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From Holterdip

"MOURNING BELOVETH" - What is so beautiful in sorrow, grief and mourning ?

The pervading emotion within a human being is sorrow. Joy, hope and happiness are but fleeting emotions and live within the memory. The end of life brings sadness and grief. The beauty perhaps lies in the fact that one can be certain of only one thing in life, and that is death. What is the point in being afraid of death if it is a natural thing? In sorrow and mourning one can learn the true nature of oneself, which is captured in these emotions, as you are alone with nothing to do but think. Darkness brings to mind many strange images.

Your music is extremely heavy and depressive, but also relaxing in many ways. How would you define the atmosphere you intend to create with your music? And in what kind of mood would you like your fans to listen to the music?

A dark, hypnotic trance of melancholy and sorrow, within which one feels their lives coming to a slow, grinding halt. The heavy guitars lull the listener into this state and the vocals regurgitate the feelings of loss and sorrow which we feel every day of our lives. I cannot tell someone how to listen to our music but I listen to it in darkness and alone. Empty all other thoughts and let the music and lyrics wash over you.

Compared with other styles within the metal genre, doom has relatively stayed untouched by the developments and progressions metal has went through the last years. Do you think this has its reason in a certain restrictiveness the music necessarily has? This brings up the argument of "what is doom?"

To me doom is a certain feeling the music creates when one is listening to it, therefore I do not agree with your statement about doom being restrictive. I do feel that Mourning Beloveth play within certain boundaries but this is because we play with guitar, bass, vocals and drums. Over the years the members of Mourning Beloveth have created a bond within our music between each person and if one person were to leave Mourning Beloveth could not continue. We do not limit ourselves in any way, except perhaps that most of our music is filled with negative emotions, then again isn't all metal negative emotions? Our aim when writing songs is to release our negative emotions and this is all we limit ourselves to. Our first three releases are, on the main, slow and brooding but this may change. Everything depends on our feelings.

While black metal started as "elitist" as it could be in the early nineties, having degenerated to a commercial circus today, doom always has been the music of the "few", thus, so to say, "elitist" by nature. What qualities must one have, asked with half a twinkling of the eye, to be a real "doomster"?

Fuck this is a tough one! Having met and wrote to many doomsters over the years the underlying thread between them all is that a doomster thinks for themselves. Doomsters are probably the most intelligent of the metal species and think about everything deeply. They look for something within the music besides an image. Most doomsters, in fact most people, have gone through pain and suffering in their lives. Certain people seek refuge in drink, drugs etc but some find solace in music. Doom is not , and never will be popular as people who play or listen to doom are not interested in looking cool, they are not a part of the fashion wagon. Doomsters want to hear good music, coupled with good lyrics, music that has a lot of thought and passion behind it. Doom is the only true, elite form of metal left.

Some styles of music define themselves not via music alone. Black metal for example mainly seems to define itself via its religious or satanic contents; also in death metal a certain denial of life or glorification of death is apparent; industrial and neo-folk have further cultural implications... would you say that also doom can be defined by certain aspects outside of music alone? Are certain contents in lyrics, concept or lifestyle that are able to make something "doom"?

Obviously lyrics are very important within all types of music and although one may be able to define a certain type of music without the lyrics it is within these lyrics that the essence, or concept of the band shines through. The majority of Mourning Beloveth's music and lyrics so far have been about loss and suffering. The pain that we feel each passing day of our lives also passes through the music and lyrics we create. I think doom is created by external forces we come across in everyday life. For example the relationship with our friends and colleagues in work, the changing of the seasons, the death of a close friend, love lost etc…the list is endless. Reading a book about WW2 or Aleister Crowley does not create doom, personal grievances, sorrow and depression create doom. This is why doom is, and always will be true to itself and its listeners.

It is often said that doom is no music for the stage. You however play live. Do you think the heaviness and specific atmosphere, which is often subtle in doom metal, can really be transposed on stage?

For the first 3 years of our existence Mourning Beloveth did not play live and had no inclination to play live. This however changed when our confidence grew with our newer material. Up until recently we still hadn't hit the nail on the head as regards live performances, even playing some riffs in different parts of the songs but during the Dust tour everything just fell into place and our final show on the Dust tour in Bradford , England was probably our best, heaviest and tightest yet. We found ourselves spending a lot of time on the sound checks but this helped us no end. I think with the right people it is relatively easy to create heaviness through a live performance, atmosphere however depends on many external forces beyond the control of Mourning Beloveth such as lighting, the crowd etc. Sometimes we do not play so great but nobody notices as the whole atmosphere of the gig has carried them along. For instances we once played a very darkly lit venue with the room filled with fog and a lot of people came up to us later and said they were totally entranced by our music, even though we were criticising ourselves about our performance. So atmosphere is a very personalised thing and it depends how free the listener is to open themselves to the sounds.

Ireland... for many continental Europeans a paradise. Are MB in any way influenced by being Irish? Of course you do not at all have any folkloristic implications, but in the heaviness and darkness of the sound one might witness some moods the Irish landscape certainly is able to create... ? How would you characterize the Irish people, by the way?

Although not very obvious within the music and lyrics, Mourning Beloveth is inherently Irish. A certain brooding melancholy passes through the Irish landscape as well as the Irish people. For example you have but to travel 5 miles outside Dublin to enter into the mountains of Wicklow with there vast, empty yet beautiful terrain and from these mountaintops one can look down upon a sprawling metropolis. Ireland is a land of stark contrast and yet there is a common link between all the people. The Irish do everything with passion, perhaps due to the fact that we have been pushed into the dirt at every opportunity yet still come back fighting. Our bleak and sometimes beautiful landscapes are worn away by the continuous beating of the rain just as our lives, hopes and dreams are torn by the passage of time.

Do you think that Ireland generally leaves its mark in the bands hailing from your isle?

You should check out In Unison, a compilation cd released by the fledgling Irish label Sentinel. It has 19 Irish bands, 90% professionally recorded. It is amazing to hear that not one band sounds like the other, there will be no Irish black metal scene, no nwoidm scene it will be just a scene that does not follow trends, here on the outskirts of Europe and the only thing that links these bands is the passion and emotion each band plays their respective style of music.

Your debut album "Dust" shows the symbol of a frozen sun-cross. Could you tell us what meaning this has to you?

There have been so many explanations of that symbol, it is amazing. One person called it a drain, you a sun cross and so on. It is open to debate on what it is. My own opinion is that it is a crossed window, only letting in certain fragments of light, but mainly darkness filter through, a barrier on the world if you will. The ray of light that shines through is perhaps the one piece of hope we all cling to, so we can make it through the day.

What made you release this album self-financed?

The fact that we didn't get a record deal, even now with some offers in it is nothing we are looking for.

SWALLOWED AND HOLLOWED AGAIN BY THE MERE EXISTENCE OF PAIN... This excerpt of your lyrics perfectly mirrors a feeling modern man seems to often drown in and be doomed in. Do you think moods like these are a specific symptom of modernity, or is such kind of apocalyptic darkness a part of mankind in general? In how far would you call MB "modern"?

I think it is the feeling that we have no control over our lives, the fact that the only sure thing is death. Mass media manipulation of everything from wars to the food we eat to the clothes we wear are determined by the mass media. If we were to look at the truth behind wars, famines etc it would paint a chilling picture. I try to avoid TV at all costs, I try to avoid interaction with the human race besides my friends and family as these are the only people I can trust. Do you trust the government, the media etc? We seem to be drowning in technology, while some of it is good, certain parts of technology just goes too far…gm foods? Whoknows? I would just like to live in a cave,away from everything that kills our imagination, and to live off the land. This would be my idea of paradise.

Has the apocalyptic or at least very dark and depressed stance MB enters as a doom band a certain political or social-critical approach? Nothing like this is directly reflected in your lyrics, but I could imagine that you are at least indirectly influenced by the state of the world we are living in?

As I said above, the world we live in is a world of shit. A world of polystyrene cut-outs smile at us through the glazed windows of their eyes as they , as well as I know it will all end the same. We will all die. It does not matter who or what you are in the end we are all equal. Society pushes upon us the feeling that we must be excepted, why? Is it not better to be true to oneself? Is it not better to live the way you want to live and not by some fucking rule? A great example of this is in the book 1984, a dystopian view on a future society where the past and future are controlled by the government. This book, although fictional, sent chills down my spine and so I decided to avoid the rat race at every possible opportunity.

Could you sum up what happened to MB after the release of "Dust" and what will happen next?

A mini Irish tour where the live performances began to take perfect shape, our first gig on foreign shores. An average of 8/10 in most magazines for Dust. A support slot to Cradle of Filth in Dublin and Belfast in front of 600 people each night. Next, it looks like Sentinel will re-release Dust with an extra track, our demos are to be released by Weird Truth in japan on cd. We have 8 songs written for the next album entitled The Sullen Sulcus and we will record it in April of this year, again in Academy studios, Bradford with mags at the helm.

One of the eternal questions: is mankind rising or falling, progressing or degenerating? Any prophecies for the next decades? And will MB still be around?

We are on a downward spiral to extinction. We will all die As long as we are alive and unhappy MB will exist.

by Timo