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From Wormgear

1. Fill us in on the death metal incarnation that Mourning Beloveth existed as prior to the name change and first demo , and why you felt a stylistic change was necessary?

You said long and detailed answers so I will start with the most boring details , our history. Mourning Beloveth began existence from the embers of a death metal band Traumatized whom had earlier released a good quality demo of death metal. Following this release the band split with only Timmy , the drummer amid Keith , the bassist left to pick up the pieces. Frank then joined on guitar and the foundations of MB began with the name change in 92.Late 92 I joined and MB had already 3 songs written with no real common link between them , one song being a doom song , one being a black metal song and the other a death metal song. MB played one gig in which our bassist met the second guitarist , which we had recently recruited for the first time , at the gig.Keith , the bassist then disappeared and Brian switched to bass.He then disappeared and it was left with myself on vocals , Frank on guitar and |Tim on drums practicing in a shed during the winter months of 93.Brian then reappeared to play guitar on our first untitled demo following which we recruited Adrian , a good friend , on bass. Brian switched to guitar and finally our musical goals became clearer and following alot of torture we recorded our second demo which shows the MB horizon alot clearer as our goals on the debut were muddied and confused to say the least.Still unhappy with the sound on our second demo we decided where better to record than Academy with Mags and why not go a bit further and record a self financed album and here we are ( oh yeah between the second demo and the CD Brian disappeared for a while again).The stylistic change was a subconcious thing as we were all listening to English doom at the time amd what else would you write with one guitar , one vocal and drums but slow , miserable.

2.How do you describe your own music?

Raw negative emotion put to music.A lack of hope , the feeling that our lives are coming to a slow grinding halt are the feelings we release when we compose new songs.Melancholy and misery fill the chords and the dissonant sound of the vocals are the regurgitation of our subconcious thoughts.To quote Frank , our guitarist , for him our music is like a slow , slurping of the bleeding heart within which we can let loose all of our negative emotions. Vacant , impassioned and dark are three good adjectives to describe the music but I could go on all night with adjectives about our music....

3.Your first demo sounds a lot less focus compared to more recent material , and also owes more to bands like MDB. Are you still pleased with it? Does it have a formal title?

I agree with you in that our debut demo lacked focus as at the time we were struggling with line up problems and we actually did not know what direction we were going we just knew we needed some sort of release from this world of shit. The recording for this demo was probably the first time that we actually heard our songs properly. This is one of the reasons why the demo has no formal title and why there is no lyrics printed. I am still very pleased with this recording as it represents a period in our lives ,and listening to the demo as you grow older you can get different things from the recording. Personally ,anything I ever write will always hold a special place in my heart and it is the same as anything I listen to no matter how many faults that can be found in the lyrics or music or whatever it is it will always represent a certain period of time. I tend to disagree with you on the My Dying Bride influence in our first demo as I feel our second demo leans more towards that way of thinking. Even listening back to the first demo now I still can't hear too many MDB influences , but everyone is entitled to their opinion , if they weren't life would be even more boring.

4.Following the first demo why wait so long before releasing "Autumnal Fires"?Do you feel the bands growth isbetween the two demos is significant?

The large gap between the first and second demo could be down to our utter laziness but I like to use the reason that we finally had a stable lineup and we were getting associated with each others music. We are not professional musicians we play for the reasons I said above to release some of the misery that wells up inside and since we are not miserable bastards every day it takes time for these experiences to build up. We are not the type just to sit back , listen to ten albums and then write our own album, it takes time. The gap between the second demo and the album "Dust" was again significant for the same reasons. The difference between the writing of the second demo and Dust is that we did not spend as long nit picking at the songs for the album whereas we did with the demo although it seems the other way around as the song structure , ,to my ears anyway are far superior on the album. But we have been listening to the CD so long now that we are beginning to pick at certain holes , but if it wasn't that way then we would just give up.

5.What exactly is that in the front cover of "Dust"? I've spent plenty of time examining it and the red figure looks like a body without a head , but I'm at a loss to explain the rest. Also what is the significance of the "sunwheel" in the corner?

You were right about the body on the front cover but there is also a head there if you look closely. The "sunwheel" in the corner is a very good description and it brings into account the beams of light and dark which form behind the body. To me this represents a weeping window to the outside world. It is a window that only allows darkness into the world that this figure lives in. There is also shafts of light interspersed between the darkness , a ray of hope almost. To me , the image on the front cover incorporates the name of the album also "Dust" in so far as the man seems to be shutting out the outside world and within the shafts of light and shade one can almost see particles of dust being sucked away from his body as he tries to become himself. To me, the reason why the mans head is hidden is to show his lonliness and that he has nothing more to offer this world. As I say this is only my opinion on the front cover as the artist did not explain it to us but left it up to ourselves to gleen from it our own meaning. For example , one guy described the "sunwheel" as a drain in that it is sucking the life from us.

6.Why has piano disappeared from Mourning Beloveths repertoire with "Dust"/I've heard something about a piano piece sometime after the second demo came out…

The piano was a good aspect of MB but we thought for our debut album we went for a more natural raw doom, but won't be ruled out for future recordings , which we hope shall be plentiful. Diarmod the pianist is not a pledged member of MB but a dear friend and talented musician ,which we gave a few ideas to and he came up with some very dramatic but tranquil pieces which were effective for both demo's. He also joined a band called Karnayna within which I am also the vocalist.

7. Why did you change the title of "Autumn fires in somnolent harmony" to "Autumnal Fires"?

The reason for the change of name was if you check closely the last three lines of the song on the album are different than the demo and these three lines finish up , for me anyway , a certain period in my life.

8. Your singing voice sounds great but the harsh death vocals are an important contrast. Will you ever abandon them completely in thename of "progress" as so many bands do?

The clean singing on the Cd are to my ears quite spectacular but , unfortunately, they are not mine but the voice of our guitarist , Frank>I think if we were to abandon the death vocals I would no longer be in the band so.....This dual vocal has worked out well for us and we will be experimenting further in the future. We feel this is where our progression lies and not in getting rid of the harsh vocals as so many other bands to their detriment. To me the death vocals are an important part of this style of doom as like the music it is just raw passion put to music an almost inner regurgitation.

9. I hear many parallels between the music of Primordial and Mourning Beloveth. What do you think of them and do you think this comparison is valid?

I adore the music of Primordial. Their first album of harsh black metal with a little melody did not really catch me but each release afterwards just got better and better culminating in , to my mind , their masterpiece "Spirit.."I think we are a few steps behind in our musical progression but we will get there. We both started out as harsh forms of our respective genres and with each release honed our music. I think we are a few steps behind in our musical progression but we will get there. I think the similarties lie in the emotional sense of the music each being full of melancholy and passion. We are also both Irish bands and therefore ,I feel, we share the same downtrodden subconscious that seems to be present in all Irish people , just check out our weather, rain and misery pervade.

10. Discuss your approach to lyrics. Do you find writing about the dreary themes inherent to doom is cathartic?

My lyrics deal with the negative emotions I feel every day in my life . Putting pen to paper is my way of venting these emotions and I feel it is a better way than bottling things up and releasing them by say for example fighting. As I have said previously I am not miserable every moment of my life but I would say half and half would come close. I see no point in writing about situations that make you happy as these will remain with a person forever and should not be forgotten. However the negative aspects of life should be released from the mind and I can do this through my words. I deal with such topics as lonliness , the passage of time on our aging bones , depression and misery , love and lost love and death.These are all fairly standard themes in doom music but each person has their own thoughts on these subjects and each persons thoughts are different .For example on the subject of lonliness , noone is truly alone physically however one may be alone forever mentally and this is what the song "The Mountains are Mine" is about. It is about a person whom could never speak to anyone as he felt he had nothing in common with anyone so he runs to the mountains to escape and for complete physical and mental depravation. The mountains in this song are just a metaphor for the vast and vacant lands in which my minds sometimes wanders when all alone. The lyrics are just me vomiting onto a page following days , sometimes weeks or even months of thinking about what I am feeling at a certain time in my life and I then puke it onto a page in a matter of minutes. I have noticed the more lyrics I read from other bands the ones I understand the best and most are the personal lyrics. I can see someone else has gone through a shit time and this gives me a lift and hopefully my lyrics will do the same for others but if they do not I am not too bothered cause in the end they are for me and if someone else gleans a meaning form them who am I to say whether it is right or wrong. T his is the main reason I do not like to explain my lyrics to anyone a bit like the front , eh. Each member of Mourning Beloveth brings their own personal thoughts and desires to the band and we know each other so well that we do not have to explain our beliefs and motivations to each other. So although it may seem a bit pretentious to explain the lyrics or music of Mourning Beloveth in broad strokes we feel it is better for each person to take from the song whatever they feel themselves.

11. Does the slow , brooding approach to your music so far preclude the possible use of more speed in the future? Do you feel doom can still be affectively claustrophobic if it's a bit faster? Disembowlment , for example , use to come out of nowhere with blast beats.

Since the release of "Dust" we , as a band , have scrutinised the progression from our demo days and we see that the tempo of our songs ,although slow , have increased slightly with each release. Although not being in the same speed vein as some of the Disembowlment stuff it is still a change of tempo .I feel that the closed , claustrophobic feel of our music lies in the arrangement of the riffs and their sometimes repetitive style and also the fact that our earlier releases had an almost unfocused sound.I am not saying this is a bad thing it is in fact a really cool sound that we had on our other releases and this is where this atmosphere came from. Our Cd has a much more focused sound while still featuring the almost empty claustrophobia from previous releases in the way that we only use one melody track and three rhythm and this is continued along in the bass and vocals with just simple but effective sounds.This , almost , simple sound can be sometimes more mesmerising than a much wider , larger sound. I do not think that we will ever preclude the use of speed in our songs as this would be narrowing our song writing capabilities for the future. I have heard some Disembowlment stuff and I agree with your statement of the atmosphere of the faster stuff but I feel if we do write some faster stuff it will be to release certain emotions that have been building and who knows what it will sound like.

12.What is your opinion of the more extreme doom bands , like Skepticism ,Evoken , Thergothon , Unholy et al? They create a similarly hypnotic feel with a totally different approach , as they are even slower , harsher , and offer much less in the way of melody.

I adore each band you have mentioned here Thergothon and Evoken release some mammoth slabs of misery and "Streams..." is a fave of mine Skepticism and Unholy are pure raw emotiona nd lull the listener into a state of tortured blackness. I was just listening to "From the Shadows " yesterday and one can here the utter painfrom the shriek and the barrage of drums just seems to numb the senses. Skepticism's "Stormcrow..." was an album I fell in love with immediately and is for lonely people to listen alone in a dark room with nothing but the saw of the guitars , the guttural cries of the vocals and the barrage of full drums to fill your head .I feel that our approach to doom is much different to the aforementioned bands but that we are trying to reach the same goal by numbing the listener and perhaps ourselves and dragging them into a world of melancholy , misery and pain into our world through the slow beating of the drum backed up by a wall of dark sound.

13 Tell me about your other band Karnayna?

I am also lead vocalist in a Celtic/death/black metal band who have been together for years but only now have a stable lineup with the addition of myself and Dermod on keyboards (Dermod appeared on the first two MB releases with piano interludes. This lineup has released one demo recorded on an 8 track and we have played about 10 gigs .It is a very tight and professional and the future looks bright with thenew material sounding alot more competent helped along by the fact that their is finally a stable lineup .Look out for this name.

14. Where do you see Mourning |Beloveths music developing in the future?

We have already written 4 new songs for a mcd to be recorded in October and these songs show MB developing a heavier with more focus on melody and the twin vocal melodies which we only touched oupon on "Dust". Watch this space.

15. Do you have any final words?

Goodbye. Cheers Loren for the really interesting and well researched interview it was a joy to answer. I hope the answers are ok .I try to spend more time on the better interviews sometimes I go days without thinking of anything to say and others I just come in and type. You may find a lack of for to the answers and me just splurting out thoughts but that is the way I do things sorry. Please keep in touch and inform us when Wormgear 11 is out. So you like the music of Skepticism and Thergothon. These two bands really define what miserable music is about and even with their latest release "Aes" , Skepticism have gotten a good production and have not lost any emotional quality to their music. As i said Thergothon knock me back with their slow , torturous riffs and their sometimes use of almost empty guitar sounds to create an atmosphere. You should check out Mournful Congregation from Australia something along the same lines as us and the above mentioned , just tell them I sent you. Until next time.

Slán