Good morning, thank you so much for answering these questions. How's everything going in Toulouse?
Hi! I’m Alex, I play the guitar in Mourir. Everything’s going good! We just came back from 3 gigs in Spain, including the Resurection Fest which was incredible!
1. Although Mourir was formed in 2019, there's a strong connection with the one-man band Vermine, active since 2016. How did the idea develop from a one-man band to a full-fledged band, even with a different name, as is the case with Mourir?
Olivier started Vermine as a one-man band with the idea to record a single album as a one off project. Then some labels and friends pushed him to continue the project, so he accepted but only as a whole band. Then Maël, Jean and I joined him in 2018/2019 and composed Animal Bouffe Animal on Vermine’s ashes.
2. After almost four years of silence, you'll soon be releasing your third full-length album, following up "Disgrâce" (2022). How did you approach the songwriting and recording process for this third album? How do you think the band's sound has evolved over these years?
Actually we released an experimental 4 track EP called ‘Insolence’ in 2025 on Pelagic Records. In 2024 Jean left the band and Théo joined us. We composed ‘Insolence’ together as a starter with Théo. He brought us some more noisy and “wall of sound” bass approach which I believe is very present on this new album. The songwriting is the same as on ‘Disgrâce’: we compose some demos on the computer, then we play them live in rehearsal and try to have the songs finished purely live. Then, as always, we record everything live, once again with Amaury Sauvé at The Apiary Studio in Laval, France.
3. Your third album, “Nous, le venin,” presents a sound that is, on the one hand, immersive, dense, and thick, almost as if trying to recreate a suffocating, heavy, and dark atmosphere. At the same time, there's a sense of melancholy and suffering that ultimately pervades everything, as if the more classic character of a black metal sound were fused with other musical styles outside the genre. How would you describe the album's sound to someone who hasn't heard it yet? What influenced you when composing the album?
The thing is, Olivier has a strong black metal culture and knows the keys of this style. The others, including me, don’t. We come from a grunge/post-metal/sludge culture, as well as a strong folk and 80’s rock/pop culture. So I believe that all these genres are infused in what we write. When I try to write music for Mourir, I always start from something black metal-ish in the vibe, but our culture gets back to us quickly and we try to keep the best of both worlds every time, while always pushing the experimentation with noises and disturbing musical parts.
4. The vocals are also rich in nuances. From an initial depth and darkness, there's also room for more evocative registers, even clean vocals. How did you approach this aspect of “Nous, le venin”? Is there a conceptual theme running through your lyrics, or do you focus on other themes? Do the lyrics adapt to the music, or vice versa?
Yes, the few clean vocals on the album are parts of the things we wanted to try for a long time. Some are meant to be kind of beautiful, some are meant to be disturbingly “off” with the music or with the common sense of clean vocals in music. The lyrics almost always talk about social violence in our world. On “Nous, le venin”, meaning “Us, the venom”, we talk a lot about the struggle of being part of the problem as simple citizens in this collapsing world. At some point we are forced to take part of what causes everything to go to more violence and destruction, even in the most simple things in life, even as a band touring with a van across countries, selling questionable quality merchandising as our only viable business model, etc…
5. I mentioned earlier the immersive nature of your music, dark and profound at the same time, somewhat indebted to similar bands like Blut aus Nord or Deathspell Omega, among others. However, there isn't much information about the entire recording process. Did you record it yourselves or did you collaborate with a professional studio? What do you intend to convey to the listener?
Our three albums are recorded with Amaury Sauvé at The Apiary Studio in Laval, France. Amaury has an “artistic director” approach, so we always go to his studio for some preproduction with him, then we go back like 2 months later for the final recording. Everything is recorded live. Then Amaury does the mixing. Our ‘Insolence’ EP was also recorded live but this time it was with Clément Libes from the band Bruit. It sounds much more experimental and kind of harsh.
On ‘Nous, le venin’, Amaury wasn’t available for the mixing, so Clément did it. This way it’s kind of like our previous albums, but with a new approach on the mix.
6. Once again, you've changed record labels for the release of the new album. This time, we have physical formats released by Total Dissonance Worship and Pelagic Records, in addition to the self-released digital version. How did you approach the search for and subsequent release with these labels? What explains the release of two vinyl editions with different labels?
Actually our former record label Throatruiner ended its activity some years ago, so we had to find another one. Théo is already in touch with Pelagic with his other band Bruit, so he checked Robin from Pelagic. Robin was curious to try to sign some black metal band in order to challenge his audience. So that’s pretty much it!
Total Dissonance Worship is actually one the labels that pushed Olivier to continue Vermine, so when he released some tapes for ‘Animal Bouffe Animal’, and coreleased ‘Disgrâce’. For ‘Nous, le venin’, he dealt with Pelagic to have his own vinyl color, only for the US.
7. The cover art for the new album presents a more mundane image, suggesting themes related to suffering or loneliness. Is this what you wanted to convey with it? Who designed the cover, and how does it relate to the album's content?
The cover art is an oil painting from our fellow from Toulouse, Thomas Davezac. The look in the eyes of the naked man on the painting reflects exactly the mood we’re talking about in the lyrics: we watch everything falling apart and there is not much we can do, in some ways we even have to accept the contradiction of being part of the issue. In this struggle there is still some hope, love and will to live, but it’s getting harder to make it hide what’s behind.
8. In the past, I believe coinciding with the release of your first album, you released quite a few music videos. However, over time it seems you've abandoned that aspect. What were you looking for back then with those videos? Was it just promotion, or was there something more? Are you planning to make any to promote the new album?
Indeed, for ‘Animal Bouffe Animal’ we released a video for each track. The videos were made by Greg Orio. Unfortunately, the video question in bands is almost always a money issue. If we had enough money, we would have done the same for each album with even more beautiful videos.
For ‘Nous, le venin’ we have been able to shoot a live video in The Apiary Studio for two songs. In this video you can see us record the actual takes of the album, this is completely live.
Also we released a home-made lyrics video for ‘Aux Inutiles’, that’s the first time we promote the lyrics of a song, so I believe it’s interesting for people who haven't read our lyrics yet.
9. I mentioned earlier the sound of some similar bands like Blut aus Nord or Deathspell Omega, but going even further, we can also include others like Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, Pénitence Onirique, or Plebeian Grandstand, of which you were a part. What I mean is that a recognizable extreme metal scene and sound seems to have developed in France. Are you aware of this in any way? Do you feel part of a French, let's say "avant-garde," scene within extreme metal? What bands would you recommend?
Olivier has played bass in Plebeian Grandstand for almost 10 years, yes! Also we have known each other very well for a very long time now, they’re our brothers.
There is definitely a very interesting extreme metal scene in France, and Plebeian Grandstand is the first band I would recommend. Also I would strongly recommend Fange, which is extreme in an ‘industrial’ way, very interesting and powerful.
10. How are things going with the live presentation of the new album? Do you already have any concerts confirmed? What can your fans expect from one of your shows?
It’s going well, we played some festivals this summer, like Hellfest, Resurrection, Bourlon. Now we’re working on our live show for the upcoming Fall tour. We’re going to tour Europe for 3 weeks, and we’ll finish with the Soulcrusher Festival in the Netherlands.
Next year we’re going to play the Fortress Festival in the UK, very exciting too!
11. How did you get started in music? What were the first concerts you attended? What were the first albums you bought? What event in your lives pushed you to want to become musicians?
We’re all born in the 80’s so our first metal albums were the classics like Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura as well as the neo-metal classics like Slipknot, Korn, Deftones, Fear Factory, etc…
We started music at school with music teachers for some years, then we discovered rock and metal!
Personally, my first musical shock was AC/DC. I was learning classical guitar at the time, and it made me switch to electrical guitar right away.
There is a very powerful pleasure in writing music, in creating things, going to the studio and recording the songs. This is something we experienced very early in our musical lives. So I believe this pleasure is the one that keeps us on continuing this adventure.
12. Which album represents the essence of black metal for you? What are the most recent albums you've bought?
Actually it’s not a classic black metal album, but what Fluisteraars does is very interesting and very ‘black metal’ in the spirit for me.
Also recently I’ve been listening to Gorrch a lot, a duo from Italy, very interesting!
13. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit. If you'd like to add anything for Mourir's fans, this is the place. I hope you enjoy the questions.
Thanks a lot for the support and the well documented questions. Feel free to check our next tour on our social media, and don’t stop searching for hope even when everything seems dark outside.
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Moloch / Arria Paetus – Moloch / Arria Paetus 13,99 €
