Mourning Beloveth Biography

Home again for May and we were finding it difficult to write the new material so we decided to set a date of October '04 for the recording of the new album. The songs were sounding a bit different than before and we decided on a new studio following weeks of discussion, finally choosing Studio E in Germany run by Markus Stock. The deadline gave us a goal and so we tried to remember where we left off in January and the new material slowly began to emerge. The contract we had spoken about with Grau on the DSR tour arrived and soon after we became a Grau band for four albums. Time to relax? No!

The writing of the new material was arduous and we had to re-write the songs several times. The music this time round is very bare, naked, almost stripped to its core and the album and lyrical content reflected this. It is still Mourning Beloveth, still two guitars, bass and drums but while more elemental it was also more experimental but only the recording sessions would really tell and so in November 2004 we arrived at Klangschmeide, Studio E in Germany to record what was later to become known as A Murderous Circus.

A Murderous Circus was released March 29, 2005 by Gau records.

The album turned into a double album and the recording sessions over three weeks were arduous but also very rewarding. In our mind we created an album while remaining in the confines of the death/doom scene has a lot of experimentation, all be it with 2 guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The album is bleak, desolate and melancholic and the lyrics dealing with the excesses of man show another side of our sound which we was not present before. The album came out to mixed reactions in the press and with fans alike but as time went by and people adjusted themselves to our "new" sound it quickly became a lot of peoples favourite MB release. We feel ourselves it was the point where we broke away from the comparisons that i guess every death/doom band must endure in their initial years but we have come out the other side of it stronger and more confident of what we can do.

Our first gig after the tour was a sold out show with Primordial in Whelans in Dublin and it was the first time an Irish underground gig had been so well attended. Our performance that night was one of our best ever ad the atmosphere on stage and from the crowd was amazing, we felt it was the beginning of a new era for Irish bands in Ireland it was that powerful and this has been borne out in the past couple of years.

So with the album out a few months we went on the Heathen Crusade tour with Primordial and Moonsorrow across Europe for 10 days in April 06. The usual shit of driving for hours, drinking, up the next day and another gig is a familiar one for us now but the shorter time frame meant on the last day we still had the energy to play. It was a brave move to head out with two "pagan" bands but it worked well for us and despite our 40 minute time slot we left our mark, some nights even receiving some slow hand claps for encores...the tour was a success. That followed in August 06 with appearances at Brutal Assault in Czech Republic where we played at midnight, after Fear Factory to a full house was a great experience for us and led us in to the next day and a drive to Germany to play Party San festival and although we played in the bright sunshine of 3pm we were made feel at home at the black/death festival where we stood out like a carbuncle on a baby....but the weekend served us well and opened the ears of a few more people to our brand of death/doom metal.. Party San was the final gig of our long time friend and bassist Adrian as he had moved to Spain a year previously and we felt we couldn't continue as a band with such a distance between us. It was the hardest decision we ever had to make as a band but one we felt was necessary for the band to continue at the pace we had grown accustomed to after the first album. Adrian was a big loss as without him we probably would have never recorded in Academy, probably never recorded a first demo and the rest of us would probably lying in the gutter today without him, so a cheers to Adrian but it was time to move on. We spent some time in the rehearsal room writing and rehearsing but the vibe was not the same.We had tried it for a year and even toured with this situation but when we got to writing new material for the album we found it very difficult as we are a band who come alive in the rehearsal room together and with a missing member it was becoming increasingly difficult.

Enter Brendan, a long time friend and a fan of the band on bass. We asked Brendan to do a few gigs with us in November, his first being Belgian Doom Night 06 with the late Reverend Bizarre. Following a few more shows Brendan was asked to join and our fifth limb had returned. The year finished with another triumphant gig in the Voodoo lounge in Dublin to almost 300 people and we even had some moshing and stage diving, a first for an MB gig.

The following year was spent rehearsing old songs with Bren and writing for the new album. Again writing is probably the best time to be in a band but is also the most arduous but by the end of September we had written the album and Brendan with his fresh ear was very excited and his excitement was infectious.

We again entered Studio E in Germany with Markus for two weeks this time in October 07 and recorded A Disease for the Ages, 5 songs over 56 minutes of torturous death/doom metal. We were really focused during the recording sessions and i think that intensity comes out in the songs Although recorded in the same studio as A Murderous Circus the sound is the polar opposite to it, it is the only conscious decision we made about the album before recording that the album must be heavy, a fuller sound. AMC had meandering and desolate guitars and almost revels in the human excesses, ADFTA fills your ears till they bleed, a slow descent into the gutter of desperation and nothingness, where we finally realise there is nothing to keep going for and the only was is down, a statement on the rottenness of mankind, the deconstruction and degradation of the human body and mind over time and excess.

The album was released through Grau on May 5th 2008 and initial reviews have been all positive, receiving several "Album of the Month" titles in well respected magazines.

In the meantime we had to cancel the European tour planned due to some personal matters and for a band who never cancelled a gig it was tough decision but one that had to be mad. The end of 2008 will see us play some festivals and hopefully early 2009 a full European tour.

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