January 2013 - Darken The Moon

-January 2013-
Rear view mirror
So...we all survived the promised apocalypse! Let's look back one last
time to the year that has passed away so fast...2012.
Those of you who follow the band for a while probably still know that our
year started with our semi-acoustic challenge. A full set with covers and
rewritten songs of our own without cranking that amp to 11! It went
surprisingly well. After that we dug up our writing abilities to come up
with the rough framework of almost an entire new album. Before we could
finish the writing process we first had to gear up for our very first French
date, in Paris, which was also another cool adventure.
In October we organised a real underground try-out concert with only new
songs in our hometown Mechelen, with the Chilean band Poema Arcanus
as headliners, on their first European tour in 20 years existence. Next to
the great time we had on and off stage on this event, we had the chance
to check out the feel of the new stuff in a live environment. At some times
it was embarrassing, and at other times it felt completely right and most of the time somewhere in between. It
was the best way to get into the new songs and discover how we could improve them!! Hopefully the audience had
a good time; we were too concentrated whilst playing to pay much attention to the crowd
>> picture proof
Back at our rehearsal place we had to start preparing for our Doomed November tour with Isole & Ataraxie.
Some songs weren't played in almost a year! Luckily we got them back in good shape, and meanwhile we wrote
the last track for the upcoming album, or at least the framework. The adventures we had in Rotterdam, Antwerp
and Paris with our Swedish, French and Dutch friends are somewhere else in this newsletter. In short: it was an
awesome trip!! Unfortunately our bass player Zoran announced his departure too, which is a sad thing. He'll
explain why somewhere else in this Fallen Muse. >> picture proof
Still recovering from that mini-tour we had to prepare for yet another one: our 2 dates in France to celebrate the
Apocalypse. On Friday 21 December we headlined the Apocalypse
Party in Nantes, which was a mixed bill, with a lot of attendees. We
did a good show and had again a great time off stage too. One day
later we had to play in the French capital of Doom, Rouen, with the
friendly guys of Fatum Elisum. Back on the road we made a little trip
to the famous Mont Saint Michel. It was worth the few extra
kilometers!! Once in Rouen we met the other band, had something to
eat, and then... on stage for our last show with Zoran... We gave the
audience what they came for: a full set of eclectic doom death metal!!
A great way to say goodbye to Zoran, his girlfriend Emelie and 2012!
-The Fallen MuseEpitaph – Zoran Van Belleghem °II/2011 - † XII/2012
Hey Zoran, tell us, why did you decide to leave MF?
It's because it's hard to combine the rehearsals with my job. I just
get home around 6pm and still have to change and eat, before i
have a 1 hour drive to Mechelen. Plus I find it hard to write songs
and/or riffs in the Doom genre (I’m more death metal minded).
Until now, I only wrote the bass lines for the new songs.
And last reason, I’m a guitar player who loves to do bass too. And I
want to focus more on guitar playing.
Do you think doom metal is music for dodo's?
Depends on what you mean by dodo's (lol) ... No seriously, I didn't
know too much about doom metal before joining MF, except that it's
slow. But after seeing some great bands on MF gigs (lol), I started
to like it. Still won’t be my favorite type of metal, but it's cool to see
bands play that slow and get it as tight as they do...
What have been the best experiences for you with MF?
It's hard to pick just one... I did my first gigs abroad with MF, so
definitely all of those... I did gigs on the stages I wanted to play too
(e.g. the legendary Biebob and Baroeg) ... I think the Biebob gig
was one of my favorites and both mini-tours. But I still liked al the
gigs I did with MF. We had some cool times and I’m going to miss
those times...
What is your favorite song of MF?
Again... it's hard to pick just one lol ... but, to play live: The Dark Corner and Roots of Grief ... And to listen to:
Lethe, Lethe has such a cool atmosphere...
What can we expect from you in the future?
I'm still working on my new band (but we still need a
good band name)... As soon as we get a couple of
songs ready, we'll record it and raise hell on stages..
And next to that I’ve just joined Flexant as a guitar
player... Which is looking promising and fun lol... My
first stage slaughtering will be on the 9th of February in
Ghent with Flexant.
And I have some contributions planned to project bands
as well.
Any last words?
First of all I want to thank the other lads in MF for the
great opportunity that they gave me, and the great
experiences that we shared. And I wish them best of
luck in their search of a new bass player and in their
musical career. I'm sure they'll land on their feet.
And to the MF fans: Thanks for the great support on
and off the stage and I hope I’ll see you guys on some
of my future gigs too... Stay doomed!!
And a last BIG THANK YOU from the band!!
Good luck mate!!
Doomed November Tour (Dennis’ tour diary)
-The Fallen Muse-
Friday
As usual the band came to the rehearsal cave to pack the gear and
have some last minute chit chats. When packed we left to pick up our
Swedish Doom-friends of Isole at the airport. Because we had to wait
some time our driver Ken came under the spell of some fast food
advertising and had to eat burger. We saw a lot of people come out of
the gate and finally also the Isole guys. It was good to see them again
(last time was 2009). We went to the cars and packed their gear in
our van. We had a quick beer and updated each other of all things
going on in our lives/bands and left for Rotterdam.
The -in the meantime legendary- doom-van almost missed the exit at
the highway but a quick reaction of the drummer-driver made sure we
didn’t. We arrived right on schedule and found us a parking spot in
front of the venue (Baroeg). We got a warm welcome and started to
unload the gear, when doing so the Ataraxie guys arrived and came to
say hi, when Pim (Officium Triste) joined us at the van the
unloading turned into a friendly, cosy doomster pre-gig drinking
party, Belgian Beer!!!
We set up the stage and had our soundcheck, meanwhile driver Ken
set up our merchandise. After the soundcheck we got some decent
food and prepared for our show. It was great to be able to play in this
legendary venue with this bill. However a bit impressed by the
circumstances, we did a good show and there was a nice crowd
watching our set, even some familiar faces came over the border to
watch us do our thing at “Den Baroeg”. After the show it was time to
test the local beer (Hertog Jan), the fridge in the backstage was filled
and we were (or at least I was) thirsty. I had some good chit chats
with the other bands in this cosy backstage. The other bands
delivered their show and the crowd liked it. It was a great feeling
knowing we would be on the road for 3 dates with these bands.
After the show we had some more beers and laughs and
loaded the van. Our driver Ken thought it would be a cool
thing to take an alternative road home. There was an
awful fog hanging on the road and at one point I almost
believed we were flying with our van, but we got home
safe and went to sleep, or at least tried to
Saturday
Getting up wasn’t too great for me (Hertog Jan gave me a
hangover apparently, the bastard), but the show must go on so…
Today the Darken The Moon III festival was planned, a fest we
hosted so we had to be there to arrange it all. We left together
with Isole who were hosted at our singer Arne’s house and set
sail to Berchem. The venue was even better than expected.
Backline was set up and backstage passes were made (or
personalised), the crew was informed and all was prepared to
make it an amazing fest. Everything went smooth and we met up
with the Czech guys of Et Moriemur who would be opening this
edition of Darken The Moon.
-The Fallen Muse-
The crowd started to fill the venue and the fest was kicked off in
style by Et Moriemur. Our show was next. Again we had a good
one and some good reactions from the audience. Ataraxie & Officium Triste gave really good shows and Isole had
some backing track problems (wow those bells were loud), but pro as they are they managed to not let that spoil
their fun on stage. After the show the Belgian beers came out and some of the
bands went for Duvel…At the end of this fest Jo of Ataraxie switched
personalities between Satan himself and Chuck Norris with some memorable
scenes that will never be able to leave my memories. Because we organised
this fest we had to clean up afterwards as well. We hoped for some extra
people to turn up but all in all we can call this third edition a success. We
drove home for a short night sleep because in the morning we had to leave for
Paris quite early.
Sunday
We met at Arne’s place around 9 am to leave for Paris. Not all Swedish guys
had enough sleep to get their beers digested but the call of the road had to be
obeyed and so we left with only minutes of delay. We had a really good drive
(not a lot of traffic) and arrived on time. We unloaded the van and Ken and
Arne went to park the car. Because we had some problems finding a parking
spot for our van last time we played in Paris we did some homework and
looked up some potential spots. They seemed to be non-existing or full so we
feared a repetition of last time but Arne spotted a place before our fear could
poison our mind. In the mean time we were welcomed by the organisation
with coffee and cake (Thanx Marie!!).
The stage was set up, we got our passes and the bands could start
soundchecking. I have to say that this was a very good organisation
and we had a good time waiting for our time to soundcheck. We had
some beers and were served a good meal. I have to say DOOM
OVER PARIS was the best gig of all three. We had a great show
(some of the best I played with MF imho) and got really good
reactions. I left the stage with a great feeling of victory. I didn’t see
much of the other bands because I had too much of a good time
upstairs where the bar and merch place was set up. I had a lot of
good talks and met some cool people. After the show we drove back
to Belgium to prepare
ourselves for our next
French
adventure
(Nantes and Rouen) in
December.
Thanx to all involved
for these three days
of Doom, Fun, Metal
and all things good in
life!!
>> picture proof
Darken the Moon mini-tour - some words of thanks!
-The Fallen Muse-
Well, as some of you might know or remember, the idea to play a weekend tour with our Swedish buddies of Isole
and French friends of Ataraxie was born in April last year. We had some good and bad luck along the way to come
up with a 3-date mini tour with some of the doom (death) scene finest bands, as also Officium Triste joined on 2
dates.
The list of people who made this adventure possible is pretty long, but hey, you don't have to read it :p
Leon from Baroeg, Sarah, Michiel & Sam from Eglantier, Rémi & Marie from Les Acteurs de l'hombre, all the
bands, and especially Officium Triste, Isole and Ataraxie for all the nice times, Koen & Micha for their sponsoring,
Joris (ex-PandDemonium) for the tip and support, Johnny & Birgit for all their help and our incredible crew in
Berchem for all the big and little jobs they did on the fest, with an extra thumbs up to our driver Ken who did the
entire tour with us.
Last but not least we want to thank everyone who attended one of
the gigs, 98 paying visitors in Rotterdam, 110 in Paris and enough
in Berchem (we didn't count them:/)
So hopefully we can continue this tradition next year, cheers!
2013 Expectations, best wishes and all that!
- We are about to start auditioning for a new bass player. We have
some promising candidates, but feel free to contact us if you think
you are the guy/girl for the job!
- We are on the lookout for a studio and hope to book studio time
in April, so now is the time to do some final adjustments and have
some pre-production version of all the new songs, 7 in total!
- First gigs are confirmed, seems we will be starting of the new
year on May 11th in Dordrecht, with the likes of Mourning
Beloveth, Jack Frost, Desire, The 11th Hour and more on the
third Dordrecht Doom Days! Another hometown gig is confirmed
one week later and plans are made for Autumnal shows of Doom
too...
- Dennis' other band Self Inflicted is busy recording its fourth
opus, drum recordings are already done, check Youtube if you
want to be sure
- Arne's other band Natan will finally release 'Às' on CD format
and have some cool festivals line-up already for 2013!
- Our singer also recorded a 45 minutes song for his new
project Virvm Dolorvm. Check it here.
… and let us end this
Fallen Muse
with wishing
you all a prosperous New year, with great music
to give you the energy to kick ass, overcome
troubles or accompany your best moments!!
Cheers, from the 4 of us
Kurt, Peter, Dennis & Arne