Thirteen years gone with more to come for death metallers Mausoleum, who have been playing shows as well as touring with in-between writing and recording sessions, for what will be their third album. So thirteen years and a third album who would have thought! Bassist Rob Yench gave a rundown of what the band had been up too, some backstory, and future plans!
1. Let us get started by filling in our readers as to what the band has been up to in the past year.
Rob: For the past year we have been working really hard on our 3rd Album, we have about 11 - 12 songs that we have written and now have been recording the tracks. It should be done by the spring of 2015. Also we just finished up a US mini tour with Dead Congregation [Greece] and Pissgrave [Philadelphia] last week. The tour was amazing and we had a great time with both bands. We played on final show for 2014 with Decapitated and Misery Index in Brooklyn, NY and then we will be back to work on the new album.
2. Can you give those of us who aren't familiar with Ancient Bards a brief history of the band and can you please describe your sound for those who have yet to hear your music?
Rob: I think this short bio sums it up the best!!!! During the dark, sultry days of August of 2001, a new living dead nightmare arose from the already zombie-cursed hinterland of western Pennsylvania that George A. Romero had made utterly infamous in the abhorrent, grue-dripping annals of horror cinema in 1968. It was then that, amidst the almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Johnstown – that dreary and now rust-devoured “Furnace of Hell” of years past, which had fulfilled 19th-century America’s ravening hunger for steel – was begotten the filthy and foetid monstrosity that is …
MAUSOLEUM. Raised upon a steady, and steadily unwholesome, diet of Horror in any and all of its appalling incarnations, from novels and comics to films, in particular gut-munching zombie chunkblowers, MAUSOLEUM exists simply to vomit forth hideous death-reeking sickness into the very face of the stale and sterile “technical death metal” drivel of today. The macabre death-rattling morbidity that is scraped off their mortician’s slab, with its loathsome gore-shrieking vocals, its doomful cacophony of down-tuned guitars, and its barbarous drum bludgeoning, is a disdainful anachronism: a throwback to those fiendish days of yore when death metal was new and noisome and nasty. So, after two years of rehearsals and recordings, the zombie horde’s debut offering of lumbering undead rot, “Cadaveric Displays of Ghoulish Ghastliness,” nine hacking cuts of old school death metal, was unleashed in 2003 by Rot Island’s very own “Horror Hive,” Razorback Records. Despite its raw production, the album was well received and was even re-released in 2007 by Goryfied Productions for European death-freaks. But the years after “Cadaveric Displays …” witnessed MAUSOLEUM abandoning two years of work for an outrageously horrid sophomore opus as well as hammering out some personnel shifts within its ranks.
Finally, after all of that tumult had settled, the ghoul-corps descended upon Horned Moon Music’s recording facility, “The Funeral Home,” and, with the unholy support of producer and engineer Xul, unearthed yet another nine revoltingly dread-filled rituals of death. Together, those songs resurrected not simply the sound but the sinfully foul soul of early 90's metal of death, of which MAUSOLEUM assembles in adulation. Together, those songs would become the band’s second album, “Back from the Funeral,” released in 2011 through a renewed black covenant with Razorback Records.
3. Who came up with the idea for the band's name Mausoleum coffin logo?
Rob: When considering a logo for the band, we wanted the logo to be easily read as well as identified. The original logo on the first CD was done by myself, I used the coffin to help make the logo become more of a symbol that could be recognized from across a room. We had an artist revamp the logo to look more professional for the second CD.
4. What label are you guys signed with Razorback Records or Putrescence Records?
Rob: We have worked with a few different labels, Razorback Records has released both of our full length CDs and Putrescence Records did the official live bootleg "Eating Your Fucking Brains Live". Goreified Productions in Sweden reissued the 1st album and Goregrind from Switzerland did the 7" split we did with Offal from Brazil last year. Signature Riff [NJ] juts released the Live bootleg on digipak CD.
5. Has the band’s songwriting process changed much over the years? How does one of your epic songs come to be?
Rob: Yes the writing process has changed considerably over the years and everyone has input and brings ideas to the table. Previously songs would be written sometimes by individuals or sometimes we would collaborate to create a song. Now with the new songs, it is pretty much a group effort and it feels so much better. I really like how we write songs now.
6. What about musical influences, do you guys have a certain group of acts you stand by for inspiration or does the group change every so often?
Rob: Mausoleum was born out of the worship of the primordial Gods of Death Metal, those savage and stripped-down death cults like DEATH, NECROPHAGIA, ENTOMBED, OBITUARY, and, of corpse, AUTOPSY.
7. How many releases have you released so far? Which would you say is your latest release to date?
Rob: We have done 2 full length CDs, 1 7" split, the latest release would be the live cassette and the digpak CD version. We also have a couple of splits we are getting ready for too.
8. You guys had gone out on a mini tour, so what did you do to prepare yourselves for that tour?
Rob: The tour just finished but as far a preparation for touring, we decide what songs should be performed, then get a working rehearsal schedule for us to get ready. A lot of time goes into the planning stage so that everyone can make arrangements way ahead of time to avoid scheduling conflicts.
9. What can fans expect to hear? More new songs or old songs?
Rob: We played both new and old tracks, we had a 30 minute set so we wanted to pack in as much as possible. Classic Mausoleum songs along with brand new tracks that are going to be on the new album next year.
10. Is there any song that when you play it live on stage makes your adrenaline levels kick in and make you want to go hyper?
Rob: "Pile and Burn" would be the track that really kicks it in for me, it the track from the 7" split last year and debuts the new lineup and the new song writing.
11. When it comes to performing each and every night does the time stand still or does it fly by when performing?
Rob: It goes very fast, especially when you are having a great time. The slow long part is the traveling to each of the cities we are playing in. You learn to sleep a lot during the travel and to enjoy ourselves at the shows.
12. What could one expect from a Mausoleum show?
Rob: Classic death metal as it was done in the early 90's when the scene was new and exciting.
13. What else can we expect to see or hear from you guys, for the rest of this year into this next year?
Rob: Like I said before the new CD will be out in 2015 as well as few 7" splits, possibly some re-issues of the first two CDs.
14. Any last words for the friends and fans out there?
Rob: Thanks for the interview! Anyone interested in Mausoleum can go to our website www.thezombiecult.us.
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