| INTERVIEWS |
From Megin Giord Zine #2 (UK) For those unaquainted with your act can you give us the boring answers usually given in this type of question, ie, where, when, why, who ,how etc? Mourning Beloveth was formed in the cold dark daze of winter '94 from the remnants of some heavy metal and some death metal bands and has plodded along to this day trying to bring our message of sorrow to the masses whom have intelligence and patience to listen to our headfucking music. We have recently lost one guitar player due to some tragic circumstances but we will keep going with one guitar player until such tier as one falls into our lap. At present the line-up is Darren-vocals, Frank-guitar, Adrian-bass, Timmy-drums. This is your second demo if I believe rightly, in what wysy do you feel you have improved from your previous release? Our first demo was a labyrinth of confused and mixed emotions and our path to us was unclear in which wwe recorded and mixed in 8 hours but whose results we are still happy with today. This effort brings out our feelings to the world in a very raw way in such that we were not very relaxed in the studio and were not very familiar with each others style.
You describe yourselves as Hypnotic doom metal, what is it that makes you Hypnotic as opposed to just plain old doom metal?. Immerse yourself into the music, breathe it , let it wash over your brain like a summers rain, think about it. This not the music to run around the room banging your head and fist for Satan(although there is nothing wrong with and I do it quite often),not to sound too egotistical but it is music one can sit down to and contemplate their own existance, riffs which lull you into a false sense of security only to be awoken from your hypnosis by some low gutteral growls from the depths of pain. What has the response been like to your releases so far both in Ireland and overseas? A nonchalance has crept into the metal scene about the slower, more thought provoking side of things and this pisses me off considerably, however we have sold/traded/given away 700 copies of our second demo which isn't bad considering we have many more to send out. Here in Ireland the response has been excellent selling 100 copies, which isn't too bad. The chosen moniker for the band is not the most uplifting I've ever seen, do you dwell on the dark and morose side of life on a regular basis or is the band your way to vent your feelings and emotions? Brooding upon pain and misery is not one of my hobbies but all people go through certain misery and despair, hopelessness in their lives and this is our way of dealing with it to puke into a page or even a fretboard the futility of life. Judging from your acts name and the demo title I presume your lyrics take a similar slant, could you fill us in on what kind of areas they cover and what they mean to you. All, hope joy and beauty is fleeting, only death is certain as we are born astride a grave. All these things may remain in the mind and one must create an emotional detatachment from all things for such images and thoughts to remain. Think of a swan, so graceful upon the lake yet under the murky water lay its ugly feet which help it look so graceful. Imagine living in a dark hole with nothing but bird shit to eat, the light from the sun suddenly shines through but you cannot go to the sun, you are afraid, all you know is darkness and pain. Think of the sea and its vastness, our whole world is but a grain of salt in the ocean. These are the images which appear in our songs lyrically, using nature as a grand scale to describe our emotions and feelings on life, death and beauty and the hopelessness and loneliness we all feel. Have the band had any gigging experiences and if so what have the responses been like? Over the years we have not laid much emphasis on gigging and this has been a mistake. We have done approx 15 gigs, shit in 10, good in 3 and blew everyone away in 2 and this is not my opinion as I do not usually remember the gigs having worked myself into an almost melancholic trance as I just lose the plot on stage and let the music guide my movements. Hopefully all upcoming gigs will be the latter of our experiences. It all depends on the feeling we get from the crowd also and this is not usually very energetic for a doom band except for two shows mentioned above. (accompanying photo is one of our good shows with 300 people in attendance, the only bad thing was that I had recently cut my hair-aaaarrrrrggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Has any label interest been shown in the band at all? Or are the band not concerned with such matters, please do tell. Of course we are interested in getting signed but the responses we have had said we were not quite developed enough yet. We will keep fighting! What can we expect in the future, any changes , musically or otherwise? Hopefully a second sorrowful guitarist will have joined before our next recording at the end of the year other than that we will keep getting heavier, more epic sorrow-filled riffs-no sell out metal/goth combo for us!! How does the scene bode in Ireland at this moment in time and how do you forsee things developing? The scene in Ireland has picked up recently with lots of underground gigs and some good attendances, some Irish being signed and recording, Arcane Sun whom I highly recommend, geasa and Abaddon Incarnate also with albums out soon. Unsigned you have Mourning Beloveth, Dreamsfear, Kingdom and many others. The only problem is the lack of venues to play and without this the scene will sink again into oblivion, so be forewarned. Anything else you would like to add? No. by Gavin Parkinson
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