Kingdom Collapse has released their debut album, Survivor, bringing together songs about loss, frustration, and finding the strength to keep going—the same determination that drives the band to create music and pursue their dreams.
Hailing from San Antonio, Kingdom Collapse blends hard rock and metalcore with heavy-hitting breakdowns, powerful melodic vocals, and choruses that invite you to sing along before the song is even over. After years of independent releases and DIY touring, the band signed with Mascot Records. Along the way, they’ve shared stages with Three Days Grace, From Ashes To New, and Nothing More.
The day before Survivor arrived, I joined the band at Big Star Music Academy in San Antonio, where friends and family gathered to celebrate its release. The band shared stories behind the unreleased tracks, recalled experiences from the road, and performed an acoustic rendition of “Survivor.” I’ll get into more of those moments later, but first, we’re taking a closer look at how this record came together.
In a separate interview with Music Scene Media’s Mel Williamson, vocalist Jonathan Norris discussed the experiences and message of hope that shaped Survivor.
MSM: I got to hear the album already, and I'm blown away. It's so empowering, and it couldn't have found me at a better point in my life, honestly. I've already connected to a few of them quite a bit. Thank you for putting that out there.
JONATHAN: That's awesome. Thank you. It's definitely the concept of the album—it is taking you through the ups and downs of life and through anger, loss, sadness, and everything. But the underlying message is always not giving up.
Yeah. So when you titled it Survivor, was that something you went into it thinking of as the theme, or did it develop as you were putting it together?
"Survivor" was one of the first singles that we had written for the album, and with this being our debut album, it really seemed to encapsulate the message or the overlying theme of the entire record. And we ended up going with Survivor as the album title as well.
Yeah. So some of the songs were written a while ago, correct?
Yeah, a couple of them. "Unbreakable" was our biggest song, and before Mascot Records, we had always been independent. So we felt it would be weird, as part of the band's story, to leave "Unbreakable" off of the first album. We wanted to include a couple of these key songs on the debut full-length.
So, how would you say the theme of Survivor reflects where the band is now compared to when those were written?
Yeah, it's definitely—because the songs are so heavily relatable in a sense of normal, everyday life, I think they're just as relatable and just as relevant to me personally as they were when I wrote them. Every day has its own set of... it could be something as small as waking up on the wrong side of the bed or annoyances, or it could be something traumatic. But that message still resonates for any of that. "Oh, I spilled my coffee"—it works for that. But all of the above: just playing the song, cranking it up, and getting through life.
"Victorious" is described as an anthem for your diehard fans. When they hear this, what do you want them to feel overall? What's the general message that you want?
It's just: every day is another chance to get back up, start over, and push through whatever lies ahead. You know what I mean? Kind of like that sense of looking back, looking in the rearview a little bit, and seeing everything you have gone through. So whatever today holds, I'll make it through that; whatever lies ahead, I'll make it through that.
Yeah. Have you ever heard a story from a fan that almost changed the meaning of your song for you that you think about whenever you play it?
Yes. There's definitely one specific one—and to properly answer your question, I've told this story a couple of times because it's really stuck with me.
There was a tour we were out on with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and we were playing Minneapolis. Right when doors opened, there was a family that came to the merch table, and they all had "Unbreakable" tattoos across their arms. This was—I mean, it was crazy. It was like four or five of them, and they all had it. So I was like, "Okay, here's a story. Tell me the story."
Come to find out, their son was on life support. He was in the ICU, basically in a coma, and the doctor said things didn't look good. They didn't have any good news, really; it was just like he was not doing good. And so the family was in there, and they would be playing music in the room to try to, I guess, mentally stimulate his senses—stimulate the brain.
And "Unbreakable" was playing. They said that he started coming to, mumbling the words, and basically came out of a coma during "Unbreakable." That's something that, obviously, that family would never forget, you know what I mean? Sorry. Yeah, so basically, they never forgot that. And then they ended up all getting the tattoo, coming out to the show, and telling me that. We've stayed in touch ever since; that was four years ago now, and we just saw them on the last tour that went through there two months ago. So I would say that's the one that really stuck with me, because they really opened up and told me that.
Yeah, that's incredible. That was one of the songs for me that stood out too, of course. And then "Up in Flames" and "Save Me from Myself" were my favorites.
"Up in Flames," yes! Yes.
Yeah, it's a really good one. So, you and Aaron have known each other since childhood?
Yes, since we were five years old.
Has the way that you create together changed over time, or have you had that pretty stable?
It's always been very, very good and stable. I think that's part of our personalities, too. We're very in tune with reality, the sacrifice, the hard work, and the mental and logistics that go into all of this—especially nowadays with gas being $7 or $8 a gallon for diesel out here, and just logistics as simple as that, but that's huge. And so, anywhere from the creative to the business side, or "what should we do here?" or "what should we do there?" In every facet of the entire business, it's very, very locked in and solid.
Yeah. Would you say you still have room to challenge each other creatively as well?
Every day. Every day is always like, yeah. I think that's part of it, too: we're able to attack something from every angle, and in a good way, argue about it and get to a consensus of, "Yeah, that's the move."
When you're writing, does the song usually begin with the heavier side or the melodic side?
It definitely begins with the chorus first. Not necessarily heavy or soft, but I've found that starting chorus first really paints the picture as far as: what is this song about? What's the vibe? What is the emotion? And it really lights the way for the rest of the song to come together around it, rather than just like, "Here's a riff, and I don't know what to say over the top." You know what I mean? Yeah, it's very locked in, and there's a purpose to the song.
What have you learned from watching people respond to the songs that have come out already?
I've learned more about the current state of, I don't know, social media and everything like that. You really just have to be cramming it down people's throats—not in a way that you're selling it, but basically, it's such the Wild West right now with technology, with music. Music's basically free. And even a lot of things that used to really support an album, such as radio and some of that stuff, have ventured away, and it's all social media. So I would say the biggest learning curve or the biggest eye-opener is that music consumption has really changed so much in the last several years, too.
Yeah, it's been crazy. And who knows what a year from now will bring, even?
Right, exactly. It's like, where's that going to be? And most people—it's like they probably don't even leave Facebook or Instagram. They just listen to the clip that's on there and don't even go to Spotify. So it used to be like, "Please buy the CD," or whatever—move off of Spotify to go buy the CD. And then now it's like we're just trying to get people to get off of social media to go to Spotify. So, yeah.
Is there anything, other than listening to the album, that you want as a message to come across to your fans?
Above everything, our message as a band is hope. We all come from different walks of life and carry our own battles every day, but we hope this record resonates, puts a smile on your face, and helps turn your day around.
Select track-by-track commentary with Kingdom Collapse and host Joe Reinagle of The Blitz at their album release event:
"Survivor"
Joe: I gotta ask you, what was your inspiration for that song? It has a way of moving you. It really does.
Jon: "Life. Survivor was one of the first songs we wrote for the album, and it was like looking back at everything you've gone through personally - There's a lot of shit that there was opportunity for your life to take a downturn, and use that to be a victim. Kind of turning that into your fuel to make your life better and not giving up. That was my personal inspiration for the song when I wrote it. No matter what life throws at you, just don't give up."
"Watch You Bleed"
Jon: "We wanted to branch out and do the full spectrum of our sound. With 'Watch You Bleed,' we wanted to take the music to the metalcore side of our sound and do something that still has the big Kingdom Collapse chorus but just rages a little more all the way through it."
"Ripping Out The Heart"
Jon: "Much like Survivor, the theme was about everyday life eating away at you in a sense of, like, you're just kind of jaded, and you ask yourself, 'When does this breakthrough come?'"
"Victorious"
Jon: "Growing up, we were very influenced by early 2000s hard rock. During that time, a lot of rock music was used in wrestling theme songs, and we always felt like our music was in your face and perfect for the sports highlight. We wanted to do a song on the album that captured that, and 'Victorious' is that for us. About three years ago, we met AEW wrestler Thunder Rosa through Chuck and formed a relationship that eventually led to her appearing in the music video."
"Unwritten"
Jon: "Unwritten was one of those songs growing up that you couldn't get away from. It was everywhere on TV shows, movies, and this and that. We would be on tour and go into a truck stop, and you'd hear it playing. So we're taking a shower together, and we're like, 'That'd be a good song to cover!' so we recorded it then and there in the shower. I'm just kidding. We heard it around 3AM at a truck stop after a show and thought, 'Whoa, we could kill it as a Kingdom Collapse hard rock song!' That song was big when we were growing up and starting to play music, and I thought, 'Let's take it from a pop song to a hard rock song.' There was a lot of creative leeway and opportunity to make it our own. It was a lot of fun to record."
"Burn"
Jon: "We wrote 'Burn' going into the next chapter of our music career, not knowing what lies ahead. It's a 'come what may, no matter what happens, we're never giving up' theme. As a band, the overlying message behind our music has always been to keep on going."
Everyone in attendance erupted with cheers and clapped along as the song finished.
"Who I Am"
Joe: "I ask myself this question all the time. 'Who am I?'
Jon: He laughs and replies, "It's Who I Am!"
Everyone burst out laughing and collectively asked themselves, "Who are we?"
Jon: "This song is a big screw you to the haters. As we've grown over the last couple of years, you've got a lot of people who go to social media and tell you, 'You're not heavy enough. You're not metal enough.' We don't care at all about any of that stuff. We're just us, and if you like it, you like it, and if you don't, you don't."
Aaron: "The most bizarre comment I saw was towards Jon doing a video singing a chorus. It was like "He looks like he has a mortgage."
This was met with more laughter and a few "Good for you!" responses.
"Up In Flames"
Jon: "There was a visual concept of this burning cabin where you're inside it and it's going to burn up. You need to leave, but you don't want to leave 'cause there are these memories here. When I was writing the verse, Aaron was like a scribe in a courtroom. It's weird because a lot of the times, there's like a sixth sense to writing music. It's not necessarily words that come to you or a melody, but it's a vibe. I was mumbling these ideas, and Aaron was just writing them all down. Next thing you know, I'm like "Oh shit, that's good!" It's one of the more dramatic ones off the album. When you're listening to this, envision the smoke, fire, cabin, and gasoline and the struggling of leaving, although you don't want to."
"More Than A Memory"
Jon: "This one was actually not even going to be on the album initially. I wrote this one five years ago. It's a very personal song. I'm not sure if anyone has seen any of the interviews, but I definitely dug into this more. When I was eight years old, I saw my dad die right in front of me. 'More Than A Memory' is a song that I wrote like I could talk to him one more time. It was kind of like what I would give to talk to him one more time after all these years. 'Can you hear me?'"
I got goosebumps while listening to this song, and I think I could speak for everyone there that we all shared a good cry together. Definitely one of my new favorites on the album.
"Blue Skies"
Jon: "We were two days out of the album having to be submitted. Blue Skies is what came from it. I thought if I'm going to tie in this entire album, message-wise, I'm going to do away with the usual pressure of this being a certain amount of Kingdom Collapse aggression or a certain heaviness, and I'm just going to write a song that says what I feel like this album should say. No matter all the ups, downs, the highs, and the lows of the album or life itself, you need to ask yourself, 'Where do you end it off?' Do you choose that as a reason to give up or be a victim and focus on the negative, or do you focus on the positive? Do you look up in the sky and see storms, or do you see the blue skies? There's good in life regardless of the things that are happening."
Kingdom Collapse continues to make their mark in the hard rock/metalcore scene, vowing to always create music that is true to themselves and share the powerful message that life is worth living, no matter what obstacles life puts in your way. I hope you, the reader, find a song that resonates with you when you listen to Survivor. Catch them on tour with Adelita's Way in a city near you!
