Melbourne band The Gloom in the Corner are more than just a run of the mill metalcore outfit that writes songs about the trivialities of day to day existence.

Much more.

"We have a whole concept thing that's been going on since the first record dropped in 2016", explained vocalist and founding member Mikey Arthur. "We wanted to do something that was a little bit out of the box for most concept bands. There are concept bands out there like Defeater who focus on return soldiers of war and stuff like that and then there are other bands like Sworn In who focus on one self-loathing person. What we decided to do was we took aspects from a lot of pop culture - specifically action movies and stuff like that, and horror films - and decided to make it into one whole story".

That concept began with debut Fear Me before leading into Homecoming and now Flesh & Bones, with a story arc set in an ulterior landscape that centres around people and situations that you would find hard to connect with in the world we inhabit. It is a complex, yet ultimately addictive narrative told through music that enables you to either immerse yourself in the storyline and characters or if you prefer simplicity, merely listen to the dual-edged songs that also work as a stand-alone entity.

Because of this, Arthur admits the thought process that goes into making the lyrics work on two differing fronts is at times overwhelming, but never arduous.

"It (the writing process) is not too different", he measured, "because the way we approach it is pretty much more or less the same way that we go about writing any other song. The way that I like to think about it is that it's more or less like a soundtrack to a movie or T.V show and each song fits with the emotion and feelings of the character at that time during the song. For example, with much of Fear Me there's a lot of sad, melancholy stuff - there is some heavy stuff too - but there is a lot of sadness and the process of loss and grief so we kind of atone to that. There are parts in it where it's super, super heavy and super, super light whereas the character in this release is super, super narcissistic and arrogant and more unrelenting. Totally remorseless in everything. So a lot of the music that transpires from Flesh & Bones is super, super heavy and the lyrics are super narcissistic but the way that we go about writing when it comes down to lyrical content is we want to make it still relatable. There needs to be a surface level that people can relate to. The best example is our track 'War' on the E.P Homecoming. That's about the story told of the main protagonist of that record and the horrors of war that he has to endure while he's fighting overseas, and even though that is a whole story that goes on in that song and the basics of the song, it is very much more of an emotional release of what a lot of return veterans feel when they come home. We always have a base level for lyrics that we have to make relatable for people to ingest and the story is secondary underneath that. That way even if you aren't into the story you can still enjoy the music and connect with the lyrics on some emotional aspect".

In the full interview Mikey discusses the early days of The Gloom In The Corner and their origins as an electronic dance music project, the initial thoughts behind creating a conceptual story for their music, the basics of the entire story arc, new E.P Flesh & Bones, the limits they place on themselves with new material, coming up with a cohesive and flowing setlist for songs that connect lyrically and more.