An interview with Mausoleum a Doom Metal band from UAE :"The Arab scene can be as good as any other international scene only if it gets the right support, we need more Arab based labels, distribution labels as well as more shows this would definatley help the good bands tour around and get to more and more listeners"

First of all, could you introduce your band, and talk about you musical evolution and the direction changes that occurred since your debut as Excoriate?
MausoleuM: MausoleuM started off as a Funeral doom metal side project by me, Ahmed Garoon and Sami Al-Ghoury right after Excoriate was over somewhere during mid 2002. I would describe MausoleuM as a fusion of slow, bleak funeral doom metal and heavy old school death. A lot has happened to us after Excoriate was dis-banded, not only did we evolve as musicians but also as players and seekers for good music. From the musical point of view, excoriate was completely different from what we are doing with Mausoleum, the reason for that was because we all had various influences within music and due to that we had a major lack of understanding towards one another and then decided to call the band off. The reason for MausoleuM to kick start is because there are alot of aspects in common between our members.

What does Mausoleum mean ?
MausoleuM: A Mausoleum is a tower that holds graves and in some sources it means a beautifully decorated grave named after king Mausolus of ancient Persia. The meaning perfectly suits our music or in other words our music perfectly suits MausoleuM hehe. Its dark, bleak and full of agony.

What does inspire you ? is Mausoleum a catharsis for you ? and how did you discover the deadly world of doom metal?
MausoleuM: We get inspiration from various issues of life, I for an example, write the lyrics with thoughts of a fake materialistic world we live in, this is one big MausoleuM we are living in and we are the Graves filling it up with our filth and scum. Indeed when we write our music we add a lot of emotions and feelings to it but these feelings aren't as fruitful as many bands do for we approach our music in a very dark manner. To us Candlemass was our first experience in the world of doom, the heavy riffs struck us like bolts of thunder, and ever since we decided to contribute to such amazing acts.

Your music is raw and dark, and at the same time it's full of melancholy, with lots of amplitudes and relieves. Can this be interpreted as an illustration of the scenery that's in your mind, or does it come naturally, as the writing process goes along ?
MausoleuM: Its a more of both at the same time as we basically write music as it is taken from our experiences with various issues and it also comes up along with the lyrical content. The music starts off as a thought and then later it gathers up into various thoughts as it evolves, some maybe as clear as bright light and some as dark as the deepest pits.

Can you talk about the themes that you write about, and give us some clues that would help us understand the rather enigmatic songs of your demo ? Do you think that the lyrics are as important as the music?
MausoleuM: We think of MausoleuM as a world we are currently experiencing, a world with a lot of reason a world with a lot to write about. But mainly we think of MausoleuM as a world of thoughts. Thoughts are something private and solely ours we keep them in solitude and are as true as our feelings towards any issue. As far as the content goes about, its mainly about various thoughts of a worrying mind personified as a dead soul waiting for its salvation, a salvation from the MausoleuM. The lyrics or thoughts as we call it are extremely precious and of great value to MausoleuM.

On you demo, one can notice a difference in the sound quality between the melodic parts played with organ and piano, and the pure doomy parts. Was it done on purpose, or is it the result of a problem in mixing and production?
Please, describe for our readers the creation process of you music. What equipment did you use, and in which conditions did you record your demo?
MausoleuM: Indeed that's true as we wanted to keep them separated, as I mentioned earlier our music starts as a thought and later gathers up, we did not mix up the thoughts and rather chose to gather each one with the other in a way that they can be identified by the listener and easily put in the scene we are trying to create. So definitely it is no problem with the production haha. As far the music writing goes I am responsible for the lyrical section and both me and Sami share the responsibilities of the music writing. To create our music we don't really depend on hi-tech equipment as we feel it would be too "fake" and so won't help create a scenery for the listener, but we also happen to use samplers as well as sound effects as it has become a major part of today's music. From the recording aspect, Sami holds all responsibilities of the recording, mixing and the mastering of our music, our first demo "tunes from an old funeral" was recorded on the summer of '03 which was solely recorded and produced by us, we chose it to be this way as it takes no more then a band to know best how to approach their music to the listener and in what way, it was tough on us at first but we got used to it later and such matters are now handled by us with a lot of ease.

It is pretty difficult to find any information about Mausoleum on the internet. Is it due to a lack of time, of means ? Don't you think that this kind of promotion is very important nowadays?
MausoleuM: Yes indeed, unfortunately due to lack of band members as well as time we haven't been promoting the band well enough especially on the internet where our only source to interact with out listeners is www.doom-metal.com , but now we have our very own official domain along with our forum at www.mausoleumdoom.com. It is extremely important to get recognized via the internet these days, its a growing world we are living in and the internet is growing much more.

Can you talk about the underground metal scene in the UAE ? Do you feel isolated?
MausoleuM: The Underground metal scene in the UAE is growing, it is getting more recognition from people who have been listening to the mainstream only and started realising the value of what it holds, we also as MausoleuM are getting a lot of respect and support from guys here who are into and not into doom metal. We may have a very small underground scene but it is very supportive and growing.

Have you made live appearances ? if so, how do you reproduce the atmosphere that's on your demo ? isn't it hard for a Funeral doom band to play in front of an audience that's craving for head banging and moshing?
MausoleuM: Unfortunately we never had any live shows, MausoleuM started off as a side project so basically we only took it as a recording band, but hopefully things will change in the near future as we will hopefully be recruiting more members, once this objective is clear playing a live concert wont be of much problem as we think that not all the attendance in a metal gig are lavishly seeking mosing and headbanging or at least not at all times hehe. As a mater of fact as a show attendant myself I would be more happy if I was to listen to a band playing good music rather then dully moshing to the music without any further notice of the value of the music within the band. We don't really see MausoleuM as a dull live act in the future too, lets just hope we don't get any tomatoes thrown at us in out first show haha.

While listening to you demo, one can notice that the Finnish band Skepticism has influenced you a lot, particularly for the atmospheric parts, as well as the awesome synthetic organ parts. Who do you think are the founding bands of Doom ? what do you think of bands like Shape of Despair, Unholy, Mournful Congregation ? can you name bands that you support (dead or alive, old or new)?
MausoleuM: one word....Great! indeed the early finish doom metal scene is a major influence in us but we are no copy, they had a different vision then the one of ours but we truly enjoy their music. Thergothon and Winter too were of a major influence in us. Doom metal is a lot easier to access and is getting better and better these days with all the new amazing bands that are holding the torch of doom passed down by the greater bands, Doom metal has really evolved to different faces and definitely to the positive. Recently we have been really enjoying the recent releases by most of the bands, I for one have been hooked up to Shape of Despair's "Illusions" as well as many more.

What is you opinion about the Arab metal scene in general, and doom bands in particular, like Kimeria, Tragedian, Forgotten…Can you name some bands that are not on Lelahel Metal?
MausoleuM: The Arab scene can be as good as any other international scene only if it gets the right support, we need more Arab based labels, distribution labels as well as more shows this would definitely help the good bands tour around and get to more and more listeners. The Arab world has a lot of amazing metal acts which need more and more support, the doom metal scene is also growing we are good friends with our fellow music mates Kimeria, as well has we have been a major influence in the music of The Tragedian which is a promising band.

What has that band done lately ? What can we expect from you in the near future?
MausoleuM: Currently we are recruiting a few members to help in the building of MausoleuM as well as we are soon to record a second promo CD consisting of 3 new tracks with a different direction from "Tunes..." and definitely a different approach musically, hopefully by the summer of '05 if not earlier we would have another promo built on MausoleuM.

I'd like to thank you for this interview and we hope to hear from you soon. STAY DOOM! One last word?
MausoleuM: Indeed I enjoyed this interview and I would like to thank Redouane and the Lelahel Metal crew for their splendid site and never-ending support to the Arab metal scene... DOOM and let DOOM!!

Interview by +Ben+ English translation by Raders

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