Dubai might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of extreme metal, but Mortal Koil might just change that. Born in the city’s tightly-knit underground scene, the band fuses thrash, death metal, and electronic music into a sonic landscape that feels both futuristic and mythic. Think cyberpunk dystopia meets Middle-earth, wrapped in downtuned guitars and synth-laden atmospheres.
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The band has shared the stage with international heavyweights like Korpse, Piranha, and India’s own Godless. But while technical prowess is a given in modern metal, storytelling is something the band has worked on. Their upcoming EP, New Age Extinction I, is an interlinked saga, that explores a world ravaged by war, corporate greed, and unchecked ambition. Their latest single, Berserker’s Maul, is a visceral plunge into their post-apocalyptic mythos. A meeting ground of thrash aggression, doom-laden atmospheres, and progressive metal flourishes.
The song builds with drum toms creating anticipation before diving into mid-paced doom riffs. Lead lines build into the verse, where growls intertwine with clean vocals and striking chord changes in a perplexing epic chorus. Layers of vocals and guitars lead to a sparkling bridge with ethereal synths and ecstatic clean vocals. Before proceeding to the outro which combines the intensity of face melting riffs with the ecstatic synthwork and clean parts. What a beautiful outro! A perfect mix of light and shade. Like the perfect ice cream sandwich.
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Metal
When it comes to world-building, Mortal Koil excels. Lyrically, Berserker’s Maul follows a warrior confronting a monstrous, mutated beast, a chapter in the larger post-apocalyptic saga the band is crafting. The narrative of the song is rooted in standing your ground and fighting back against fear. But beneath the fantasy lies a reflection of real-world anxieties: survival, fear, and the looming specter of a corporate-driven apocalypse. This ongoing narrative has been building from previous releases such as As I Endure and R.A.M. Now, Berserker’s Maul escalates the stakes, placing its hero in the heat of battle.
Mortal Koil intends on crafting a universe. And with each release, their vision becomes clearer, their sound more refined, and their mythos ever more immersive.
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We got to chat with the band about the song.
1. You incorporate sci-fi and fantasy storytelling in your music. Your earlier singles ‘New Age Extinction’ and ‘As I Endure’ set the backdrop into a post-apocalyptic setting. R.A.M. was about a cyborg gaining sentience. With ‘Berserker’s Maul,’ we have a warrior facing a mutated beast. Tell us more about that.
We wanted to break the trend of what we were hearing around us. Instead of focusing on singles, we wanted to do a concept album where the songs are connected to each other. Our idea was to talk about topics that we wanted to highlight but through a story that brings it all together. Each song represents a chapter in the story, kind of like a soundtrack or score for each scene. At the same time, each song stands on its own and is either a social commentary or delivers a message about our world and the very dystopian one we could be living in the future if humanity continues on its current path. The first song, New Age Extinction, sets the tone, giving you visceral imagery of a new world borne out of greed, political ambition, and ravaged by nuclear war. Being set in the future, cyborgs exist alongside humans and have also been affected—now free after gaining sentience. The third song, As I Endure, brings in the perspective of the protagonist affected by these changes to his home world, and from then on, follows his journey through themes of isolation, unfamiliarity, fear, and overcoming the challenges of this new world order. We then bring in the fantasy aspect in a unique way. As a result of warfare and nuclear effects, Earth and what remains of life on it have undergone mutation and changes—leading us to the ‘Beast’ in Berserker’s Maul that the protagonist will eventually encounter on his adventures. The rest of the EP, as well as another future EP, will expand on this lore and our protagonist’s journey, leading to a face-off with the one responsible for this.
2. If I’m not mistaken, the song evolved from an earlier demo named ‘Beast.’ How did the song’s final form come to fruition?
The idea initially came up in 2022 when we were fleshing out the skeleton of the story. This song even had a different iteration before the demo itself, which was later scrapped. The latest idea for it evolved from a throwaway random riff we came up with in a practice session, and it kept going from there. We wanted to change the pace up compared to the first three singles and bring a doomier, heavier vibe with some ambient elements. It was a lot of back and forth between jam sessions and a lot of video calls.
3. I can hear plenty of varied elements in the song, with some really great soundscaping, especially in the second half. Vocalist Kabir is a tabla player, while Ranjeev on synths brings in the electronic influences, I believe. What are the musical influences of the band?
What is amazing is that everyone in our band, while having roots and influences in heavy music, has varied tastes in both metal and non-metal genres. For example, Ranjeev likes psychedelic and indie rock, while Kabir is trained in classical Indian music and plays violin and tabla. Gaurav and Vignesh bring in the old-school and metalcore vibe on bass and with guitar melodies and riffs, while Kartik is a fan of thrash, tech death, and even more modern proggy sounds. We always see each song as a way to bring in pieces that you think wouldn’t fit but eventually end up sounding unique and fresh. So far, we’ve tried to bring in influences from different varieties of metal such as thrash, death, and even other genres like folk, psychedelic, and electronic. Speaking of influences, metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Trivium, Mastodon, BFMV, Periphery, Death, and The Faceless have shaped our sound. But we also take inspiration from bands like Deftones, Linkin Park, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and even house/techno elements, which played a big role in R.A.M.
4. Really enjoyed the guitar tone and the overall production of the song. While the tone is undoubtedly in the fingers, what are the gear and software, live tools the band uses?
We self-produce and record at Kartik’s home studio. He brings everything together in Cubase, and we later send out the tracks to our sound engineer for mixing and mastering. The chunky tone you hear in Berserker’s Maul comes from an old Schecter JL7 loaded with Seymour Duncan Blackouts, and we used a Dean Z with DiMarzios on other songs as well. We record DI into an SSL interface and reamp them during mixing. For vocals, we use a Neat Worker Bee and AKG condenser mic. While writing our demos, we heavily use STL Tones, Neural DSP amp sims, and GetGood Drums. Ranjeev uses synths from Logic Pro’s library and does most of the soundscaping. Live, we all use different amp modelers such as Headrush, Valeton, and Zoom.
5. The song features three vocalists, while Kartik has also contributed to vocals in the past. How did writing the vocal parts and melodies come about, and how did it work with figuring out how it would fit in with the rest of the arrangement
Initially, the band had two vocalists—Kabir for the clean vocals and Kartik on the harsh vocals. Later, we brought Tarun in as the dedicated harsh vocalist, and his influence really came through on Berserker’s Maul with his own singing style and flows. We always write the instrumental demo first, then add the vocals on top. That was also the case with this track. We had the theme in mind for the song to continue the story, so the lyrics and vocal ideas went through trial and error until we reached the final version. It’s an iterative process, and all of us keep trying out different vocal ideas until we are satisfied. Two of our band members, Ranjeev and Kabir, live outside of the UAE, so we often share audio clips and have dedicated calls to come up with vocal parts. Ram also brings in a different dynamic with his talent for voice acting—that’s how we ended up adding a garnish of vocal effects and narration on tracks like R.A.M., or beast noises on Berserker’s Maul.
6. What is the heavy metal scene like in Dubai, the UAE, and the region? Callous Mind was a band from the region that comes to mind. Is the scene rising? Are there any other good rock and metal acts from Dubai and the region you’d like to recommend?
It’s a very tight-knit scene where everyone in the community knows each other, but it is a very passionate and ever-growing underground scene. There is definitely a thirst for heavy music, and it’s only getting better! In the past 3–4 years, we’ve seen more growth, with international bands coming to play more often, which is also fostering growth in our local scene. More bands are popping up, and promoters are not only bringing in big acts but also helping local artists like us gain exposure. Some of the veteran established bands in Dubai include Svengali, Verdict, and Coat of Arms, but there’s also a wave of younger bands with unique styles, such as Metarust, Cypher, Steelhorse, Triton, and rock artists like Saltooth, VISH., and Skeptic & Sam Robson.
7. Looking forward to the upcoming singles, not only the songs themselves but also where the direction of the narrative of your upcoming EP New Age Extinction I is headed. Can you give us a hint? Also, are you planning to play live in India anytime soon?
It’s gonna get proggier, jazzier, and darker! The journey of our protagonist continues, and you will really see where the story is heading. One thing is for sure—we try to push our creativity to the max on every song, so you’ll definitely hear new approaches and ideas from us while maintaining our core sound. We would love to perform in our homeland, as most of us—except for our drummer—are Indians living in Dubai. Our drummer, Miguel, is from Peru, but he’s just as excited about the idea of playing in India and often talks about it! We’re looking to connect with promoters who can help us book gigs, hopefully later this year.
You can stream the song here, and be sure to follow them on Instagram and X.
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