Camden Underworld - London - UK
Morgion, Mourning Beloveth, The Prophecy, Ataraxie
(9 February 2003)
During February, 2003, three outstanding modern doom acts and a bevy of support bands traversed clubs and venues throughout Europe in what was one of the greatest and most memorable series of doom-metal events ever; the Doomination of Europe tour.And on Sunday, the 9th of February, I was lucky enough to experience it. Morgion, Mourning Beloveth, The Prophecy and Ataraxie were playing at the infamous Camden Underworld in London, England, and I was going. And boy was I excited. I was extremely keen on all four bands, had made plans to conduct interviews with The Prophecy and Morgion, and was hoping to meet several of my fellow Doom-metal.com staff and forum members. So, the day was undoubtedly going to be eventful and enjoyable...and it materialised into one of the greatest of my life.
Before I continue, special mention, thanks and praise should go to friend, Doom-metal.com colleague, and doom god Heiko Isselee. Not only was this man responsible for the entire tour, but he helped me massively throughout the day and prior to it. He put me on the guest list, set up both interviews, and was a splendid friendly face. The words ‘Hail Heiko’ were uttered countless times throughout the day, and deservedly so. Without him, the interviews, my being there, and the tour itself, wouldn’t have happened. So, hail Heiko!
I awoke painfully early to the pleasing sound of Anathema’s ‘Pentecost III’, and roused quickly – it being quite a journey from the horrid mire in which I live to London, and myself and the two friends who were accompanying me were hoping to arrive reasonably early, so we had time to eat, explore the various record shops in London, and of course, conduct the interviews. My two friends arrived at my house an hour or so later, and we then left the confines of my home to venture into the outside world in one’s rusty, decrepit, disturbing-noise-making car. I received a text message from Heiko soon afterward, notifying me that he and the rest of the Doomination troop had left Bradford, the location of the gig the previous night, and would arrive in Camden at around 4 PM. We meanwhile were already well on our way, now travelling by coach, and arrived in London at around 1 PM, leaving us plenty of time to delve into the streets and shops of London. After several hours of drinking, eating and shopping, Heiko sent me another message moments after 4 PM informing me that they had arrived, whilst we were wrestling through various metros to get to Camden. Upon arrival, I, growing nervous by this time, as this would be the first time I had ever conducted an interview, or done anything like this at all for that matter, rang Heiko, and he directed to me to the back entrance where the bands and crew were unpacking equipment. We were then introduced to several band members and Heiko, who told of the chaos of the previous night’s drunken activities and how little sleep he had had, before being hurried inside. We immediately dashed out of everyone’s way (as we clearly were) and hid in the bar, which was somewhat frustratingly locked up.
Soon afterward, I met the originator of funeral doomsters Pantheïst (who would be playing as supports at some of the latter Doomination shows), and fellow Doom-metal.com staff member Kostas, and chatted with him and his girlfriend for a while, whilst far more useful and industrious people than I dashed past, doing a splendid job of setting up the stage and equipment with seemingly very little help from the Underworld staff, who were the only remotely unpleasant people I met that evening. Half an hour or so after our arrival, Heiko came and spoke with us again, before kindly dragging Matt, Christian, John and Greg of The Prophecy into the bar for our interview, which went excellently, despite the frequent references to drummer John’s testi (don’t ask!). Only a few days ago the band had released their debut LP ‘Ashes’, an atmospheric doom/death masterpiece that I have obsessed over during many lonesome evenings since the tremendous performance I would experience from The Prophecy later that night. So, after 20 minutes or so of interesting and enjoyable discussion, the interview (which was pretty short due to the fact that it was arranged, and so prepared for only days before hand) came to an end, and the band returned to their duties. Whilst I, by now unable to stop grinning sheepishly, began preparing for the Morgion interview.
Heiko approached moments later and we chatted about how the tour was going, its negative financial affects, how some big UK rock magazines would have reporters present for the show, and the havoc in Ireland on the first night, before he left to find Morgion. I had in fact arranged the interview with Rhett several months before hand, so had plenty of time to prepare a series of questions, though I was still undeniably nervous. We planned that I would interview Rhett and new bassist Justin, and all three of us already had a reasonably good idea of what everyone else would say. However, new vocalist Adrian kindly joined us also, as did Gary for the second half of the interview. For those who are a little confused about Morgion’s current line-up, Dwayne Boardman, Rhett Davis and Gary Griffith still resume their usual positions in the band as guitarist, percussionist, and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist (and yes, Gary has cut off all his hair), however, former bassist and vocalist Jeremy Peto has been kicked out for ‘creative differences’, and Morgion wish him well with his new project, Dark Angel. Peto has been replaced by Justin Christian, fan and friend of the band since their conception, and now bass guitarist and backing vocalist, and Adrian Leroux, formerly of Mindrot, and now Morgion singer. The band’s old keyboardist, Peter Surowski, had also been fired, so Morgion would be playing without the aid of keyboards for the duration of the tour.
So, Rhett, Gary, Justin and Adrian gathered for our interview, joking around, introducing themselves, and altogether being very friendly and fun yet professional, which is exactly how the rest of the interview went. Gary left just as we were beginning however, due to some equipment problems, though he did return later on for the remainder of the interview. And it went superbly. Everyone spoke at great length, with emotion, eagerness, passion, intelligence and profoundness that really impressed me...it was a very, very nice interview, and I have no doubt that it will provide an enthralling, fascinating and enjoyable read – Morgion answered each of my mediocre questions brilliantly, and made them seem much better than what they really were. So, my hat goes off to them, as well as The Prophecy, who are a superb young band full of charismatic, nice young guys with fantastic promise. That evening I really felt overwhelmed, and extremely proud to be involved in a genre and event with such magnificent bands, and such magnificent, genuine, great people.After over 40 minutes of in depth and enjoyable discussion (which was at times thwarted by the sound checking of the drum kit, that has since caused me many hours of grief in attempting to hear the interview over it, and which Rhett also seemed upset about at the time due to how it was being made to sound), the Morgion fellows finally left, whilst joking about the difficulties I would no doubt have in deciphering what was said and thanking me, whilst I, grinning even more sheepishly now, could do little more than laugh and thank them in return. I then packed my tape recorder and notes away, and prepared myself for the next part of the day; the show.
After a further few minutes of reflection, myself and my friends made our way into the main concert hall of the venue (which was in fact just a few metre’s away), and we were lucky enough to catch Mourning Beloveth mid-way through their sound check, which we took great pleasure in witnessing the remainder of. French extreme death/doomsters Ataraxie, who would be the support band of tonight’s gig, took the stage moments afterwards to partake in their own sound check, and by this time our jaws were very close to our feet. We then finally gave in to relentless temptation, and made our way over to the merchandise stall, where Heiko was perched. Several delightful purchases later (including that of the tremendous Doomination of Europe tour shirt, pictured above, that I now lovingly sport with unhealthy regularity), we returned to the main area of the venue, where The Prophecy were undergoing their sound check. All was seemingly going very well, and watching the sound checks added a great amount of joy, anticipation and ‘coolness’ to the experience, tantalising us to great extents. When The Prophecy departed and returned to the backstage area, it was nearing 7 PM, the time the doors were scheduled to open, so after have a brief argument with the venue’s barman about whether or not it was time for him to open and start selling yet, we searched the Underworld for the best location possible. Soon afterward, bodies started flocking in, and the gig went underway...
At roughly 7:15 PM, Ataraxie took to the stage to a jaunty collection of cheers and applause from the surprisingly small crowd - there must have been less than 100 people in attendance at that point, and most were seemingly far more interested in their drinks. However, their interest soon was diverted to Ataraxie, who blasted through a majority of the doom/death masterpieces from their ‘The Other Path’ Demo CD which had been released just a few weeks before, as well as one or two other, previously released songs energetically. Though I had little knowledge of the band and any of their songs, having only listened to a few tracks downloaded from the internet days before hand, I will surely recognize them all with delight when I come to purchase ‘The Other Path’, which their powerful performance strongly inspired me to do. The band’s good quality, uncompromisingly heavy mixture of death and doom metal, with additional blast beats and very occasional pauses for melody pleased the Underworld’s attendance very much, and by the end of their extremely impressive set, most of the crowd were at least nodding their heads in appreciation, if not enthusiastically bouncing up and down with severity and joy. I think I speak for most people who witnessed Ataraxie at the Underworld that night when I say that their fervent display of sorrow and aggression was heartily affective and impressive, and this band are highly worthy of note as a scorching hot prospect for all fans of heavy music, and are encouraged for attention from any doom-metal fan - their vigorous and striking live performance being especially deserved of praise.
After half an hour or so of Ataraxie stolidly driving their music into our ear drums as if they were doing so with a massively powerful hammer (much to our enjoyment, of course), they left the stage to a hefty applause from an ever-growing Underworld crowd, that was still questionably small for a venue that could fit in up to 500 or so people, and only a matter of minutes later, The Prophecy mounted the stage. With the exception of some sound problems with vocalist Matt Lawson’s microphone during the fantastic rendition of the song ‘Ashes’ which was quickly resolved, TP’s set went fabulously, and their energetic brand of quality modern doom-metal took the Underworld by storm. The band’s new album was one of the many purchases I had made before the gig, and by the end of it, I was extremely pleased with my buy. Though their previous live performance history was made up only of singular gigs, and this their first tour, you wouldn’t have known it - The Prophecy played their brilliant, passionate music with equal amounts of passion and spirit, and anyone would’ve thought they were gig veterans. With Lawson cringing emphatically whilst moping about the stage like a lovelorn poet as he bellows out a mixture of unearthly growls, pained screams and grief-stricken singing and whispers, and the rest of the band playing their instruments to perfection whilst rhythmically banging their heads or solemnly gazing into the appreciative crowd. But whatever each member was doing, they all performed impeccably, with seemingly effortless skill, and with such potency and mood that would no doubt be extremely difficult to match in the studio environment. Most of the set list was taken from the bands recent ‘Ashes’ release and all of it was highly impressive, and showed great promise. The Prophecy are speedily becoming a force to be reckoned with and very popular within the underground doom scene, and deservedly so. Keep a close eye on this band for sure!Having wooed us for more than 40 minutes, The Prophecy graciously departed to a warm and raucous reception from their fellow country men and women, and were soon succeeded by popular Irish death/doomsters Mourning Beloveth. Being somewhat more renowned and well known throughout the doom scene than the previous two bands, I was not looking towards MB’s performance with curiosity, interest and wonder, but excitement and glee, and had my fingers firmly crossed in the hope that they would play some of my favourite songs. Having released widely anticipated new album ‘The Sullen Sulcus’ (which won Doom-metal.com’s prestigious ‘album of the month’ award for March) only recently, being famed for an eminent and superior live set, and me being a big ‘Beloveth fan, I was very excited, and had great expectations...and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Mourning Beloveth’s set that night consisted of similar amounts of new and old material, all of which they played to a very high standard, and I enjoyed very much. Their performance was taut, alluring, undeniably impressive, and very near perfect, and added yet more proof of this band being one of the greatest modern doom progenies in a long time. The only flaws to their set I could conjure up were that the sound and dynamics between guitarist and vocalist Frank’s mournful croon and Darren’s thunderous and mightily impressive grunt and spoken word lead vocals was a little off (at times one drowned out the other), and plus, my finger crossing was in vein in that they didn’t play one of my all-time favourites ‘Autumnal Fires’, however, both of these were very minor and elementary blunders, and easily forgivable for such a tantalising, formidable performance. As if we didn’t know it already, but MB have again reinstated that they are one of underground doom’s finest assets, and truly magnificent musicians and artists, and if they carry on the way they are now, then their future, and the future of doom-metal, is looking very bright indeed. The new songs especially reinforced this, and the band have seemingly achieved the near impossible task of severely improving on where debut LP ‘Dust’ left off, and created an album that will not doubt be spoken about, obsessed over and famed for years to come...and lovingly clutching a copy of ‘The Sullen...’ in my paws right now, I can strongly vouch for that.
So, when Mourning Beloveth finally completed their set with ‘a fast one’ as they, erm, refreshingly described the monolithic ‘In Mourning my Days’ after almost an hour of sheer doomy delight, my grin was wider and more sheepish than could possibly be described, and just to embellish matters, Morgion, the headliners and the band I really came to see, were still to play. By this time, myself and my friends had decided on that we had not in fact chosen the best place in the venue to stand anyway, and so had relocated on several occasions...this was for the better however, as Keti of Doom-metal.com was at one of these chosen locations, so we met and spoke with her also which was nice. When I passed Heiko on the merchandise stall whilst on my way to the lavatory, he asked me if I had enjoyed the gig so far, and in response I could do little more than yell ‘Oh yeah!’ immediately, in a loud, shrill voice that had obviously been treated to far too much excitement for one day, and around 15 minutes later, Morgion took to the stage.
To begin with, vocalist Adrian apologised for the delay, claiming problems with the equipment to be responsible, as we had witnessed various band and crew members wrestle with it for the last few minutes. However, to me it was still a reasonably short gap between bands, and was definitely worth waiting through. And moments later, Adrian let out a vicious bellow, the morbid guitaring of ‘All The Glory’ kicked it, and it began...Around one hour and thirty minutes of pure joy, pleasure and passion through musical performance, courtesy of one of the greatest bands I know of. Their set was not rehearsed nor theatrical, but it was a delight to watch...to watch five big, hairy, sweaty men become engulfed in music, and to say that they did not engulf me, and no doubt every other person in attendance that evening would be a terrible lie. There were concerns from some that without a keyboardist, much of the atmosphere on record would be gone, but in fact, there was even more atmosphere and mood than on record, because of the adrenaline, sentiment and fervour on display. That night, Morgion were utterly outstanding, awe inspiring, and overwhelming, and never have I seen or heard such things in the live environment since I first saw My Dying Bride perform. Words fail to do the slightest bit of justice in describing that performance. It was beyond music; beyond art...it was sheer emotion.
The set list, much like Mourning Beloveth’s, was a fine mix of old and new. Around Four or Five songs were taken from old releases, one of which from the ‘Among Majestic Ruin’ LP, and the other three or four from second full length ‘Solinari’, including an interesting choice of the two minute instrumental of the same name, which I adore, and was a delight to see played so well live. And the rest of the set list was made up of songs taken from the massively anticipated, upcoming ‘Cloaked by Earth, Crowned in Ages’ release. The old songs were played with skill, obvious experience and vigour, with the utterly brilliant ‘Nightfall Infernal’ being especially pleasing – it was the last but one song played, and represented the peak of the experience...being indescribably passionate, and truly overwhelming...since then, every time I hear that song I feel a twinge of delightful reminiscence. The CIECIA songs and how they were performed was equally breath taking, if not more so, and my excitement towards the albums release grows every day much thanks to that performance. The new material is a clear progression from previous work, and toys a lot more with melody and all sorts of new influences, with even more atmosphere, and progressive music springing to mind especially. Most interestingly and joyfully of all (as my ears always take pleasure in hearing mellow music), passionate, melancholic, superb singing has been introduced to the vocals, along with the whispers and growls of the past, and Adrian pulls off all three stunningly, being a seemingly excellent (and, if I must say so, much better) replacement for Peto. 
And with that, I’d like to put to rest any misconceptions about the band having difficulties in successfully replacing Jeremy, because they have done so, and very successfully indeed, with both Adrian and new bassist Justin (who impressed me considerably also, and is an extremely talented and nice man, as is Adrian of course) replacing Peto well, and adding further aspects, inspiration, energy and insight to an already splendid band. On that night, they just gelled...it was as if the line-up had been playing together for years, and seemed as if these men were meant to be composing music together - they fit perfectly, get off on one another, and are happy and better off together...with the new line-up, I can see Morgion going very far, and deservedly so...they are one of the most hardworking, diligent talented bands I know of, and they are responsible for, and deserved of all of their success. Morgion were in fact without a record label throughout this tour, it was their first set of live shows in years, and their first gigs in Europe. However, in the heat of their performance, all of these facts just added to the impressiveness of this band and all that they have done, and when their set finally came to a dreaded close, much to the dismay of several fans who continually begged the guys for an encore, I couldn’t help but feel honoured, that I had the privilege to interview, write about, and witness such a wonderful group of artists. My hat goes off to these guys, all the bands that played, and all that were involved in such a special tour, and now I am waiting with baited breath and quivering hands for the release of ‘Cloaked...’.
Whilst Morgion packed away their equipment on stage and the crowd slowly dissipated, we stood silently for several minutes, unable to fully comprehend such a fantastic experience. Fred from Ataraxie then introduced himself, and we chatted with him for a regretfully short time (as we had to leave, well, immediately, so not to be stuck in London all night, as the metro’s were soon to stop for the day), before saying our goodbyes and thanks to everyone, and departing ourselves. Passing Heiko on the way out, he asked if I had enjoyed it, and in return, all I could muster was a swift nod, but the look on my face said it all, and I teasingly asked him when the Doomination of Europe 2 would be. And then, at around 11:30 PM we solemnly went back out into the night...with earnest, as that last metro was approaching quickly. We got to it...just, and went about the tiresome journey home, with plentiful stories to tell, and delightful memories to reminisce over for years to come. And that sums up the Doomination of London, and no doubt the rest of the tour; a delightful, memorable, fantastic day...undoubtedly one of the greatest of my life. Not just for the interviews, for meeting lots of nice people, or even for the bands performances, but for the general atmosphere and friendly mood between everyone...it made me smile, and feel proud to call myself a doom-metal fan. Although the attendance was pretty small, it has to be expected for such a small genre. But events such as this will only cause future crowds to vastly increase in size, and attract more attention to the bands and doom-metal as a whole, and one day, many more doom bands will be able to pull off tours such as this one. The future is (somewhat un-doomily) looking bright for doom-metal, and I am extremely glad to be a part of that. So, this is one fanatical young doomster signing off, from what was an extremely enjoyable reminiscence of an extremely enjoyable, wonderful day. Europe has been Doominated!
- Stephen Burrell
(11 April 2003)
Pictures by Simon Regan and Stephen (more at clix.to/doomination)
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