Interview with doom death metal band from Chile - MOURNERS LAMENT.
Answered Alfredo Pérez (vocals), thank you!
Ave MOURNERS LAMENT! Welcome to the Chilean underground. I hope all is well with you. It should be, you have the second long-playing great album of your career this year. I have to admit, it literally put me up against the wall. It's dark, it's energetic, it cuts with a knife edge. It's very telling that you've done a great job and a great deal of talent too. How do you feel about the new record in relation to your debut? Where did you want to go and how do you think the recordings are different?
Hey Deadly Storm! First of all, thanks a lot for this interview! There’s been a lot of changes between our first approach to a full lenght album to what we have done now. Over the last years, we had some line up changes, new air, new ideas, new style of working as a band, between other stuff that made us to be full enthusiastic with the changes and really active on what is Mourners Lament now. As we had very good experience with our friend Carlos Fuentes (our actual sound tech) we thought it would be a good idea to work with him on the new album and after hearing the final results, we can say now, that, the ending product is a total beauty of an album in all aspects, and, we can say that we are totally proud of what we achieved in all aspects, call it compositions, grooves, quality sound etc.
"A Grey Farewell" contains all the attributes of good death and doom metal. For me personally, it is a record that I love to come back to. How was it made? How did MOURNERS LAMENT compose the new material?
Some of the ideas was worked after the first full length album, but those ideas kept on the pocket while the band had a small time of gap between gigs and live action. Pandemics came over and that made the whole process slower, but not fully stopped. In between those years a self-made-home-recording EP was made, and that was a total prelude of what was coming afterwards. The new gigs brought new blood to the band and then we decided to record what was going to be the second full length album of ML. The ideas of the music was brought by some of the head stone members of the band, so the main language over the music was kept untouched and, as you can hear, the music keeps it’s own roots and sound.
Who is signed for recording and mastering? I have to confirm that the sound literally kills. It still makes me turn up the volume on the hi-fi tower. You have a sound that is harsh, raw and at the same time dark and animalistic. How was it working with you? What studio did you record in and how did everything go?
As we replied on the previous question, after we worked with Carlos Fuentes as our live sound tech, AND checking his previous works with other bands under Sonido Origen Studio (his personal studio), we decided that he would be the man in charge of working all what would be involved on the new process of an album, so, all preparations, strating from the recording process, to mixing and mastering, was made at Sonido Origen Studio in a very smooth and friendly (but totally professional) way. Carlos knows his craft, so, he helped us a lot acting as a guru over the mics, distorsions/ambient and being as a kind of artisan on the post production fase... we have to say that ML is and will be always gratefull with his job on this new material.
An integral part and kind of an extra bonus for fans today is the CD. You released it on the label Personal records and it comes with a demonic cover. The author is Enzo Toledo G. How did you choose the theme and how does it relate to the music on the release?
Well, the decision of looking for an artist to make the art of the album was easy. Is not difficult for us to see that our home country Chile, has a lot of great illustrator and visual artists, so, after we started to think about who was going to be the person in charge of reflecting about how the concept/music had to be seen on paper, our thoughts were coming straight to Enzo Toledo, a chilean visual artist who has a vast experience on working with Doom bands, he even had his own underground label „Proyecto Sepulcro“ so, what else would you need on his curriculum vitae to be the chosen one? He was what we needed and, after we told him about this proyect, Enzo accepted and asked for the music, lyrics and all ideas involed in the album. We left the door totally open to hear and see what he was going to reflect on his art about all this information and man, he nailed it! The rest is history, check it by yourselves while you hold your copy of „A Grey Farewell“.
I've been roaming the underworld for over thirty years and I actually go to Chile to get music for sure. I think we have similar moods and tastes when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and follow your scene very closely. Maybe I'm a bit jealous, we only have a few death metal bands in our country that are worth it. What do you explain that death metal is so successful in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
Easy question... SOUTHAMERICA! Metal music in Chile has been growing as a bad seed over the last 20 years and that’s because of the extreme influence of the seminal undeground scene of black/death/thrash metal bands from Colombia and Brasil, and why not, under it’s own influence under chilean bands as Pentagram (CL), Totten Korps, Death Yell and a lot of hellish extreme bands from here. Right now, probably some kids under 20 years old have been hearing those kind of music monsters before in their childhood and what do you expect to hear from them after they grab and instrument and become musicians? Melodic swedish metal shit or extreme whatosever metal sutff? NO! The answer is a kick in the face coming from the newer acts coming from CL, that’s right mister! The music scene in Chile is plagued with extreme bands man!
You play doom death metal influenced by the old school. Nowadays a band can't really avoid comparison, but I'm curious how the idea to form MOURNERS LAMENT came about, who was and is your role model and where do you want to take your band? Are you tempted by big festivals abroad, for example, are you willing to tour with a more famous pack?
„Doom is for those whose hearts beats slower“. Mournful Congregation has a point on that. Our sound, our beats and our music is not a style for everyone. DOOM and what we make as a band is probably made as a reflection of what we like and what we want to reflect as musical composition for a personal taste. We know there’s a not very big „niche“ for Doom in general, but we want to make it anyway even if we don’t have a thousand followers. Taking that on mind, we do not lie in accepting that we are a band very influenced by the holy trinity of UK Doom, specially on the Anathema first EP/Albums, but, with a VERY processed, emotional and filtered work to not become a copycat of what was our own influential music, band and artists. In the last years we’ve achieved some of our goals as we have played by example on „Dutch Doom Days“, but, if possible, we would really love to play with any of the influential bands or in the special Doom Festivals outside southamerica like Madrid is The Dark, Doom Over Vienna or other cool Doom festivals in Europe.
When I started my site seven years ago, I had a vision of trying to support bands that I thought weren't as visible. Let the world know about them. I think I've been pretty successful, at least by the response. How do you approach promotion? Do you leave it up to the label or do you send out CDs yourself for various reviews? I buy albums that I really enjoy, for example. How are you? Are you also a fan who likes to support your colleagues often? Do you go to concerts? Do you party?
To answer this, we have to say that usually we are always working on our own, specially when it comes to gigs and tours, BUT, on this time, it is have been very helpful to have the back up from our close friend and label boss Jacobo Cordova, a man who has a lot of experience not only as an awesome musician, but as a hard to the core fan of metal and experienced person in all what underground means and how it works. He and Personal Records have helped us a lot on showing what are doing now to the masses. And talking about our way to support what we like, in fact, the 5 guys in Mourners Lament have been part of the small fellowship of Doom musicians in Santiago and the close cities around, since we all work in different doom bands, we come to concerts, we come to gigs, we buy cds, vinyl, t shirts, patches and whatever it comes that might be that small grain of sand that will help your colleagues in this small group of supporters of the style. And YES we party and drink beer as animals!
On the one hand, a band starting out today has a lot of opportunities to make their presence known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of bands and fans get lost in them. A lot of people just download mp3s from the internet and spit venomous spittle on Facebook instead of going to a gig. How does modern technology affect you as MOURNERS LAMENT? What do you think about downloading music, google metal, streaming music etc.?
Well, all of us in ML are older than 40 years old, so we were just in the middle of what was the tape trading, while vinyl was dissapearing and CDs conquering the markets and then again with the uprising of vinyl while digital music gained a los of territory. We know that we have to learn and get used to work under this mantle of digital era, but, has music lovers, we try to still make our music available for those who still live the music as in the old times. Streaming music, downloads and whatever that digital era concerns, looks more like a small trampoline to be heard overseas and to show to those younger generations that playing slower is also an interesting, deep and cathartic way of making music art.
I like to ask musicians what death/doom metal means to them. How would they define it, is it more of a philosophy and lifestyle for them or "just" relaxation. What does it mean to you? How do you perceive and experience it?
That’s a great question. Probably every musician that practices the style would tell you a different point of view about it. At least, for Mourners Lament, we make music that comes from our heart and, as our influences were the aformentioned bands, we came naturally to a sound that was defined this way. We are not a extreme Death/Doom band, and to be precise, yes, we do that kind of style but it is totally immersed/merged in other styles like Post Rock, Funeral Doom and Death Metal, even, with mellow but deppresive melodies. Playing this kind of music is totally cathartic as the tempo and feeling of each song, takes us to a kind of state that we all feel very comfortable and it seems that we can even, use our gigs as a way of liberation of energies, be it good or bad, as you can see all of us enjoy to play it loud and heavy.
Finally, a classic but important question. What are MOURNERS LAMENT planning in the coming months? Where can we see you in concert and when will you visit Europe again? If I'm not mistaken, have you already played in the Czech Republic?
We have some gigs planned in Chile and we are right now planning a new tour in Europe for 2025, so we are crossing our fingers to visit new places, new festivals and new experiences for that. And yes! We played in November 2022 in Modra Vopice with Majestic Downfall and The Corona Lantern, it was a really cool gig! Hopefully we will back again in Prague!
Thank you very much for the interview. I wish not only the new album a lot of success and may the ranks of your fans expand as much as possible. I'll be looking forward to seeing you live somewhere and may you do well both musically and on a personal level. I'm gonna go shove "A Grey Farewell" in my head again!
Thanks a lof for this intersting interview and please, come to see us if we are around! Cheers!
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