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From Quintessence

1. Hello, how are you doing?

Not bad.

2. Your new album, A Murderous Circle, has been out now for a couple of weeks. Are you satisfied with the result and the reaction of fans and press?

Yeah we are satisfied with the result, we have been listening to it for some time now so it is not really new to us. Reaction from fans and press has been great too….some people wondering why we didn't record The Sullen Sulcus Part 2 but other than that everything has been great.

3. A Murderous Circus has become a typical Mourning Beloveth album, but one that has be to listened to a couple of times before you get really into it. Do you agree with that?

Well I do not know what you mean by a typical Mourning Beloveth album so….we have created another dark and heavy album of doom death so not much has changed there. The production of the album is perhaps different, a lot colder and harsher and the songs are stripped back some more than on TSS…it is almost like we are regressing to our first album. I am sure a lot of people were expecting something more along the lines of The Sullen Sulcus but that wasn't going to happen.

4. It seems that you have tried to do something different compared with the two previous releases. Was that really the object or just the natural way when you wrote the songs?

We never plan anything when writing, we just do what comes naturally and take it from there so musically, lyrically everything is just the way it comes out of us. For recording we recorded in Germany this time round for many reasons and we had some more time in the studio so we could focus on some things a lot more than previously so although the album is harsher, more stripped back there is a lot going on still.

5. Who is responsible for the songs in Mourning Beloveth by the way?

Frank writes a lot of riffs, Brian and Adrian add their bits and I come in with the lyrics…we all add our bit to the arrangement and take it from there.

6. Can we describe the new album as a kind of concept album?

The songs, lyrics and art work all have a very dark and bleak feeling. Well every album is a concept album In a way, all songs written around the same period of time about the same subjects. The music, lyrics and artwork combine together to paint the picture we had after completing the music. We do not write about fantasy subjects, we write from within so that is why it seems there is a cohesion between the songs.

7. What can you tell me about the lyrical concept of the album?

I wrote personally and universally, personally about the hell we go through after a time of excess and the depression that follows, how I feel that everything around me is dead or perhaps it is the fact that I am dead to the world. It is also a statement on the world in general and how so many people live such vacuous lives forced upon us by this uncaring, unfeeling world of mass commercialism and globalisation. The two topics are intertwined as we question is it because the world is like this that we follow the path of excess to block out the mundane existence around and by creating our own world through excess does it eventually lead to an existence parallel with what we are trying to escape from?" Most of us in the band over a number of years have been leading lives that are not exactly healthy, pushing ourselves to the limit on many occasions and the past two years has seen this very focused. This album musically and lyrically is dealing with this and it is a very diverse album as two things pull against each other creating a grey vastness between, musically we have written some of the softest pieces yet and also some of the most brutal and cold. It is a reflection of our own world and the world we live in that we have to try to create our own chaos to escape from banality and by trying to escape we are slowly killing ourselves.

8. The limited edition of the album contains 2 untitled tracks. One of the is a new version of part 1, which can be found on the split 7" with Lunar Gate and the other one is Disintegrate. These songs haven't made it on the regular album. Was it difficult to choose for you? Just because of the fact that both songs are great too.

Part 1 was re-recorded to see what it would sound like with a different production and we had Disintegrate lying around from some old riffs. We have talked about it a lot, the fact that we always have some riffs or even songs lying around after we pick what is to go on the album, previously these songs would have been lost so we decided to record them this time round and then when we saw the luxus edition digipack that Grau do we thought that it would be nice to have one of our albums released like that sow e spoke to Grau and they were happy to do it so to make it a little special we limited the digipacks to 2000……..they came out very nice too.

9. Besides both tracks, you already have included some live tracks from a gig in Groningen. Why songs from this show? Was this the only one you recorded? The show at DSR at that time was great too.

We added some live tracks to show people that after three tours we have finally become a good live band and the songs live have a certain vitality to them that sometimes becomes lost in the sterile studio. Why from Gronigen, well it was a good set, great venue and we have a lot of friends and fans in Holland so it seemed the perfect choice. The Doom Shall Rise Show was also a great set but we have some plans for that.

10. The album is released by Grau, a small label but with some really good bands. How did you got in contact with them? And what about Aftermath? Could you leave that label immediately?

Well we were signed to Aftermath for just one album and so when it came time for us to record another album we looked for some labels and got some reasonable offers but when we met Tom at DSR last year and spoke to him for some time about what we could do with Grau well we just awaited the contracts and were happy to sign with him. We also got some more time in the studio this time round because of the deal so things worked out well, we have received some excellent promotion and press so things are looking good. Grau is a very dedicated label and like us hard working and honest.

11. Aftermath had plans to release a DVD. What is the status of the DVD and will it be release by that label?

It is a long story, well we had plans to release a dvd through Aftermath from the footage we gathered through the 2 Doomination tours and then the DSR tour last year. We sent the footage away to be edited and well things went down hill from there, we lost contact with the guy and so since then we have been looking for that footage through every avenue possible and we are slowly piecing it back together….i mean we had hours of footage of gigs and back stage shit that was pretty funny and it would have looked cool but we are building up the footage again and I will not set a time on this but it will happen in the future…..distant or not too distant I cannot tell.

12. You are always compared with bands like My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost in the early nineties period. What do you think about this comparison and have these bands an influence on you?

Well I would be a liar if I said they did not influence in our earlier years and we were happy to be compared to bands we listened to a lot back then but we have created our own path of doom since our demo days and the comparisons are getting less and less.

13. I know that you follow the (doom) metal scene a lot and also visit some festivals on the continent and have a lot of a fun. Can we find something like that in Ireland too? How is the scene in Ireland by the way?

The Irish scene at the moment is probably at the biggest peak I have seen it since I became involved about 14 years ago, underground gig attendances are at an all time high and it is mostly o do with the quality of bands we are now producing. It also has a lot to do with the Irish mag Metalworks and Emerald promotions which for the past few years has brought over many metal underground legends and it all creates a buzz ….check out www.metalireland.com for all your Irish metal needs….we like going to gigs and getting drunk…it is the Irish way.

14. You will play at the Dutch Doom Day in September and also the Autumn of Doom in Germany. Can we expect some other shows from you too in that time?

Well I do not think we are playing Autumn of Doom now as we have flights booked for Greece on September 23+24 with Primordial, we are just now looking at Spain and Portugal and maybe even Hungary at the end of September, we are looking forward to Dutch Doom Day as our previous performance at De Baroeg was a little rough due to lack of sleep the previous night….no touring this year justa few weekend gigs across Europe.

15. I know you guys like to drink a beer. What's your favourite place to have one when you're on the road and why?

Yeah we do indulge in the odd drink….i tell you anywhere in europe is great for drinking now cause the price of beer over here is fucking madness….but we still drink…. I think anywhere the beer is good, cheap and the food cheaper and we love it.

16. That's it from my place. Any more comments?

Thanks.