From
Code666
1)"Dust" is a meaningfull title, can you start
our chat describing the emotions and moods surrounding Mourning Beloveth?
We play dark miserable and traumatic music for the discerning Doom Metal
community. We in MB have all been touched by misery at different parts
of our lives and we have shared in most of them together too as we are
all good friends in the band and have been around together before there
was Mourning Beloveth. We pool our misery and push our emotions through
the grinder of Death to reap the grimness for our wall of darkness. We
are but a speck of dust in this universe too we must remember. One good
line we hear from that story called the Bible puts it “ From Dust
you came and into Dust you shall return” Ha ha Were they Doom Metallers
by any chance?
2) Ireland is nowadays a land full of great bands coming
up, do you think we can talk about a new scene moving its steps?
This had come into being about 3 to 4 years ago when people here started
to notice the better quality bands coming through and eyebrows being raised
and it still continues. The Irish scene was very stagnant for while with
fuck all going on gig wise and no real exciting bands making an impact.
Primordials rise to fame at home and abroad has helped the Irish scene
a hell of a lot. Alan(vocals) always name drop Irish bands in his interviews
etc and they are great ambassadors for the scene here abroad-He is the
one accredited with our band logo too! About 3 years ago myself and Paul
Kearns (Arcane Sun) and a friend Fergal (H)Holmes started promoting foreign
bands here . Starting with Cathedral and then on to bands like Anathema,
MDB, Immortal, The Haunted, Vader, Kreator, Cannibal Corpse and many many
others since. This helped gain the scene back from the gutter and people
had gigs to go to once more. The scene was great here in the 80’s
but corporate promoters and drugs(dance culture) brought an end to it
unfortunately. Now the North of Ireland has a few metal promoters and
there are a few Irish Metal labels on the go too + Metalworks magazine.
It’s the first pro-printed Irish magazine here and the 3rd issue
should be out soon. www.metalworksmagazine.com. Also the Irish Metal Forum
www.metalireland.com . This is the place to go for all the info on the
Irish scene.
3) Even if fullfilled with musical culture and even if music
is one of the most important forms of expression in your country, Ireland
never reached a full worldwide status inside the metal scene, can you
guess some reasons why?
It’s because there has never been a structure here for the scene.
Countries like Holland and Norway give support to metal bands with rehearsal
space etc and grants for equipment as I’m sure other countries do
but here no. The government couldn’t give a shit about us here.
Punks gave extreme music a band name here in the 70’s and 80’s
and used to fight with the Metallers all the time. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.
Metallers here are called ’Punk-rockers’ or ‘Dirty Smelly
Rockers’, one or the other and it is upsetting but still we fight
on. The government here is very corrupt anyway so they would only laugh
at you if you asked for support. Traditional Irish music would get support
as it is seen as an exportable commodity (i.e. the government can bleed
money from it) Thin Lizzy made it really big at home and abroad but didn’t
they have to break in the UK first? Most commercial bands have to do that
here. Some of the Irish mentality can’t make up their own mind so
if the UK or USA say “its ok to listen to this” then things
make a move here. Take that ‘Popstars’ crap for example in
the UK and these blatantly manufactured bands that are killing the music
scene as a whole making it even harder to push the Metal scene up a peg
or two. It also has to do with Ireland being on the far edge of Europe.
Being this far away from the central European metal scene has its limitations
too. Bands love coming here to play though and are always treated well
and we have heard from visiting bands some comments that previous bands
had made about their gigs in Ireland so that’s cool.I reland is
beginning to gain the respect it deserves throughout the Metal community-slowly
but surely and that’s a start.
4) Mourning Beloveth can be labelled as a doom band, even
if I think we can guess something more in your background. Am I wrong?
Which are the most important influences for the band?
We are primarily a Doom band but its not all we listen to. We have a very
varied and interesting background in music. The first band I played in
called Hemlock had Frank and Brian in the band and we played a kind of
Thrash metal. Darren Tim and Brian played in a Death metal band called
Pathos. If I combine some of what we all listen to it looks like this-
Death-MDB-Iced Earth-Leonard Cohen-Monumentum-Dimmu Borgir-Iron Maiden-Satyricon-At
The Gates-Blind Guardian-Neil Young-Dissection-Anathema-Primordial-Bethlehem-Opeth
and many many more. I suppose Death Metal would be the majority amongst
us and then Doom Metal and stuff like Iron Maiden etc after that.
5) "Dust" was initially printed in 2001 and the
new album will be out soon. What's changed inside M.B. sound and music?
Which are the most important innovations we can face listening to your
new one? The music hasn’t changed much really. It more the approach
and the way we visualise it in a way. We used to dwell over songs too
long in the past and this led to delays etc and getting too picky about
stuff. When we set a date for recording our 1st cd it gave us an goal-Something
we never did before like giving ourselves a deadline really helped get
the momentum going and our whole attitude changed for the better as a
result. On the new cd ‘The Sullen Sulcus’ we didn’t
play for year so we could solely concentrate on the new songs and we practiced
once sometimes twice a week . All this proved very worthwhile when we
went into the studio for the 4th time. We only spent 1 week in Academy
recording Dust. One of the things Mags said when were leaving the ‘Dust’
session was that he wished we could have spent more time there because
there was so much more he could have done with us. So the next time for
the ‘’Sulcus’ album we booked 2 full weeks and it made
a huge fucking difference. The mental advancement in the band pre-production
wise really enhanced what our music was about too and this is quite evident
on the new album. We broke everything down every time and made it the
very best we could-100% misery. On the new cd you will hear a more in
your face sound than before, there is a lot more going on riffwise. That’s
not to say we have lost the long painful riffs and melodies, no. It’s
just that there is a lot more happening in the songs and the attention
span of the listened never wavers
6) Are you found of Irish History and Gaelic culture as a band? Are you
wishing to maintain a strong link with your national cultural background
or are you more interested to reach an international and cosmopolitan
character?
As a band we are in touch with our Irishness but we don’t really
incorporate it into our music as do Cruachan or Primordial would lets
say. Another Irish bands Mael Mordha here play Celtic Doom Metal and they
have traditional leanings too in their music. We do hear though of Irish
bands having their own ’sound’. I suppose this is the melancholic
element that all Irish music possesses be it Traditional/Country/Pop or
Metal. We have never incorporated that imagery into the band and never
will I suppose as we take our outlook and presentation from what the band
is about and not the cultural aspect of where we are from. We don’t
need to depend on the Celtic symbolism etc for inspiration. We do possess
the underlying melancholia though that runs deep through our veins as
does with other Irish bands which has been caused by years of oppression
and torment bestowed on us from foreigners. This combined with our personal
lives is what drives Mourning Beloveth.
7) What's about the artwork of "Dust" and what's
about the new album graphic part? Do you consider the artwork an important
part of an album or just a good way to present it?
The title comes from the main image on the cd cover. What we’ve
got is a solitary person in a room with just 1 window. He is lying back
on the ground with his head bowed as emphasised by the loneliness and
despair of the scene. The dust in the room is caught by the solitary ray
of light coming in the window and this is his only solace. This scene
captures the meaning and emotive reckonings of Mourning Beloveth. My girlfriend
did the original artwork after Darren explained the concept of what he
wanted to best describe the lyrical content and meaning of the whole album
and she captured it very well. The cover of the original pressing is a
little different than the re-release one but the same basic image. For
the new cd we asked an artist from the North of Ireland, Paul McCarroll
to help us out. He has done covers for Abaddon Incarnate, Waylander and
numerous Irish bands. The artwork is based around the title. The word
‘Sulcus’ being the lower region/furrow of the main parts of
the brain and ‘sullen’, well work it out. If you can imagine
the pain and torment inside ones brain with all of it welling around the
‘sulcus’. The inlay pages all represent the meanings of each
particular song and are all tied up to the main image. The artwork is
very striking and maybe some will be surprised with it being from a Doom
band but we’ll see. You can check out the cover on the Metal Ireland
front page
8) Which are your interests outside the band? Books, movies
or something else you want to share with our readers and maybe suggest
to spend a good time?
I try to get the chance to read but it’s hard when I have a lot
of shit to be doing. If I get the chance I would read non-fiction stuff,
autobiographies, books about Irish history. The last book I read was about
this poor rice farming family living in the Caribbean. The old man was
an alcoholic and the mother put up with all the shit until one son died
of pneumonia as the father wouldn’t bring him to the doctor and
the disappeared into the forest never to be seen again. It was a good
book though and full of many harrowing experiences-A true story too.
I like stuff on Irish history as I didn’t get to study history in
school so I like to pick up something now and then to stock up on the
knowledge. As regards movies-I hate action crap with the likes of Bruce
Willis and Stephen Segal, all that crap. I’d rather something like
A Clockwork Orange’,’1984’,’Gummo’ which
I saw last night, very fucked up black comedy about 2 rednecks in the
Usa and their daily life about killing cats and their weird friends. It
had a soundtrack with Bethlehem,Bathory,Absu,Sleep ,Mysticum and a few
other metal bands. I like reading about other countries traditions too
like customs etc especially food. I love food so send me all your national
recipe’s ha ha ha .
9) Future projects to tour Europe or to promote outside Ireland
your band?
Plans are underfoot right now for a European tour in February with Morgion(Usa)
and The Prophecy(Uk).We have confirmed dates in Ire/Uk/Bel/Hol/Czech/Por/Spain
and are waiting on a few to be wrapped up like Austria, Italy Poland and
Germany. Portugal is the only country so far with 2 dates so there is
a shit load of travelling to do between gigs but I hope we get to party
as much as possible too!. There is a website due up soon for the tour
called www.doominationofeurope.com
We’ve a Russian licence through Irond Records coming up soon from
my label Sentinel who re-released ‘Dust’. Our new label Aftermath
will be releasing our new cd at the end of this month worldwide with a
few licencees already in the process. http://www.aftermath-music.com/
We are recording 1 song in a few weeks for a split 7” with Irish
band Lunar Gate. This will be released in December by Sentinel and limited
to 300 copies to place your pre-orders soon.
10) thanx a lot for this chat, something to add?
Thanks again for this interview Michele, I hope this gets to spread the
word of Mourning Beloveth and that the mighty Hand of Doom will touch
a few Italians here.
Well as I said before, our tour dates/bookings should be wrapped up soon
and we are looking at playing in Milan on the 17th I think so watch out
for it. So thanks again and I hope to see you in the future.
Doom on………………
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