With hip-hop–based musicians such as Ghostemane, Denzel Curry, Vic Mensa and City Morgue leaning hard into their metal and punk influences, it's an exciting time for the cross-pollination between heavy rock and heavy rap. Another artist making waves with such transgenre exploration is Lucifena, a.k.a Stephanie Sanson, the former vocalist of now-defunct post-hardcore group You Only Live Once. Her latest offering is Mood Swings, a full-length collaboration with producer Morgoth Beatz, a.k.a. Winds of Plague guitarist Michael Montoya, that sees her exploring various sides of her sound, from smooth-sung melancholic R&B to screamed aggro trap metal. Both Morgoth and Lucifena have racked up millions of plays via their work with rapper Lil Xan, but on Mood Swings standout "Falling," their partners in crime are two musicians best known in the rock world: Slipknot DJ Sid Wilson and Bad Omens singer Noah Sebastian. The two also appear in the crimson-soaked, Polygon-directed video for the track, produced by Morgoth and Brian Spencer, which makes its premiere above.
"When Morgoth and Brian first showed me the track I knew I had to go hard on it," comments Lucifena, who appears in much of the video slathered in corpse paint. "And once I knew Sid was on it, I was like I need to do some shit that hasn't been done in my genre. We wanted to get another dope feature for the second verse, and it took a while to decide who, but Noah definitely took the song the to next level his vocals are insane. Collaboration is something that's really important to me it always makes the song evolve into something unexpected."
"Slipknot is my favorite band so when Sid hopped on the beat me and Brian Spencer made together I was really excited," Morgoth adds. "I miss scratching in hip hop so I thought what Sid brought to the table with this track was new and refreshing. I don't think a trap-metal song has had a scratch solo before. Also, Noah brought great energy to his verse and we are really happy with the way it came out! I'm super stoked to have made a whole project with Lucifena and can't wait for more exciting collaborations in the future. We definitely want to keep blending genres in new and exciting ways."
Mood Swings is available now on all digital music platforms.
