Groovecore band MOTHFLESH have been around for a few years now, releasing two album's, and a single. Their most recent album is out there, with them promoting it as much as possible, with possibly newer content to follow suite. The band then goes into discussion about this release, and what they have planned for the next year.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Mothflesh was formed around late 2018. It all started when Imran, was looking for a band to perform with and stumbled upon a 5-year-old ad that listed an opening for a vocalist slot in an online forum. The ad that referenced bands like DevilDriver, Chimaira, Machine Head and other NWOAHM bands that were at the height of their popularity at the time was posted up by Eze who had trouble finding a consistent metal vocalist and at the time completely ruled out any future pursuing bass in a metal outfit in Malaysia. A little taken aback at the inquiry of the ad which included a vocal cover of an Overkill song, Eze and Imran met up and agreed to give forming a band a shot after discovering a kinship for mutual bands.
Soon after the band formed with a loose line-up of rotating lead guitarists and drummers with past guitarist Giri Ganesan who co-wrote the debut album Nocturnal Armour. The band’s early sound can be best described as groove-influenced thrash metal, think if Slayer’s Disciple had a baby with The Haunted’s Exit Wounds. After extensive regional touring around South-East Asia, which included 30 dates in 4 different countries, the band experienced tumultuous lineup change with drums and guitars until the introduction of Ranveer Maddog Singh which the band met at his album launch for his death metal project. As Ranveer resonated with the groove-oriented music behind Nocturnal Armour and was friends with members of the band, it didn’t take much convincing for Maddog to fill up the missing guitar spots and inject his death metal technical virtuosity in the catalogue. This is evident in the single Skyfather and the band’s latest album Machine Eater.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Initially, the band was called Mothlung, but it didn’t strike the imagination the same way flesh did. Moths were always central to the identity of the band as they were mysterious creatures of the night that were drawn to the moonlight; however, they also represent spiritual regeneration and change which was what we the band set out to achieve with the local scene in Kuala Lumpur. The flesh in Mothflesh is the symbolic vessel of a nightly or nocturnal regeneration. As the band only plays after sundown and are considered by many observers of the local Malaysian scene as innovators of the genre, Mothflesh continues to keep true to its namesake.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
The band is based out of Kuala Lumpur, the largest and most populated city in Malaysia. Fragmented is the best way to describe the underground music scene which is split between the punk/hardcore scene and, the metalcore scene and the old school death metal scene. Mothflesh is fortunate enough to be able to play in between the borders of all these musical cliques as musically the band incorporates the stylistic common denominators like breakdowns and death-metal style vocals.
As for local bands to recommend, we’d recommend Omnivious which is an instrumental tech-death band and Patriots, a post-hardcore band within the same style of bands like Issues and Enter Shikari.
4. How would you describe your style?
We call ourselves a Groovecore band. We incorporate Groove Metal rhythms from bands like Fear Factory and Meshuggah and combine them with a zest of melodic death metal riffing in the vein of Carcass and Hardcore stops and breakdowns from bands like Vein and Knocked Loose.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have released two albums and a single. Nocturnal Armour, our first single is currently only available on bandcamp (https://mothflesh.bandcamp.com/). Skyfather our single released last year in 2020 and our latest album released on December 2021 is available on all streaming platforms.
Expect something fresh. If you’re tired of how sterile and overproduced metal sounds, as well as simultaneously bored with the stagnation of the genre and are looking to see where bands like DAATH may have gone if they had lingered around any longer, perhaps Machine Eater may be able to scratch that itch.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
Not anytime just yet, because we’ve just released our album and are focused on promoting it, but Maddog just purchased an 8 string Abasi Larada 8 string, so we are planning to potentially release some new singles, hopefully in a lower tuning too.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We have a launch planned in January 2022 in Kuala Lumpur and a small local tour around the peninsular of West Malaysia.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We plan on completing the line-up as we’re missing a rhythm guitarist and a permanent drummer, and potentially in 2022, release another EP to show the future of the band that would probably include more death metal influences within the style of Archspire and Veil Of Pnath.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Our latest album is available on all major streaming platforms, CD’s are currently on pre-order and you can purchase them through our Bandcamp or contact us directly through Instagram and Facebook.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Well, we’re a Malaysian band that hybridized a bunch of extreme sub-genres which is quintessentially Malaysian. The texture of our country’s culture is brewed in a multi-ethnic and multi-racial melting-pot. This is embodied by the band not only in our music but as individuals as well. Every member in the band comes from a unique background to contribute to the identity of Mothflesh. Our first song Dogmacore opens with vocals sung in both English and Bahasa which sets the tone for the rest of the album. Without spoiling too much, we’d like our listeners from abroad to know that there’s some exciting music coming out from the far corners of the world, and we highly encourage the continuous pursuit and discovery of music.
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