Denver’s Moral Law have spent the past several years carving out their own place within the vegan straight edge tradition, drawing heavily from the metallic hardcore and edge metal sounds of the ’90s and 2000s while remaining firmly rooted in the convictions behind them.
Four years after their debut album, The Looming End, the band returns with Solemn Vows to a World Deplored, a record that builds on that foundation with greater melodic flourish.
I especially want to tip my hat to guitarists Shane Burdette and James Acosta, who work perfectly in tandem throughout the record. One will lay down a rock-solid rhythmic foundation while the other cuts through with these epic, melancholic melodic lines, and then they’ll lock together on harmonies or switch roles entirely. The two have real chemistry that adds another dimension to the songs.
The forthcoming album also finds Moral Law doubling down on the ideas that have defined the band from the beginning: veganism, straight edge, and an unwillingness to accept exploitation and injustice as inevitable.
With Solemn Vows to a World Deplored arriving in November and a European run that includes dates with Earth Crisis and an appearance at Revolution Calling, I caught up with vocalist Alex Morales to discuss Moral Law’s musical evolution, the influence of xRepentancex, and what it means to discover that his own band has inspired people to embrace veganism and straight edge.
It’s been four years since The Looming End. When you listen back to that record now, what do you hear that reflects where Moral Law was at the time, and how did you want to build on that musically with Solemn Vows to a World Deplored? I hear more melodicism in the material I’ve heard so far.
We talked about this between ourselves recently, too. After we finished our new record, we hopped right on a tour, and on the long drives we actually listened to The Looming End in full for the first time in a while. It was an interesting moment to reflect on it.
I think there was a sound and a lot of ideas that had begun to take hold when we put out that first record that we’ve been able to flesh out and expand upon for Solemn Vows to a World Deplored. We demoed and wrote songs twice a week for a year straight, so the guitar, in particular, got a lot more involved. I also found a vocal range that I think fits this new stuff a lot better. I think there’s a lot more melody, a lot more complexity, and a lot more that we were able to incorporate into this mixture of '00s hardcore and ’90s metalcore.
The title Solemn Vows to a World Deplored is pretty striking. Where did that phrase come from, and how does it connect to the album’s themes?
First off, I have to give Undying credit for the “World Deplored” part. On our first tour, we covered “This Day All Gods Die,” and that phrase stuck with me. The “Solemn Vows” portion felt like a natural precursor to explain our stance and convictions.
It’s about ideas and movements we swear ourselves to, not only for our lifetimes, but also as a code of honor. Things we told ourselves were morally just and necessary to rival a culture of excess and exploitation. I think the defiance we tried to express in the songs carries a bit of sorrow, especially in “Scourge II,” so the title was meant to reflect the solitude it sometimes required.
What can you share about “Scourge II” and its lyrics? At what point did you think Elijah from A Mourning Star would be a great fit for the song?
When we first started as a band, we had written a song called “Scourge” that we felt was the beginning of something but also had so much further to go. So when we began writing this new record, we decided to take some of the parts from that version and entirely rewrite the song.
I’m so proud of what we made that song into. I enjoy the thought of being able to show my past self what it would eventually become when we began writing in venue basements years ago.
The lyrics are some of the most reflective I’ve tried to put into a song. There’s so much resignation and defeatism that surrounds us, and I must admit I understand the appeal of why people seem so withdrawn, but I can’t let the evils of an unjust world win. I wrote those lyrics to express the anger, the disappointment, and my belief that I will spend the rest of my life debating whether humanity is worthy of redemption after all we’ve done.
I reached out to Eli, as he has been one of our close friends since we toured the PNW together years ago. He’s also vegan, so I felt it was fitting to ask him to join us in on the track and I’m extremely excited to have gotten the chance to put us on a song together. Shoutout AMS and all they’ve done for us.
I remember back in the day when I was coming up, kids would talk about how bands like Youth of Today and Uniform Choice inspired them to go straight edge. What was the band for you?
Totally, I’ve heard a lot of people credit their claims to other bands and I think it’s always endearing to hear about what stuck with people. I found straight edge when I was really young at 14 and whilst I was into hardcore and punk I hadn’t taken too much direction from any band in particular. I found veganism at 16 from people in the punk scene, again never having heard an explicitly vegan band at the time.
I’ve said it before, but discovering xRepentancex after being XVX for a few years has fueled my aspiration to start this band. I can never put to the words the fire that band lit up in me and the way I felt I had finally found someone who said exactly what I could never convey.
Have you met people on the road who have said that about Moral Law?
I’ve met a decent share of people both locally and internationally who credit us to having been at least a major factor (or their complete initial motivation) in going vegan, some for straight edge as well. I feel like we’ve made something of our countless hours spent grinding as a band in those 20-second conversations. It’s such an inspiring feeling to have known I may have had the same effect on someone else.
You’re heading to Europe in November, including Revolution Calling alongside bands like Earth Crisis and Path of Resistance. Given how much Moral Law draws from the vegan straight edge and edge metal lineage those bands helped establish, I am sure that isn't lost on you and the guys in the band.
Yes! This European run is the most monumental thing we had done as a band thus far. I have flown across the country just to have watched an Earth Crisis set, to think I’m going to be touring with them in Europe is so insane that I most likely won’t feel the true gravity of it until I hear their first note ring out. Revolution Calling is a dream come true as well, such an incredible fest and to be amongst such an amazing lineup is an honor in itself.
All our friends and the people in Stronger Booking + Europe who have made this possible have my immeasurable gratitude.
I feel proud to be from Denver, where these ideas and bands don’t always get the same limelight as other cities and yet still we forged our way to these incredible opportunities. The significance of it all isn’t lost on me and I’m trying my best to slow down and enjoy these moments.
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Solemn Vows to a World Deplored will be out November 6 via New Age Records.
Moral Law on social media: Instagram
Tour dates:
10/9 – Salt Lake City, UT – Old Cuss Cafe
10/10 – Idaho Falls, ID – The Lomax
10/11 – Missoula, MT – Zootown Arts
10/12 – Seattle, WA – Black Lodge
10/13 – Portland, OR – High Limit Room
10/15 – San Francisco, CA – Neck of the Woods
10/16 – San Bernardino, CA – St. John’s Episcopal Church
10/17 – Las Vegas, NV – Remorse Skate Shop
10/18 – Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture Gallery
11/17 – Bochum, Germany
11/18 – Berlin, Germany
11/19 – Saalfeld, Germany
11/20 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Revolution Calling Fest
11/21 – Hannover, Germany
11/22 – Hamburg, Germany
11/23 – The Hague, Netherlands
11/24 – London, UK
11/25 – Folkestone, UK
11/26 – Ypres, Belgium
11/27 – Nantes, France
11/28 – Cherbourg, France
11/29 – Paris, France
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