| INTERVIEWS |
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From Metal Norge Mourning Beloveth slapp ei rimelig herlig skive med "The Sullen Sulcus" for omkring et år siden, personlig var jeg ganske treg med å skaffe den, og satt faktisk ikke med hendene på den før en måneds tid siden. Ei mektig fin skive var det, den skuffa vel en smule når jeg først satte den på, men litt erfaren med skivelytting er jeg - så jeg lot meg ikke skremme av det enkle trikset. Etter 4-5-6 spins til satt den fint, og den vokser i skrivende sekund. På ordre fra Aftermath innleder jeg et intervju med Mourning
Beloveth (trenger et spark i baken, siden jeg er så slapp med å
skrive intervjuer) Hi, how are things? How about giving a brief introduction about yourself and Mourning Beloveth…I have yet to discover who answers this, and, and my guesses is that not every reader of metal-norge.com have heard or heard of Mourning Beloveth. Give me the story! Darren here, things are very wet and windy in Ireland at the moment and
I am just getting over a bout of food poisoning so things are great. As
for the story…Mourning Beloveth We have had the same line up since
our second demo (Darren-vocals, frank-guitar+vocals, Adrian-bass, Brian-guitar,
Tim-drums) and began from the ashes of a death metal band some ten years
ago. 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 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. Your latest effort, "The Sullen Sulcus" has been given great reviews all over, how do you feel about the record yourselves, in retrospect? Yeah it has been an amazing response right across the globe and took
us by surprise. We were so worried before we recorded the album that maybe
it wasn't as good as Dust but when the whole thing was done we did relax
a bit. I must say it took some time to really appreciate the album, was it in your intentions to make such a "deep" album? (Except the opening track, which I consider fairly "easy" to listen to..heh) We only do what comes naturally to us when composing music. We have never
made a conscious thing musically about what direction we should take it
just seems to flow out that way when we all come together and rehearse.
Obviously our main sound comes from the hey day of the doom/death sound
but we have picked up on that and tried to improve it with our own slant
on things. We like to develop songs naturally and never rush things, we
find it hard to make decisions, maybe that is why our songs are so long
haha. Seriously though, I like to write poetic, dramatic lyrics with some
fucked up imagery. Tim, Brian and Adrian provide the rhythm whereas Franks
meandering melodies weave an intricate tale of woe. Who writes the songs in Mourning Beloveth, and how are they made, from idea to the final result? They can come in so many different forms. At the moment Frank is on a rich vein of form and he is coming to rehearsals every week with new ideas and riffs, that will calm down and then we will see Brian or Adrian coming with a few riffs. Riffs can also come just from jamming at rehearsals; they are all given a silly name and written in the big book. Later then they are arranged to a semblance of a song and goes through many variations before everybody is happy. Such beautiful, mighty, enormous and melancholic music! Where do you get the inspiration? Are you a bunch of sad people? Where do we get the inspiration, just look around you, the pain and suffering every day because of death, disease, loss. At times we are filed with such overwhelming feelings of sorrow and melancholy that it is almost impossible to function and in music we have all found a way to release these pent up emotions. Because of this we are not really sad people. If you were to come to Ireland you would have a lot of fun drinking and drinking and drinking with us, we like to drink by the way but this is because we have found our release through music, we are doing what makes us happy. Are you satisfied with the cooperation with Aftermath Music? Are you going to stick with them for the next record? Yeah we are very satisfied with the work of Haavard and Aftermath he is a very honest guy and we hope to work with him again. Speaking of the next record, got any ideas, plans, or songs ready for that one? Are you going the use the same studio? I must say, the sound "The Sullen Sulcus" is great! We have two songs written, 2 in the development stage and 2 in the book stage sow e are getting there. NO album title as of yet but I have some lyrics. The songs really have taken a form of their own and if you need something to go by check out oru latest 7" split with Lunar Gate available on Sentinel Records. That song, for many reasons, captures the direction M<B are going in at this stage of the proceedings. The two days in the studio in Ireland recording that were very relaxing and it gave us all an opportunity to try some new things and it has opened up some new sounds for us to experiment with. We are only talking at the moment about the studio and although the first two were done in Academy with Magz I don't know if we will do it again. I think we will definitely use Magz but Academy I do not know. We all wanted to record in Ireland but it is very expensive so a trip abroad might be the way to go with Magz in tow. What does "The Sullen Sulcus" mean anyway? It was just a term I came up with to bring the whole album together. A lot of the lyrics seemed to deal with what was going on in the head in certain situations and at certain times in ones life and how this affected the person physically and mentally. Sulcus is a term used for an indent in the lower part of the brain and I pictured a brain scarred from years of torment and anguish and so the word sullen came into the equation. Basically it is a very loose thread to tie the lyrics, artwork and music together. Can't say I've heard "Dust", but how would you say that your music have evolved since that one? And what are the musical changes on the next record (if there are any)? Double bass drums, and hi-pitch vocals all the way, or? I think the atmosphere on Dust was helped a lot by the spaciousness of the riffs and the general dark and dank production values. On TSS Academy had moved and I think the new place has its own little traits too. Musically TSS has a lot going on and the atmosphere is created by the thickness of the guitars and the vocal patterns are a lot more to the fore. I think it is not like one is better than the other more one Dust it was less is more and one TSS it was more is more. The next album is going to have a mix of both types with some added new ideas. It will be heavy and crushing at one time and minimalistic and raw at another time. We will be trying some different vocal techniques this time round too. Things are interesting at rehearsals at the moment. You're going on tour with While Heaven Wept and Pantheist, any thoughts or expectations towards that? Yeah it sounds like a mini tour after our American and European tours
last year but it should be an amazing time and we met WHW while in America
and Pantheist in Europe last year where we played two shows with them
so it will be like meeting old friends. It starts at the Doom Shall Rise
on April 2 and finishes at Belgian Doom Night a week later taking on Germany
and Holland too so it should be a week of drink, mayhem and some good
doom gigs. We are all huge WHW fans and so we will be seeing a band we
love every night for a week…what more could you ask for? What are your thoughts on the metal scene in Ireland these days? I can't say I know of that many bands. I know of you, and the almighty Primordial - really great band. It is growing and growing and with Metalworks magazine, Irelands first pro printed and written mag, metalireland.com forum and a lot more bands popping up the scene is quite healthy. Check out Scald (avant-garde grind doom) or Geasa (melodic war metal) or The Swarm to name but a few. Also check out these websites if you are interested: www.metalworksmagazine.com Any other live shows to brag of? Doom Shall Rise on April 2 & 3 And the week in between, keep checking our website for more info. It's hard to go really in depth interviewing by email - So I think we've come to and end - this time, feel free to write anything you want - message to the fans etc. Thanks for the interview! |