Hi Maurice, it´s simply an honour for me to have a few words here. I am a long time fan of your music and never thought this moment would happen. It´s very difficult for me to focus on Maurice as whole and don´t speak about all your career but then this could be a massive book and not a proper interview.
Sorry for my bad English but there is not IA or Google Translator here…. Just me, Coronel Mortimer speaking to you from LA MUERTE TENÍA UN BLOG site.
INTRODUCTIO: THE GENESIS OF MORIES
So, there was a time I was fucking bored of extreme music. I started to dig in Free Jazz, Psych and other stuff. More or less 25 year ago, a new wave of Doom, Black and Extreme started to flow for me. It was the time of Sjin Van Cauter and Torture Doom, the harshness of Bunkur, Moss… and then, totally different in sound but equally distorted (mental and body), I discovered GNAW THEIR TONGUES. It was not Doom, it was not Black metal, it was not Drone….. it was all fucking greatness glued together in a massive wall of sound.
* So, you are active since nineties or even before so, before getting into Gnaw Their Tongues years, who was Maurice and how you lived that years in Cauteror, Astral and all the band projects? Maybe a little cliché but a few words doing a presentation of yourself would be great; which bands really influenced you, local scene and all that kind of stuff.
I grew up with pop and rock as a kid. First I discovered the Scorpions, than Iron Maiden and later Slayer. That formed me. Soon I began making music myself. My first schoolband was actually a doom metal band. That was my first musical thing I did. Soon I discovered black metal and death metal late 80’s. That’s when it all went wong.
* By the way, Dutch Death Doom scene is written forever in the book of time. Where you somehow involved or influenced by such acts as The Gathering, Necro Schizma, Officium Triste, Spina Bifida, Castle, Orphanage…?
Oh yes The Gathering and Necro Schizma where great. Also Asphyx demo’s. I tape traded in early nineties. I discovered so much classic stuff.
* Is really difficult to know if you prefer Black or Death/Doom those early years when I dig more and more in your bio. Even The Sombre project honouring the holy English Trinity of Doom makes me an idea of your tastes but I would like to do a silly experiment… please tell me the first ideas / words you have on:
+ Black Metal: Great until ’96 / ’97. After that it lost its magic. New black metal does nothing for me.
+ Doom Metal: I was a great doom fan: Trouble, Candlemass, Peaceville three and countless obscure doom/death bands in the early nineties.
+ Death Metal: I have all the classic late 80’s and early nineties stuff on vinyl. But I mostly lost interest in Death Metal when the second wave black metal occurred.
* There is a moment you start composing and releasing your solo projects. Well, that is not true… I think bands and solo projects lived at the same time but, what made you decide to do all by your own? Was any kind of conflict that made you part ways with the rest of musicians?
I’m not sure. I indeed played in bands and had solo projects. I just have to much ideas to form bands. Doing things solo is an easy way to realise new music. Maybe when I was younger my ego was in the way causing conflicts.
* By the way, being so prolific and good in your business carry you to forget about being in a band properly. Last project I remember is COFFIN LURK with great René Aquarius and is a fucking great team. Not a problem of ego I think but when I listen to `Mories´ music, I always know that is `you´ by the way of composing and sounding. So, what could I need to convince you to be in a band again? Maybe is a question of control, composing and be satisfied with the final result?
Sometimes I just want to be in a rehearsal space making noise. I play in a new sludge/doom band. Which is doing great. We just recorded three songs. The bands name is ACCABADORA. I also plan on doings another band (when I can find a drummer). Slow music like CODEINE but very rough and noisy. I already have a few tracks ready.
Playing in a band indeed also mean letting go of control. Its a learning process for me. But I can let go easier these days.
* What band would you have liked to play in?
No really one band. I wished I was in a great band in the early nineties. When I was more hungry for band stuff.
* Returning to the early times, did you had any DIY label, fancine or similar for releasing your music and doing trade? I am just curious about the way you moved all your stuff because there are a lot of labels there that seems evaporated after one or two editions.
I had lots of smaller labels do cd’s, cdr’s, tapes etc. Thats just the nature of underground music. Not all label will make it.
CHAPTER I: GNAW THEIR EARLY TONGUES
* So maybe is time to dig in the first days of Gnaw Their Tongues. Dimlit Hate Cellar evolved in GTT and `Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh´ saw the light of day. I love Cloak of Altering, Cadaver Shrine…. But, Gnaw Their Tongues is your main project being an eclectic entity of Black, Avantgarde, Industrial and difficult music in the sense that maybe is not easy to move in the commercial circuits. ¿Is there a proper moment of your life when Gnaw Their Tongues is born? By the way, very curious about the name taken of the Book of Revelation. Can you tell me something about that? What is hidden in the concept name? is catchy as hell….
One day I was reading that bible chapter and the name just stood out. I was always interested in religions. GTT was actually not my main project. My main project was DE MAGIA VETERUM. One day (around 2004) I had this idea for GTT sound and tracks. So I recorded it and threw it on myspace. The reaction was immediately great to my surprise. GTT was born in a time when my mad was in a really dark place. It was just me screaming at the world. Pure human hate. I never have a plan. I never have goals. I just release music.
* Many labels like Cold Spring or Cold Meat Industry decided to give space to a more `metal / drone´ oriented stuff and not only to electronics and Dark Ambient. CRUCIAL BLAST was your first big home I think (sorry if I am wrong). How was the process of approaching them?
The first label that released `An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood´ on vinyl and cd was a dutch label Burning World records. They released much more of the stuff over the years. Great guys!. Crucial Blast released mostly the CD versions of the records. I’m not sure how we came in contact? I probably just send ‘em an email. I liked the music he released back than. I think I wrote Cold Spring at some point. Nothing ever came out of that.
* I think `An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood´ was your first release for Crucial Blast and the beginning of an impressive use of samplers, orchestral parts classical albums like `All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity´, mighty `L'arrivée de la terne mort triomphante´…. How is your process of composing an album of Gnaw Their Tongues?
There is no single process. Sometime it starts with a sample, a lyrical idea. Maybe a riff. Sometimes an abstract idea in my head. All different approaches to getting music done. Once I have a basic idea. I ad more stuff until it sounds ok to me.
* Do you visualize the concept and distinguish between one project or another or being so prolific is like an impending vomit? (At the same time you had Cloak of Altering in Crucial Blast for example, and not to mention the huge amount of Splits or Eps…) Maybe you are like the Frank Zappa of extremities?
I get bored easily and I have many ideas. I like having many things to choose from. I also work on many things at once. It keeps my sane.
* I would like to ask about the artwork. Sometimes I am aware my kids discover my albums and have a look of the depravity of that kind of `found footage´ stuff. Is really powerful the use you make of the visuals. How much you are involved in the final artworks and layouts? Sometimes I think I can change the Logo and it would be like Zorn´s Painkiller or Naked City albums….
I do all my own art. I am a graphic designer. I have full control over every release. Except some split releases. I like simple images that catches the eye. And yes some are pretty gruesome. Just like the world.
* More artwork. I love the cover of `Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus´. Where is the image from? And talking about that, is just curious that genres like Industrial, Power Electronics and that kind of music, using photos is more common than pictures. Maybe the photo gives more sense of reality in contrast with all grim drawings of 90´s Black Norwegian bands?
Its a movie still from a silent ‘occult erotic’ movies from probably the 30’s of 40’s. Maybe even the 20’s. I just liked the image. I altered it a but. Put the goathead in etc. I don’t really have a plan: it doesn’t have to look black metal or industrial. It has to look like GTT / me.
* `Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus´ is maybe with `L'arrivée de la terne mort triomphante´ the albums I like the most. They are so different: Cellos, pianos, orchestral soundscapes in contrast with really raw harshness and primitive. What mean both albums to you? Even you got a contract with Candlelight…
I worked really long and hard on those albums. I don’t like the drum sound of ‘per..’ No more. But I still like the tracks. I really like ‘l’arrived..’. Its a shame it sold lousy. Yes Candlelight released it. It was a great opportunity. But maybe it was not the right label for GTT. Just to ‘metal’. GTT belonged more to experimental labels.
* Can you tell me the reason you ended with Crucial Blast? I am not sure but I think the had an hiatus between 2016 and nowadays…
The album sold poorly. They where not interested in another one.
CONSOULING YEARS: MATURITY AND BIRTH OF A ROTTEN FLOWER
* Both albums (`Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus´ and `L'arrivée de la terne mort triomphante´) got a different format in CONSOULING SOUNDS, your main actual label with Gnaw Their Tongues (Aderlanting works too). They are much involved in Belgium acts, and in 2015, `Hymns For The Broken, Swollen And Silent´ was released by them. How is your relation with the label and how was the first approaches that ended in signing a contract?
Don’t exactly remember how we connected. I know I always liked the stuff they put out. Even een earlier version of the label under another name. I think I just contacted them to see if they where interested in releasing an album. The relation has always been good. They work flawless. All experiences with them have been really good.
* `Genocidal Majesty´, `I Speak The Truth, Yet With Every Word Uttered, Thousands Die´, superb `The Cessation Of Suffering´ (I reviewed here in LA MUERTE TENÍA UN BLOG) and finally `The Genesis of Light´, your brand new album and the main reason we are doing this interview has just been released. How was the process of composing? Maybe is a cliché´ one but I feel like an inner path that connects `The Cessation of Suffering´ with `The Genesis of Light´ but I know it can´t be true because in the promo sheet says that the first recordings were in 2008 as a Drone concept album.
Yes. Genesis was an abandoned album from 2008. I started recording this guitar drone album in 2008. I think I lost interest at the time. I did like 4 EP’s in 2008. I found the recordings on an old hard drive and really like the recordings. A bit nostalgia I think. I re-recorded most guitars. I added the orchestral elements and some percussion. In a way its an a-typical GTT record but than again also not. I’ve released lots of ‘drone’ type stuff on albums.
* After works of The Sombre, Cadaver Shrine, Dungeon Synths tapes…. Gnaw Their Tongues is back with a twist on the harshness, claustrophobic drapes of `The Cessation of Suffering´. There is a certain redemptive and luminescent touch… is there any personal issue happening to you? Just curious about the structure of the album like a conceptual suite…
With ‘Cessation’ I decided to loose all connection with guitar based music/black metal. I just wanted to release some of the noisiest and darkest GTT music. Like sculpting tracks with just pure sound.
* Beautiful and liturgic, ecclesiastic cathedral drones and female angelic voices start the four parts of the album. Guitar is prominent here with thick riffs that makes me think about Earth and SunnO)))…. Was that premeditated? Is really impressed your work in the guitar specially in the first ten numinous minutes.
Yes Sunn..of course was a big influence especially in 2008. I tried to make it more interesting than just guitar drones. Around 2008 there where a whole lot of special bands like Black Boned Angel, Nadja, Pyramids. That was an influence too at the time. In 2025 I just updated those recordings. The inspiration comes from that time.
* I see some similitude with symphonic early works of Until Death Overtakes Me and Stjin Van Cauter. The feeling of a wrong time (twisted) starting angelic and ending the album with the obscure blast beats and anger voices. So, is the Light a Dark aspect in the album? Said another way, why the album start epic and ends in a sense of death?
I have no idea. I do most thing with my intuition. It sounded the best like this to me. But like everthing there is always two side. The light can not exist without the dark and vice versa. Like: yes the light is finally here but immediately exposes vile and bad things hiding in the dark. Never trust the light.
* Claustrophobic, slow burning and with an immersive climax. `The Genesis of Light´ may not be a proper name for an album of this characteristics. Or is in the contrary in the `black logia´ of GNAW THEIR TONGUES?
I mean ‘The Cessation of Suffering’…there is only suffering on that album isn’t there. I like the abstract idea of a ‘genesis of the light’. But who says it was a light, easy thing. Maybe it was an immense struggle? To me the tracks sounded like a ‘genesis of the light’..heavy, difficult, primal and ..yes..very dark.
* Another different thing with respect to previous albums is the cover art. All black inside and in the back and the cover with golden drawings similar to YOB covers. Why did you decided that? I am interested in all your artwork concepts as I said before… they look great and always are an important part of the feelings your music gives to the listener.
I’m always searching for great art or public domain images I can use or alter. This image worked so well with the title. I just cleaned it up a bit and messed a bit with the color. I wanted it keep the art minimal and clean. I think that works the best with these 4 tracks.
* Is there any real brightnes in there The Genesis of Light? I think with the addition of minimalistic passages the suffocating feeling is even harder.
There are some bright parts yes. But like I said: I imagine the genesis to be difficult, fighting the darkness is hard. The light has to really fight hard, really struggle to manifest. At least that’s how I imagined it in my head.
* So Maurice, really thanks for doing this interview. This is your space to tell about future projects, Gnaw Their Tongues or whatever, and feel free to say goodbye with the words you prefer.
Thank you so much. Sorry it took so long for me to answer this. Look out for more maurice-core in the future.
CHEERS!!!
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