'Chemical Rain' Is A Grunge-Fueled Cry Against Greed & Environmental Collapse
Ground control, please hear me out. We’re going down, the end is near…
It starts with a quiet plea, a distress signal floating in the void. But no one is listening. Humanity is too busy choking on the fumes of its own creation, too wired into its machines to notice the storm brewing on the horizon. The sky is falling, not in fire and brimstone, but in a slow, toxic downpour — a Chemical Rain that washes away all traces of what was once real.
That’s the world Shivang Arora crafts on his latest single, 'Chemical Rain', an alt-rock gut punch that fuses grunge angst with an unsettling sense of dystopian inevitability. Produced in collaboration with New Delhi-based electronic artist Komorebi (Tarana Marwah), the track takes listeners through a bleak yet thrilling soundscape where human greed, environmental collapse, and technological obsession intertwine in a chaotic, melancholic symphony.
Musically, Chemical Rain sits somewhere between the eerie atmospherics of Radiohead, the raw energy of Soundgarden, and the immersive storytelling of Porcupine Tree. Shivang, a multi-genre artist who has finally found his home in alternative rock, builds the track on an acoustic guitar foundation, layering it with dystopian synths, explosive power chords, and haunting vocals that oscillate between aggression and sorrow.
The fry screams in the final chorus that sound like a desperate wail against an unchangeable fate, a mind-melting guitar solo by Ameen Singh that throws you headfirst into the storm. The song's sonic intensity mirrors its themes, making it feel like a frantic transmission from the last rebel standing in a world ruled by “evil corp” overlords.
Lyrically, Chemical Rain is dystopian poetry laced with anger and resignation. Shivang’s words paint a picture of a world drowning in artificiality — humans making love with machines, puppeteers cutting the strings, the illusion of control crumbling beneath the weight of greed.
But there’s another layer to Chemical Rain; an environmental metaphor woven into its cyberpunk aesthetic. The plastic grave in the black ocean; the air thick with smoke; the fast lane speeding toward oblivion. It’s a warning wrapped in distortion and reverb, a final question posed to a world hurtling toward self-destruction: is it a sin if I pull the chain?
The track’s journey began in July 2023, when Shivang first wrote and composed it. By December, he had refined its arrangement while performing a live version in Chandigarh with Raghav Bhutani on drums and Ameen Singh on bass. But even then, something was missing — a sci-fi element that would bring its dystopian vision to life. Enter Komorebi. Known for her ethereal synth-driven compositions inspired by anime scores and chiptune music, she was the perfect choice to add the final touch.
Chemical Rain channels the restless energy of 90s grunge, the cerebral depth of progressive rock, and the dark allure of electronic music to create something urgent and deeply relevant. It’s a sonic awakening against the numbing effects of technology, the greed-driven decay of our world, and the feeling of helplessness in the face of it all; giving voice to the unease of a generation standing at the crossroads of progress and collapse.
