Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days) don’t know everything, Decibel brings you Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack.
War-painted four-piece Mortuorial Eclipse hail from Argentina and roll out a ferocious storm of blackened death metal enhanced by cavalry-ready symphonic flourishes. That word again is enhanced. Not drowned or muted or unmanned. Like horned batwings on a ravening demon, the orchestral elements lift the music over the scrambling crowd of human meat and allow more havoc to be wreaked, more terror to be spread. The extra instrumentation is so good, it could be Greek, or Roman-Canadian, or even South Carolinian-Egyptian!
Decibel caught up with guitarist/vocalist Nefass to talk about the bands origins and trajectory. From his answers, it sounds like debut record The Aethyrs’ Call is just the beginning of what we can expect to hear from this monstrous band, and that can only be good. Listen to “Brotherhood of the Serpent” right here, and check out the band’s ReverbNation page for more info/music. Support Argentinian brutality!
Who are the musicians who make up Mortuorial Eclipse? What do their musical backgrounds bring to the band?
Nowadays ME is composed by Baal Herith (orchestrations and keyboards), Nefass (vocals and guitar), Kobal (drums), Thav (live guitar). Nefass has been part of Necropolis (death metal), Devius (progressive death) and Inferi (black/death). Baal Herith was part of many projects and has a long career as composer, especially scores and classical music. Kobal is founder member of Corporal Dissection (death) and Thav is leader of the well-known local black/death band Inferi and also is part of Blood Parade [for] some time.
What was the band doing in the years leading up to this first full-length record?
The recording of this album was a long progress and was cut by a small tour we did in Brazil. For this album we chose songs from the different stages of the band and this year was the right moment to close a cycle. From the genesis of Mortuorial Eclipse we have been searching for a musical identity and a sound that transmits what we want to. This is our first step towards that.
Do you feel that Mortuorial Eclipse has the support of a metal scene in Córdoba, or have you paved your own way?
Yes! Even though the extreme metal scene in our city is not too big, we had the support of the metalheads from the beginning; of course there [are] a few people that criticize everything new and different from the standards but we don’t care about them.
How did the band settle on its “symphonic blackened death” sound? Specifically, what turns you on about the symphonic elements? How are decisions made about when to push those elements forward and when to pull them back?
From our first composed song we knew that the symphonic element would be an important component for the band, but on 2010 when Baal Herith become part of the band ,we decided to give it even more leadership and a main role on our music. Since that moment we modified all songs and we started a different way of composing our material. Of course it was not easy and we are still searching the best way to combine the extreme metal with the symphonic orchestrations, keeping the essence of each style and breeding a chaotic harmony between them. During The Aethyrs’ Call recording we realized that it was the beginning of a long journey and that there is much more from where it comes.
How long was the writing/recording process for The Aethyrs´ Call? What was the experience like?
This first album contains songs made in all the stages of the band. It was a long period of selection and much material was discarded. The orchestration arrangements and recording were also a hard process but very productive. Regarding guitars, bass and drums – everything was great but it took more time that we expected; it’s not strange considering this is our first professional work and we were very exigent with the performance of every detail. With the vocals [things were] very strange, we had changed the vocalist shortly time before a tour, and after that we had to start recordings, thing that never happened with this singer and that was the reason whereby we decided that I should try to record vocals. Matias Takaya, from AV Studios , was The Man who led me through this hard process and [surprised us] with cool results. The final touch, but one of the most difficult and important, was given by Arek (Malta) Malczewski (sound engineer of Behemoth, Decapitated). He mixed and mastered the CD at Sound Division Studios in Poland.
How did you get with the label Ishtar Gate?
We created it. It’s a label we (members from others metal bands and me) created some years ago with the target of [organizing] gigs and releasing material in our city. If you want things to be done correctly, do it yourself…
What kinds of reactions to your sound are you getting from audiences? From friends and family?
Friends and family are very proud of the final product because they know how hard it was for us to make it. We are having a great and unexpected [reception by] the local audience and a big reach to people from all parts of the world, [which] is very important for a first album even more considering it’s a self production of an underground metal band, from an underground country.
Where does Mortuorial Eclipse go from here?
Now we are searching for labels and distro for our album around the world, we are working hard on making it reach as far as we can. We will make a video the first trimester of 2013 and we are closing some gigs around our country to spread our material locally. After that we are starting to work on a tour through Europe for 2014. We are already composing new music for the successor of The Aethyrs’ Call.
