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From Ad Noctum

Hi Adrian, what are you up to these days? You returned from an European tour with Morgion, what can you tell us about this tour? Are you satisfied with the output and where did you prefer to play?

Hi Christian!
Well today I've just been talking to our singer Darren about getting some new shirts done for The Sullen Sulcus CD. We should have them in a couple of weeks.
The tour was just amazing. It was our first foray into mainland Europe as well as Morgion and The Prophecy's(Uk)first tour too. It was an eye-opening experience and the toughest way to do a tour. We hired a minibus for all 3 bands (17 people) and a transit van for the gear(there was a lot). This is how we trailed around 7 countries and did 10,000Km bringing
Doom to the masses. It was tough going with a lot of long drives and fuck all sleep but well worth it for the cool people we met and the gigs we got to play. Its also a great way to see other countries and doing something you love at the same time.
The best gig for everyone was in Evora Portugal. The local council there put up a big marquee in the courtyard of a 16th century college and paid for our accomodation/food,professional posters,radio interviews.350 people turned upin total. There was even a bus that came down from Lisbon where Opeth were playing that same night! We didn't go on until after 12 and Morgion played at 1am I think. The gig in Rotterdam was the next best one of the lot-2 full fridges of beer and chicken curry for all. The Dublin gig was the first and the only one that we got to headline as it was also the official release gig of our new CD. The UK gig in Bradford was supposedly the best gig there in years, London was good, Paris was small but very atmospheric and the other French gig in Rouen was a bit scatty but good all the same. Madrid Irun and Murcia in Spain were a bit quiet but we went down well. The final gig in Gent at the Frontline was like letting the air out of our balloon of fun a bit and we all wanted to go on and play another week but it was good to get home too and recover too. A girl from Greece travelled over especially to see this gig! There were members of My Dying Bride at the Bradford gig who were really cool and a good laugh.Bill Steer turned up at the Paris gig and Roberto from Moonspell was at the Evora gig with his girlfriend to support us.

I didn't visit your concert here as you weren't playing in my area, so I can't imagine how it was live. I think it's hard to imagine how such music Mourning Beloveth plays sounds live…is Doom Metal music you can enjoy live or isn't it a kind of music you should listen to alone at home with the right atmosphere? How is the response at your concerts, I could imagine all people are watching you but don't banging their heads, right? Does it matter for you?

Unfortunately we didn't get to play Germany in the end hence our 3 days off in Holland which was well spent and our lungs are grateful as you can imagine!! Our music when appreciated is very self-fulfilling to play as well as to listen to. We have some fast parts in our sets but 90% of it is a slow dirgy and heavy stomping of pure misery and melancholia. It can be off putting for the person who is narrow minded and just wants to hear fast black metal but with the open minded listener it can help open up a section of ones brain that exists in all of us. We are all miserable at some points in our lives-who the fuck goes around happy all the time? We've had people cry at some of our gigs such was the effect of the misery we projected. If music can have that deep an effect on listeners we know its something special we have. We have some parts that people can headbang to and some other parts that people just prefer to stand there and listen. For example at any concert you would normally see the usual heads up the front going crazy and the posers at the back with their arms folded but at an MB gig the same goes on upfront a bit sporadically but the back is usually reserved for the ones who are there to watch, get immersed in the music and let it wash over them from the stage. This is the way we look at it anyway.

Why did you start Mourning Beloveth? What was your intention, are you totally into this music and where does it differ to you in comparison to other kinds of Metal like Death/Black/Power/…? Is it because of the emotion you put into the songs?

I joined Mourning Beloveth shortly after I helped them record their first demo in 1996. The main reason MB started was to create something from what we knew was lurking inside each member and to paint a picture of misery and torment for all patrons of melancholia and darkness.
We play Doom Metal so we like to keep ourselves within the main boundaries of the genre. There is a lot of room for crafting ones own sound and getting a more original slant on your own music if you can get a good understanding between each other about what we ultimately want to create. From those 2 genres you mention above though I would may there are 'Death' elements in Darrens vocals ala the growling and also with some of the technical riffing. The darkness and grim feelings you can get from Black Metal but not the castles and swords of power metal. No….no frilly shirts here just maybe the odd pose or two from time to time he he .The emotional and thought provoking elements we put into our songs are the earthy feelings one can get from our music and this helps people connect with our music.

Please give me a brief description about the Doom Metal scene in general. What bands are you into and which bands are the most important ones to you? What does a band trademark as a Doom Metal band? Is Deinonychus a Doom Metal band for you for example?

I think that right now the Doom Metal scene is going through a major resurgence. When you see a new labellike Firebox in Finland signing 4 Doom band in the last few months and with pending releases for all it looks good. Bands I'm currently into are the mighty Funeral and Saturnus who listen to a lot these days. I got some demos from the bands we played with on our tour namely, Process of Guilt,Autumnal,Ataraxie,and Despond-Allgood doom bands and great to see the new blood flowing .I don't know much of Deinonychus's music actually. I know they've been around a while and I've heard a couple of songs that impressed me a while ago. But I hear Bartsch from Bethlehem is taking part on the new CD from them. Bethlehem are Masters of Misery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell me how you compose your songs? Who takes care about which part and do you need to be in a special mood while composing such sadly songs? What are your influences?

We compose our music in no straightforward way really. Sometimes one of us can bring in a new riff to rehearsal and we will all jam it to find out if it works and to build it up if we think it worthy. Other times we just jam freestyle and see what comes up. It might come from a prolonged note a guitarist does or a change in an older riff. It varies. For the 'Dust' CD we didn't play an gigs for a year to concentrate solely on writing for our 1s album and it worked. We used to mess around in each others houses during the week and then bring all the ideas together with the full band and all the equipment on Sundays band rehearsal-after we all went to mass of course!!!! ha ha . I would say that Frank is the main writer of new material and long may it continue as he's pretty good at it the bastard, but we all get our own bits in here and there.We don't need to be in any sad mood to compose things really. It does help being pissed off though from my own personal contributions. If we've all got a filthy hangover things do sound really great at times but this can lead to lethargy too. All bands are different I guess.

We take influences from many bands .Apart from the obvious couple of early Death/Doom groups we also take influences from stuff like Iron Maiden-At The Gates-Candlemass-St.Vitus-Neil Young-Depeche Mode, a wide array of acts and genres really.

How important are lyrics for you in general in a Doom Metal band? Who takes care about this and what are they about? Are they about personal experiences you made so far or just necessary evil?

Doom Metal does need that special care and attention to help make sure the correct and right mood is created with the lyrics. Darren takes care of this element and so far he's done a fabulous job. I guess he's the best person to explain his words.The last cd for example is about the darkness and torment that exists inside the realms of a persons dark and troubled mind or 'Sulcus' if you like. I wouldn't say our lyrics are evil as we've nothing evil to portray in the music so the lyrics wouldn't reflect that. Its very important for us to make sure the lyrics, the artwork and the riffs have same core elements of darkness and melancholia as is the whole imagery we portray.

Darren is the chief songwriter in MB. The cover artworks are similar to me, they show somebody resting alone. What do you want to express with it? Is there any special meaning behind this?

With the artwork for DUST we wanted to help express the lonliness and melancholia that Mourning Beloveth want to bring to those unaware of our existence. The guy in the picture is lying down across the floor with his bowed such is his state of unhappiness. The window is his only source of light and his only 'ray of hope' so to speak. The 'dust' comes from the illuminated dust particles that you can barely make out and this portrays the emptiness and lack of hope this guy is feeling. Of course as with all MB artwork and its something we like to see is people getting their own interpretation from the imagery that binds them to the music and get their own personal ideas of what its all about.

What are the most important Mourning Beloveth Tracks for you personally? Are there songs you don't like to play as well and which songs do you use to play live every time? Do you play my personal favourite "The mountains are mine", too?

There are none more important for me really. We spend enough time on the songs to not really want to avoid playing or listening to them. But when playing live there are some of course that must be kept aside for various reasons. I like playing 'Autumnal Fires' and ' All Hope is Pleading' especially from the Dust CD. The new songs from The Sullen Sulcus are still fun to play being the newest etc but maybe 'The first song 'The Words That Crawled' is top of the list so far. 'The Mountains are Mine 'is a fairly constant live number that we do and very popular. That's the problem with having long songs too,we only get to play a few every time but its ok. I really enjoy playing the track we recorded for our upcoming 7" too.Its probably the strangest song we've ever written and being limited to 7 minutes we really crammed in the best stuff possible for it.

You are also working for Sentinel Records, what band do you promote and why do you have a different label now for Mourning Beloveth, as "Dust" was released on your label, too?

The original Dust was released by the band and the 'Label' Bron evolved so that it could be put on the spine of the CD and the bio. The reason being was to help us get the Cd reviewed in the album section of magazines etc and not in the demo section. It worked too for the majority of places we sent it to so it was worth it. SENTINEL is a label I started with Brian Taube(Ex-Misanthropy Recs UK) and Sentinel decided to re-release the 'Dust' CD as the demand was still there. The other bands on Sentinel are Abaddon Incarnate from Ireland. They play Brutal Death/Grind. They had their 1st CD on Seasons of Mist and due to lack of promotional and support they signed with Sentinel for their2nd CD'Nadir'. AI have done 3 European tours and 1 in Australia the last 18 months and we're repressed their cd a couple of times so things are going well for us on this side of things. The band have just signed now with Xtreem Records(formerly Repulse) with Dave Rotten and we wish them the best of luck. We've signed Bastardsun too from the UK recently. Stuart Anstis(ex-Cradle of Filth) is the main guy in this band and we should see their debut album released on Sentinel in a few months. Bastardsun play a strong style Heavy Metal and are due to make a good impression when introduced to the masses. The new Mourning Beloveth album is released by AFTERMATH MUSIC in Norway so you could say we've been on 3 labels in the last 2 years ha ha .

You are hitting the road again and touring USA very soon, what can you tell us about this? Which bands will join you and what do you expect from it? Are you going to tour Germany again very soon? Where do you prefer to play live?

We are saving hard for our flights to America this summer where we will tour once again with our friends Morgion and The Prophecy along with Unearthly Trance(Usa) as part of the Doomination of America tour. We are playing 24 dates coast to coast and this is geared up to be one of the better tours for Americans to see this year.
We will be touring Germany next year for sure as it is the home of Metal in Europe. I've been to 3 Wacken Festivals now and always had a great time. Much better than Dynamo although I would like to go the Summer Breeze or something else for a change. The last tour was the first tour we ever did. The only overseas gig we did before that were in the UK. I would say Portugal was the place I'd like to return to again the most and Holland too.

What are the future plans of Mourning Beloveth? What can we expect from your next album, did you start to work on it yet? Will you keep the style or change something in the music?

Our future plans right now are to release our split 7" with Irish Dark/Doomers Lunar Gate. This has a new song we wrote for this release especially. This is being released on my label Sentinel in a couple of weeks on picture disc and limited to 300 copies.
As I have mentioned above our new album is already recorded and released by Aftermath Music in Norway. They remained in close contact with Mourning Beloveth since they got a promo copy of DUST and offered us a deal when they heard the new album. We were searching for 3 months for a label to release it and in the end I don't think we could have picked a better supporter for our music. We recorded 6 new songs and this includes the track we put on the re-release of DUST 'It Almost Looked Human'.

The new album has a more mature sound than the debut. Things like Franks clear backing vocals are now an integral part of the music and add another working dimension to the songs. The new songs sound more polished and more to the point we've truly established our own sound and have cut the strings of those we were once liked to so much. We won't ever change our style. It will always remain Doom Metal and we won't be selling out that's for sure.

We are getting The Sullen Sulcus released in America in a few months. Next week IROND in Russia will release the DUST cd for their territories on a licence deal-Check out our website for an outlet near you.
AFTERMATH will also release a DVD for us next month. Its got a gig from our Doomination Tour and some other backstage stuff etc. This is Ltd to 1000 copies so order your copy now.
We will be printing USA Tour shirts as well in the near future.

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Thanks Christian for the interview and I hope to see you in Germany next year. I can say unofficially that we are confirmed for the Doom Shall Rise 2004!
I would appreciate it if you could print the following websites for anyone interested in finding out more about Mourning Beloveth and the vibrant Irish Metal Scene.
Don't forget to order you copy of our 7" now as copies are limited.
Doom on………………………………………………………………………
Adrian