MOTH Ascend from the Maelstrom! 21/1/13

Image compliments of GC Photographics

Local death metal group Mourning of the Heretic or MOTH as they have become to be known are
now in the process of producing a brand new five track EP. The group are hoping to have the release
in March or April adding a dark grim flavour to a new Spring. However, the aim for this group isn’t
about black clothes and screaming (although that’s part of it), they’re pitching for something bigger.

“There’s more thought, it’s more melodic, it’s more morbid, building melancholy. It is screaming and growling sometimes but there’s clean vocals in there too. There’s a story, it’s not like your simple narcissistic banter about what you like and what you don’t like. We’ll take short stories of pretty much every song is a different story, it’s very theatrical and dramatic, if a song required screaming it will require screaming but if it doesn’t it doesn’t. Mostly so far it’s all aggressive with more screaming. We’re very theatrical based, we usually bring props with us to gigs and fake blood and pretty much a lot of different props. The music we listen to and the stuff we read all kind of coincides with the music we play so it’s pretty much what you get from the influences.”

Their influences aren’t what you’d expect either. Break out the books to recognise the references
made in their songs! “Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Byron all that kind of Goth and romance
type stuff, literary stuff. With music it’s kind of like 80’s, The Cure, The Smiths, all that kind of morbid
new romantic stuff and then up to the heavy stuff like Cradle of Filth, Fields of Nephilim, My Dying
Bride. We usually mix the romantic symph pop doom and gloom stuff with heavier stuff so it’s got
that kind of cheesy but catchy edge to it but still really heavy as well, they try to kind of combine the
two. It’s this theatrical over the top horror based songs, cheesy Vincent Price, Christopher Lee kind
of horror stuff. When I’m writing songs and we’re playing songs it’s not a case of, ‘Let’s go fast for
the sake of going fast or play the heaviest’. There’s more thought like the lyrics may not match a riff
so we need make changes that fit the story and the flow of the song. If the song is slower it’s going
to be more dramatic, or heavy or more emotional or it’s going to be just whimsical the whole way
across.”

As Mark explains, there has been some confusion in the past about how a death metal band could
take influence from genres furthest from the likes of themselves. “You’d get guys coming up to us
going, ‘Aw, you’re wearing a David Bowie T-shirt. But you play in a death metal band’. For us we’d
be sitting listening to Rick Astley or it could be Psychedelic Furs, Elvis or something like that and
then all of a sudden it’d be Cannibal Corpse or something like that. We could be dancing away one
minute and then head banging to something else. There have been strange occasions like were we’d
listen to Asian pop for one minute and then the next we’re listening to Belfagor or Behemoth or
something.”

Joseph, guitarist and producer explains that as of yet MOTH hasn’t been able to pin down a
drummer. “I programme all the drums on my laptop and then put them through the speakers on
stage. We’ve gone through like seven drummers. Since we started off in 2010, drummers either
couldn’t get into or couldn’t physically play what we were trying to achieve, we’d want it faster and
they just couldn’t go any faster. Bands I’d listen to from the 80’s all had drum machines anyway to
incorporate in drums but also strings, piano and lots of other samples layered with effects. I pre-
programme everything, put in on a backing track, then plug my laptop into the PA system in the bar
and press play. I can control that from the stage while I play guitar. Like death metal karaoke.”

This ‘anything goes’ approach has fed into MOTH expanding their sound by inviting classical music
in to give them a more gothic sound. “We’ve used string parts, cello and harpsichord and things like
that for the medieval sound, sort of Victorian. We’ve haven’t shown anyone that yet. We’ve added
classical music recently because we find a darker timbre in that and at the same time a beautiful
piece of music even though that’s what going on in the background. Derry is pretty much the same,
it’s a grim place, very grey and even the crest of the city has a skeleton on it so we take from that,
from our surroundings. We’re all into really elaborate music, something that’s theatrical, that’s not
run of the mill mainstream, something that you can really get your teeth into. We would listen to
Johnny Cash, Elvis Presely and stuff like that. Even though it’s not our thing we can’t take stuff from
it, how it was composed and how it fits the lyrics.”

There are not many death metal bands in Derry’s music scene that write their own music or even
take if further and create more of a performance, MOTH revel in the fact that they are different.
“We don’t do what other bands are doing. Even though everyone will says ‘We’re not like other
bands’, for us we have not found a band in Derry or in Ireland that’ll tackle the stuff we do. It could
be because they’re afraid of getting the hand taken out of them or might not be recognised. We
want to be interesting, even if some people think that’s bad we still want to be interesting. We do
it because we want to express ourselves, it’s a performance. It’s not about going on stage playing
a few riffs and going home, people get their money’s worth when they see us, it’s theatrical, we
get into our songs more. Even playing the smallest venues when we get into it, it’s going to be a
different show each time around. I’m very pessimistic so it’s kind of comes through in the show, that
sort of half empty/half full but comical. It’s a really dark, kind of Black Books sort of humour, like
Dylan Moran.”

The band is self sufficient in writing, recording, producing and even designing the artwork for their
music. They are almost half way through producing the EP and are toying with ‘Melancholic Versus
and Diabolical Curses’ for a name so keep an eye out for that. The guys are also hoping to be doing
a gig with Spitknot, a Slipknot tribute band, sometime soon but as yet nothing has been confirmed.
Keep an eye on the groups Facebook page as they regularly update it with up and coming gigs and
links to hear their music.