by Sosefina Fuamoli / Photo by Sam Kriesel

“It’s my baby, I have to be proud of it!” Mikey Arthur offers a laugh, taking a brief moment to reflect on what has been a whirlwind time following the release of Royal Discordance – the third album from metalcore chaos agents, The Gloom In The Corner.

A complex, nuanced and cinematic album, Royal Discordance is an expressive and confident step forward for the Melbourne group who, across the last decade, have been finding new ways to redefine their sonic vision. 

Synonymous with sharp storytelling and meticulous arrangements that elevate the overall project beyond being a standard, metalcore by numbers effort, Royal Discordance is a great gateway album for newcomers as it is a compelling listen for long time fans.

Created between Melbourne and Nashville, The Gloom In The Corner locked in during the creative process; with Arthur travelling to the US to work with producer Jonathan Dolese, while determining with the rest of the band just how this next arc of Gloom should present itself. 

As Mikey explains, the road to creating an album as dextrous and layered as Royal Discordance was not without its moments of doubt. 

“Once we started to get the final mixes back, that’s when it started to feel complete,” he remembers. “I went to the States to record my vocals and do the production with Jon Dolese in October 2024. We didn’t get all the instrumental stuff done until late May of 2025. 

There was a long stretch of time where we were trying to get everything done; life gets in the way. It felt like it was never going to get done. We started getting the final mixes back in late July, early August and once that happened, it solidified things. It’s done.”

Those already familiar with Gloom’s work will find the freefall into a concept album such as Royal Discordance exciting, layered with intrigue. Bolstered by aggressive riffs and brutal rhythms and percussion, is a sense of storytelling that leans heavy into dark theatrics while being unafraid to explore sonic curiosity. 

Key to this world-building is Mikey’s talent for world-building; a songwriting talent that has only grown in ambition and hunger in recent years. Noting that Royal Discordance has very much been a different beast for Gloom to tackle and ultimately deliver, the frontman is pleased with how it has been received by the public since its release in late February.

“With a stylistic shift, you can sometimes lose a few people along the way,” he admits. “It’s been sick though, people have been very receptive to the album, more receptive than I thought they would be.”

Following on from 2022’s Trinity, part of Royal Discordance’s appeal for Mikey and the band was the opportunity to do things differently. Trinity, a powerful album that landed with impact – a visceral and captivating album that put the band on more radars – it nonetheless was a project that presented its own restraints. 

Mikey remains open about the difficulties in bringing a mammoth record like Trinity to life, doling out lessons that he then took into the songwriting process for Royal Discordance.

“We had to look at our approach and how we wanted to do things differently. As the person who writes everything, I’m very meticulous about how we structure things,” he explains. 

“What was a blessing and a burden, was that when we first started doing European tours and the tour of the States, we realised how much of that chaos doesn’t actually translate as much as we wanted in a live setting. 

There are bands that can translate the chaos really well: we look at bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Meshuggah from back in the day, they could really translate it well from the records to the stage. The chaos we had on Trinity, sure, made for a fun listening experience, but when you’re trying to deliver it live to people who had never heard of you before, they may have been taken aback. We feed off how the crowd is receiving it and I feel like it glazed over a lot of people.”

Armed with a fresh creative perspective, as well as the input of a solidified band lineup that features Paul Musolino (bass) and new additions Joshua Clinch (drums) and Jesse Abdurazak (guitar), Mikey was able to generate ideas that a struck a balance between the signature cinema-core essence of previous records, and a redefined approach to their musical mayhem.

“It took a second to get there, because I hadn’t written like that in a very, very long time,” he laughs.

“The chaos still [needed to be] there with the orchestra and everything else we have, but there needs to be parts for people to catch onto live, hooks that people can remember – we didn’t really have that on Trinity. We wanted to make everything on this record, justifiable live. Even if we had to play the songs without the back up laptop, God forbid that it dies, we want to make sure that we have the opportunity to play through the songs.”

The addition of new members is something The Gloom In The Corner has experienced in the past, though with the addition of Clinch and Abdurazak to the fold as they embraced new influences and direction through Royal Discordance, the band was able to achieve a new, strengthened dynamic.

For Mikey as a songwriter and bandleader, this has been equal parts relieving and exciting when it comes to looking to what is still to come for Gloom; a new album means new live production, and with this lineup of the band, Mikey is keen to see where things go.

“I’m excited to elevate everything; up our production, everything,” he grins. “I wanted to do it when we did Trinity, but everything started steamrolling very quickly. We had a few lineup changes in that time too, which made things difficult.” 

“Now that we are more solidified and we have a little more time before we do the next thing, I want to fix up our live show. We’ve been playing a lot of these songs from the back catalogue for a very long time; it’s been the same-ish set over the last four, five years. I’m glad we’ve got this album out, because I really want to change it up. I’m excited to play around with what we can do from a live perspective. A lot of these songs are so malleable too, so we can stretch different parts out and make way for certain things.” 

His bandmates, cheekily described as his “sous-chefs” (“They make sure I don’t fuck the final thing up!”), have brought a new energy to the way Mikey approaches his own work. Incorporating their opinions into the intricate narratives he had already been building, the alchemy between Mikey and the rest of the band galvanised in a special way.

“Clinch is a phenomenal drummer and Jess is an awesome guitarist, writer and backing vocalist,” he explains. “Having those two come in, especially more towards when Paul and I started finalising everything; we got to have them come in with the outsiders’ perspective, from a writing standpoint. 

Clinch came in and went through everything. He was very meticulous about it, which is great. It’s what Gloom needed. We needed a player like that to be able to bolster the chaos and make sure it’s woven through properly. Same with Jess, he came in with other guitar ideas that I wouldn’t necessarily think of, or structural things. With Paul, if we were making sure we were getting the atmosphere right for the song, I would designate that to him.”

With the first quarter of 2026 down, The Gloom In The Corner wasted no time in recharging momentum; matching the release of Royal Discordance with a string of powerful shows supporting King 810 across Australia. 

Later this year, they will perform on the inaugural Hellbound Cruise alongside Parkway Drive, Polaris and more. In amongst it all, Mikey remains a keen music consumer himself, his attention trained on being spurred on by the community around him; peers and contemporaries pushing themselves into exciting new territory that, he says, the metalcore scene is ultimately benefitting from as a whole. 

To be part of it as one of Australia’s innovative vanguards, isn’t lost on him.

“It’s cool to see a lot of bands bringing back the older influences in their music, but in different ways. They’re also not afraid to try new things and muck around, they’re not afraid to genre-bend,” he says.

“I’m a big fan of The Callous Daoboys, they’re the ultimate weapons at doing that, I think. I’ve been meaning to check out the new CHAMBER record (this is goodbye…), but I’ve listened to the first few singles and they rip. Seeing a lot of stuff like that come through has been really exciting. 

I like seeing people experiment more than anything else. I think there was definitely a side to metalcore that was quite commercialised. That’s also cool, and the way that has evolved has been cool to see. But for me, it’s cool to see new bands coming out and doing something different with it.”

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The new album, Royal Discordance, from The Gloom in the Corner is now available via Sharptone Records. Order the album - HERE