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From Louder Than Satan

First can we have a lil bit of history on the band, where you're from, how you all got together, etc, etc.

We all come from the same area in Kildare/Laois in Ireland and had been floating around in many local bands before we joined together to form Mourning Beloveth. We recorded our first demo in 1996 with Adrian as engineer and he later joined on bass where we quickly recorded our well-received second demo Autumnal Fires. We played some gigs in Ireland and recorded our debut album Dust in Academy Studios in 2000. This was a self-financed album and we released it ourselves in 2001. We played some gigs with Cathedral and later with Cradle of Filth and in 2002 we recorded our second album. The Sullen Sulcus, again in Academy. In the meantime we re-released Dust on Sentinel Records and when our latest album the Sullen Sulcus was recorded we released it with a Norwegian label Aftermath Music. In February 2003 we embarked on the Doomination of Europe with Morgion and the Prophecy, 2 weeks across Europe. August 2003 we brought the Doomination tour to America for 4 weeks. We have had the same line up since our second demo (Darren-vocals, frank-guitar+vocals, Adrian-bass, Brian-guitar, Tim-drums) and we have just released a new song on a split 7" with fellow countrymen Lunar gate, it has been released on Sentinel Records. 2004 sees us on tour with While Heaven Wept and playing the Doom Shall Rise festival in Germany as well as writing and recording our third album. That is the shortest and least boring way I can give it to you.

How would you best describe your sound and who you think it appeals to?

Our music is slow and depressive, at times crushingly oppressive and at times majestically melancholic and yet uplifting. It can go from the suffocatingly slow, meandering guitars of a song like My Sullen Sulcus to the mid pace almost astral trip of the Words that crawled. It is music to be listened to and felt, it is music for one to immerse themselves in and just to get lost in for a time. Our music generally appeals to the doom genre but there is so much more there for people to experience if they open their minds and just let the music through.

What sort of bands/experiences have influenced your sound to develop the way it has?

Bands, we could go on forever, from Iron Maiden to Skepticism to Neil Young to Blind Guardian to Bethlehem to WASP to At the Gates to Bob Dylan to led Zeppelin, the list is endless. As for experiences, we all share common ground and common interests and it is the overriding fear that each breath we take is one closer to the grave. Wherever we turn in this life it is nothing but suffering and misery and we try to express our anger and deep frustration with this futile existence, what are we but mere worm food. These are the kinds of feelings we try to express in our music and words; our music is a cathartic process for us.

What experience did you have starting up, playing gigs and getting signed?

Well we have been on the go for 10 years now and it has been a long road but a very enjoyable one. We released two demos and an album before we were signed so it is a long time. We never thought about giving up because what we do musically is a part of us and I think if we did not do it we would all be probably be dead by now. Adrian and myself have promoted the band since the early days and we did it the old fashioned way by flooding the scene with fliers and letters and promo tapes. I think it paid off when we got to record our first album as a lot of people in the underground scene had heard the name before and it helped us along the way. With our second album we had pushed Dust, our debut, so hard with tens of thousands of fliers and promos to zines as well as labels that when it was recorded we had a choice of 2-3 labels to sign up with and Aftermath came up with the best deal so we signed. We have gotten great exposure with this album The Sullen Sulcus and received great reviews in all the major magazines so things are looking up on the promotional side.

Gig wise when we first started out we limited ourselves to a gig a year but this has gradually increased last year when we completed a European tour and an American tour all in the space of a year, funnily our main problem in the early days was we didn't consider ourselves to be a live band but the turning point was our support slots to Cathedral and Cradle of Filth which really showed us what we could do on the live stage. Now we actually look forward to playing live and touring and next year will see us on the road with the mighty While Heaven Wept and Pantheist from Belgium and our biggest gig to date will be the Doom Shall Rise festival in Germany April 2+3 next which should be an excellent weekend of doom.

Was there any time when you felt like giving up? As I said above playing and writing and recording music is such a big part of our lives I don't think any of us could see another way of life, it is what we do-it is how we express ourselves as human beings and without it we would be dead or mad haha.

How are things going at the moment? Are things any easier?

I don't think things are ever easy for a doom band but a lot of the main press is recognizing that there is a very strong doom scene out there with a lot of quality bands. I think we have been around along time and people in the doom scene seem to invest a lot of time into bands they like, I know I do-being and people are willing to dig deeper to find a band or find out about a band in the doom scene more than any other. What we do find easier is that it is much easier to get a gig in a foreign country if they have heard of you before cause we had been trying for years and it is only the last few years that our dreams could become reality.

What are your hopes for the future?

2004 will see us on a weeklong tour with WHW, we will then settle down to put the finishing touches to our new songs in May and hopefully record towards the end of the summer. Another 7" would be nice along with a 4 week European tour in 2005.

What's your favourite thing about touring?

Playing a gig every night to a different crowd, meeting new people, sampling new food and beer…there are so many.

Worst?

5 weeks in a 7 seater van with the same six faces to sleep and wake up to….something only nightmares are made of.

What's your favourite country and venue to tour? Do you find there's much difference between audiences is different countries?

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?

Fuck we have been all over Europe and America in 2003 but probably my favourite gig was Evora in Portugal. The gig was an outdoor event in the grounds of a 16th Century building that is now a college. 400 people turned up that night and it was an amazing gig. There were two guys just looking after the monitor sound and the Portuguese people were so friendly it reminded me of Ireland when it was a friendly land. I think doom audiences throughout the world appreciate the music they listen to and are not affected by trends so when they go to a gig they know what to expect and they just sit back and enjoy the music.

Are there any new bands you think are going to be successful (we like band publicity :)

Scald from Ireland is an amazing band like sludge/grind doom, very original, sick and psychotic but it is amazing stuff. Also check out Orodruin from America-good doom rock in the St.Vitus way

The Doomination tour, the site doesn't work and I don't know if you've been on that already, but if you have, what was the general atmosphere like?

Well we have done a Doomination of Europe in February and America in August with The Prophecy and Morgion, we visited Ireland, UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland and the entire width of America sow e have had a very busy time. All of this touring was self financed and paid for by each gig we played where we sold our merchandise and the music we love. Europe was amazing playing to 400 people in Portugal to 80 in France no matter where we went the atmosphere was amazing each night and it was helped by the fact that all three bands got on so well together and we helped each other out where we could. All we had was a 17 seater minibus and an equipment van traveling from gig to gig but the people we met at each gig were such friendly and helpful people and we had such great fun the time just flew by. Nobody ate properly or slept properly, some nights just driving right through to the next gig over the huge Spanish mountains or through the many tolls of France, all beautiful landscapes and to each night play a gig was great, no matter how tired we were we just got up and enjoyed ourselves cause this is what we had been dreaming about for years and we finally had a chance to do it.

The American tour was much more difficult, one country but it was so vast and the gigs so spread out but it was worth every minute of it. There were days on end where we did not sleep, did not eat properly and went and played a gig after been traveling for 27 hours but it was all worth it to play in such places at the Denver Doom to Grind or the SHOD fest in Portland where we met some people we had previously met at an MDB gig in Belgium 3 years previous. All these experiences made it worthwhile; an we also got to see America where none of us had been previously. So touring for us overall last year was our first taste, and now we got the taste we won't be giving it up very quickly.

Do you prefer support of headline gigs? Well the Doomination of Europe Morgion headlined and we were second from top so we had time to enjoy other bands and to get drunk whereas after a few shows in America Morgion could not play anymore due to a car accident with their guitar player so we headlined the rest of the tour. These days it is better for us to play higher up in the bill cause our songs are so long we can only fit 2-3 in if we have 30 minutes but maybe 5 if we have 50 minutes haha. But we don't mind where we play I mean we played 5th at the SHOD in Portland but the crowd was a doom crowd and we all loved it and we got a great reaction but with doom time is of the essence so we prefer longer sets.

What are your opinions on music downloading from things like Kazaa etc?

I personally don't download but I fell if a person is a fan of the band, especially if it is a doom band they would rather buy the album with the booklet and lyrics, that's how I feel about music anyway as for copying and downloading, I get a lot of copied cds from friends but they are cds that I would not buy anyway but am curious to hear so I don't think anybody is being cheated this way.

What kind of advice would you offer to unsigned bands, especially those of the "doom" style?

I am not one to be giving advice but I would say if you are into what you are doing just keep at it, if for nothing else but a release of your emotions.

Finally, a question, no matter how cheesy, that we ask everyone, are you louder than satan and why?

Course we are, anyone ever heard satan?

Any other random comments?

Thanks for the interesting interview Michaela. Watch out for our new album at the end of this year and watch out for us at the Doom Shall Rise and Belgian Doom night in April along with our tour with the mighty While Heaven Wept and Pantheist.