PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
PlanetMosh caught up with Irish doom outfit Death The Leveller after their debut release ‘A Call To Men Of Noble Blood’ to find out a little more about them and to see what they have in store for us in 2017 and beyond.
For people hearing about Death The Leveller for the first time, please tell us about yourselves?
Well DTL started when the lads decided to put Mael Mordha on ice for a while. Ger, Shane and Dave started developing a new sound and style. They knew they were onto something, so they let it develop, recorded some demos, and that’s where I got involved.
Doom is order of the day with DTL. Was the Shirley poem a natural choice for your name and what drew you towards it?
It does seem quite a natural choice, considering the whole vibe of where the band is coming from. Ger was really into it, and when the rest of us read it we totally got it. It fits with the imagery we want to project and the lyrical content. Sometimes you just get lucky and things work for you that way!!!
Readers of PlanetMosh may be familiar with your previous work in Mael Mordha and Cursed Earth. MM’s performance on the main stage at Bloodstock a few years ago is particularly memorable and I remember thinking, “there’s an Irish band that’s ready to take the scene by storm”. What happened?
Well,I wasn’t in MM. But the lads felt they had taken it as far as they could at that time, and wanted to do something different. I liked what Mael Mordha had been doing, they were just getting better album by album, so I see it as a really ballsy move on their part to start again.
Rather than continue under the Mael Mordha moniker. Was it a hard decision to give it a go from scratch so to speak?
Again this is from my perspective, but I think once the idea dawns that you need a fresh start, it isn’t so much a ‘hard decision’ any more, it’s more about getting it done. The lads felt they needed a new challenge and they went for it.
Bringing Denis in as a singer seems like the perfect choice. Where did you unearth him and was it a simple decision?
Well thanks for the compliment!! I look at it from the perspective of being the right person in the right place at the right time. It was almost blind luck that we crossed each other’s paths.I was at a rehearsal for a cover band, jammed with Shane and Dave, and a few days later Shane contacted me about DTL. Literally as soon as I heard the demos, that was it, I was on board. I lived with the songs for a couple of weeks, went to a rehearsal/audition and it all just clicked. Just like that. Sometimes it’s that simple.
Let’s look to the future. Death The Leveller’s first single is an absolute cracker. What is ‘A Call to Men of Noble Blood’ about?
Well thanks, we feel it was a natural choice for a first release, the energy of the song is a perfect introduction to the band. Hmm….. As for what it’s about, I don’t actually like to dissect lyrics and tell listeners what to think, I don’t want to come across as too pretentious but I’d rather people interpret our work through their own ‘filter’ as such and find their own meaning in it.
When can we expect a full length release?
Well right now there are 4 songs available online, to listen to for free, or you can Stream/download. It’s 40 minutes of music and we recommend listening to it right through, as you would an ep or album. Well be releasing it on vinyl quite soon through A journeys End.
Where can people listen to your music and but merchandise?
Right now it’s on band camp. Hopefully, in a few days well have a YouTube channel up and running, and we’re also looking at a wider range of options for getting it to the public digitally. At this early stage, we really want everyone to have a chance to listen to us. Merch is in development at present, but the music Must come first, it’s the bedrock of everything.
What upcoming shows are on the horizon?
We play in the Voodoo in Dublin on 15th July with legendary band Cruachan. We play in Cork on 29th July, and we also will be doing Dublin Day of Doom with Hour of 13, Soothsayer, Hooded Priest and Graveyard Dirt. We’ll be playing with Solstafir, Lord Vicar and Dread Sovereign etc at Emerald Haze in September which is a new 2 day event with some excellent band. In fact, shows are coming in a lot right now, we hope to be able to announce some European dates pretty soon also. Thanks for the interview, and we hope to see you out there in a venue sometime soon.
