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Hi Gerald. We've only been around since 2021, and the initial spark for the band came largely from our singer. During the pandemic, I had almost finished an album that didn't fit stylistically with my main band Beltez and which, according to my original plan, was supposed to be much more raw black metal. I wanted to follow the example of newer bands like Lamp Of Murmuur, Vampirska or Order Of Nosferat, but with more melodic black metal of the Swedish kind. W. as the singer is a good friend of mine, and since I knew him vocally from his previous band Valkyr, we quickly knew that vocally it would fit! C. on bass, with whom I had already played in Orkus and Beltez back then, was also recruited relatively quickly for the songs. C. is also known from the horror punk band Hellgreaser and the death metal band Skum. D. on drums can only be heard on our debut album, the demo was recorded by Astrega (Schwermut, ex Cerberus). M. on guitar is also an old acquaintance of all of us (Ius Talionis, Sonic Ecstasy). Before the debut album on Ván Records, we released a demo (As Sumer Thrones At Night) on tape and digital via Helhallen Tape Worship in December 2021. HTW is the newly founded label of the recording studio, which we used for our releases.
Okay, I have taken a look at the reference bands mentioned (Vampirska etc.), I didn't really know them, I only heard one or two names. What comes to my mind spontaneously, which also goes a bit in that direction, are Black Cilice or Throne of Katarsis. Do they also belong to your influences? In general, the album captivates with a very convincing mixture of muddiness on the one hand and atmosphere on the other, with two keyboard entries I also felt reminded of the legendary Lunar Aurora. Only the Bathory influence you mentioned doesn't make sense to me at all, Bathory wouldn't have come to my mind at all - but that probably has something to do with how you personally feel and locate a band, which moods or elements are connected with it?
You see, again I got to know something new in the unmanageable flood of publications! I hadn't heard of Throne of Katarsis before, but I'll listen to them at my leisure in the next few days. Black Cilice just released a strong EP last year, but they have less influence on my songwriting and the comparison with Lunar Aurora is of course flattering, how could it not be, but keyboard-wise I orientated myself on newer bands like Lamp Of Murmuur, because I like these sometimes very distant, but at important points present keyboards. The Bathory comparison is more related to this minimalistic, epochal, in our songs in connection with the (sparsely used) clean vocals. Sound-wise, of course, we are miles away from that. In this respect, I would describe it the same way as you do: It refers to the mood and elements. Since you mentioned Lunar Aurora, have you already heard the side project Bald Anders, whose album was released in 2018 via Trollmusic?
Yes, of course I've known Bald Anders for a long time as a Lunar Aurora fan, and I've listened here and there. Now I've taken a more conscious look at it, and I like the track "Das achte Haus" (The eighth house) quite a lot, and in some places there's even a bit of Lunar Aurora shimmering through atmospherically. But many of the tracks on the album are somehow less for me. Do you know the Bavarians from Gràb with the album "Zeitlang"? A bit different and independent, but not only because of the use of the Bavarian dialect, you often feel reminded of Lunar Aurora.
I'm with you on Bald Anders. All very quirky, quite entertaining, but for me personally sometimes a bit too "artistic", if you know what I mean. I can't even judge Secrets Of The Moon, because I never found access to the music until now. As we write here, "Astral Fortress" has been released and to be honest, I like it much more than "Eternal Hails". In general, I like the newer Darkthrone, but at its core, it also sounds like a completely different band. Gràb couldn't pass you by. Thor from Trollmusic had made a real stroke of luck there, because the album is rightly so hyped and yes, strongly reminiscent of Lunar Aurora and not only from the dialectic but also from the aura the songs exude. No band had managed that to that extent before or passed me by. In fact, I can't think of any band offhand that I was really attached to and didn't enjoy accompanying their development. So let's move away from black metal and into classic metal. With Iron Maiden, I was out by some of the later albums. They just hadn't picked me up. That's been different since "Book Of Souls" and somehow I like albums like "Dance Of The Death" better than back then. Judas Priest, the same phenomenon. "Nostradamus" still feels weak today, especially when you compare it to "Firepower". In punk, there are bands like Ignite that just don't work as well with a new singer. Instead, NOFX remains as a boring constant for one more album. I think Ulver can be called prominent in black metal. I was a bit irritated when I first heard "Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell". But then the new Ulver became important to me very quickly and I play them regularly. In the end, all I can say is that I always find artistic development good and important.
Let's get back to Sumerian Tombs: I like the dark atmosphere of the album. Sure, that's probably what every black metal band claims. Your album already starts with this ominous but somehow also melancholic intro. And in general, when I listen to it, I find this hysterical, rolling wall of sound, which also contains a lot of melancholy, to be good. Maybe the choice of words is not directly comprehensible (everyone has their own terminology), but that's what makes good black metal a transcendental experience, so to speak. Not many bands manage to do that. And it's also good that you don't stay in midtempo territory too often. There are bands that objectively do everything right, but in the end it's all just a boring midtempo sauce. Lunar Aurora succeeded in creating an atmospheric midtempo album with "Hoagascht", but I don't think there are that many examples, unless you take the first stuff by Samael, but that's also a different style. How do you feel the atmosphere on the album, how was it during the making process?
Well, you're already anticipating part of my next question: since you're all still musically busy elsewhere, I would have asked to what extent Sumerian Tombs are a "real" band or whether it was more of a project. I'm looking forward to the next album! Besides, Sumerian Tombs is probably not the least successful of your activities, the limited 2-CD set is already sold out. Still, it's certainly a nice feedback to you. What about gigs? You'll soon be playing at the "De Morte et Diabolum" festival in Berlin. Is this the live debut?
Originally Sumerian Tombs was really meant to be a project, but as so often happens, it always takes on a life of its own. So far, everything has gone really well for us and in terms of our partners. The demo was quickly sold out via Helhallen and apart from the fact that Ván Records and the whole crew behind the label do a fantastic job, the first edition of the record and in the meantime also the 2-CD version of the album were sold really quickly (or are on sale at other labels and mail order companies, so no longer available to us). The topic of gigs also came up quite quickly and in fact the request from De Mortem Et Diabolum was received quite quickly and yes, this will be our live debut. There will be more after that, I'm sure of it!
I actually think both mixes / masters are good in their own right and I don't really prefer any of them directly. The 8-track recording of course gives the album an oldschool touch, but both are still suitable. That was exactly the point why we wanted to do both. I was definitely impressed by Poison Ruïn from Philadelphia this year, even though their debut was released last year. I hadn't heard this adventurous mixture of dungeon synth, proto-metal and English punk at the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s before. Among many other very good albums, I would also like to recommend the new Djevel. The album actually sounds like it was written in the 90s and if it was, it would probably stand next to many classics as equal. The discography of the band is impressive anyway but this closeness to the old Ulver the band had never managed before. What else remains to be said? If you weren't in Berlin a few days ago, you missed our furious live debut and a sensationally well-organised festival.
Tell us something about the founding of the band - how long have you been around and what did you release before the debut album? Did you all know each other before? Who took the initiative? And was there a special initial spark for the foundation of Sumerian Tombs? Maybe in the sense that you heard certain records that inspired you or over a few beers you got the idea to do something together that goes in a certain direction?
It's the same with Secrets Of The Moon, the last two albums don't really give me anything anymore. I'm generally very musically open-minded, so that's not the reason, you'll even find albums by Public Enemy or the Wu Tang Clan in my collection - but that cold-threatening-hysterical quality that makes good black metal in my eyes I don't even find in Secrets of the Moon anymore, I don't even find it really dark. Another example is Darkthrone, whose last three albums are unfortunately no longer relevant to me, as likeable as the band is. "Arctic Thunder" from 2016 was still really good (and again better than some of the ones before), but after that nothing could pick me up anymore. How do you judge these bands? And are there any examples where you no longer wanted to follow the development as a listener?
The atmosphere on both releases is exactly what we had hoped for. The demo should and had to sound more impetuous and primitive, also to better represent the lyrical back story to the album. The album is also more complex because of the story and the feelings that the protagonist goes through. With the songs, it was therefore very important to us to reflect the respective atmosphere of the lyrics. In "Light Of Death", for example, the listener should really have the feeling of entering an old Zikkurrat, to feel and hear this wavering and voices in the air from a long time ago, I think we succeeded very well. Mario from Liquid Aether Audio Studio also shared our vision. On the subject of midtempo, as a listener I think it's good when musicians try to give their albums a varied soundtrack and design. But I would like to emphasise that this is of course completely dependent on the band concept! I don't think anyone would need a dreamy album by Primitive Man or a high-speed double bass album by Summoning. What our next album will sound like, we'll let ourselves be surprised!
Originally Sumerian Tombs was really meant to be a project, but as so often happens, it always takes on a life of its own. So far, everything has gone really well for us and in terms of our partners. The demo was quickly sold out via Helhallen and apart from the fact that Ván Records and the whole crew behind the label do a fantastic job, the first edition of the record and in the meantime also the 2-CD version of the album were sold really quickly (or are on sale at other labels and mail order companies, so no longer available to us). The topic of gigs also came up quite quickly and in fact the request from De Mortem Et Diabolum was received quite quickly and yes, this will be our live debut. There will be more after that, I'm sure of it!
Please tell us something about the lyrical concept. Have you been dealing with Sumerian mythology for a long time or did it come more spontaneously, in the sense that there was a "hook" on the topic like a film or a book and you then wrote lyrics inspired by it? The best-known album title is certainly Tiamat's underrated debut album "Sumerian cry", with its reference to the theme. There are even slight parallels in the cover design with the staircase, I just noticed, but that's in the nature of things, we primarily connect the buildings with the history of this people. Whereby often the concrete historical framework is perhaps not so relevant, because the same or similar stories take place at any time, in any epoch, just in a different context? Did you read one or the other book on the subject again especially for the texts in the sense of historical further education?
We have dealt with ancient Sumer rather less scientifically or historically for the album apart from the aspects that are also available far away from the specialist literature; the lyrical background is also designed in the end as a story - not just for a single album - and thereby tangibly interweaves the historical with myths and the fictional. I don't want to go into the lyrical concept as much, because I think that the listener should experience and read it for himself! In fact, this is the second time a band has been compared to Tiamat. Maybe Johan Edlund and I do have unintentional parallels.
Which version of the album do you prefer, the regular or the 8- track recording? And which bands have impressed you recently? Apart from that, you can still get rid of everything that's on your mind here!
Please note: All live pics copyright by Void Revelations
