BAND OF THE WEEK: Music In Low Frequencies
Portuguese sludge trio returns after a decade with unbearably heavy and emotional new album
Dude, ‘Catharsis’ is one of those records that you can’t even look at if you’ve got a headache. I think that’s the reason I took longer than I should to focus on them here on the Band Of The Week thing, I’m afraid these huge riffs and singer Mariana’s frighteningly inhuman roar will make me drown in successive migraines. It’s not, I just sometimes drop the ball and take longer than I should doing shit, but that sounds like a more elegant way to justify why I’m only recommending a December 8th release to you guys now. Besides, it’s true. MILF’s… hang on, now that I’m seeing it, maybe we shouldn’t acronymise this one. I’ll start again. Music In Low Frequencies’ approach to their tunes seems simple, just like the decision on the band name must have been, and just like that, it’s written right there on the tin - to make it as harrowing and as grief-ridden as they can, so that it serves as a vehicle to all the pain and anger and frustration that they can. They haven’t told me any of this, mind you, not in these terms, but that’s what you feel like when listening to it. “Catharsis” is an often overused word in heavy music, but in this case, the title is spot on. The way the trio throw themselves with reckless abandon at these songs, Diogo Vale pounding the drums as if on a death march to nowhere, Sergio Ferreira belting out blackened doom riffage and Mariana Faísca dredging up vocal hell itself from her guts, you can feel the pain is right there, pouring out of all of them. Add in a couple of nice sprinkles like Spanish experimental singer Maud The Moth’s appearance in one of the songs and this little dark package really is worthy of your time. If this is your first contact with the band, might as well start with their elegant video for one of the best songs, ‘Unconsciousness’, which even gives you a beautiful little breather to start off before it plunges you into a world of pain.
While we’re at it, they do have another cool video, and they do say that ‘This Corpse’ is the song that best portrays what they’re all about in the interview below, so have at it too. It’s age-restricted and I can’t post it here, but here’s the link. Just, if you’re squeamish and people hanging from hooks and stuff like that bothers you, maybe give it a miss.
Anyway, MILF… sorry, Music In Low Frequencies do have a past already, their debut ‘Sowing The Seed’, if you can be arsed to find it, hails from 2014, which in this day and age sounds like 50 years ago, and these people do have connections to other bands in the Portuguese underground, but you know what, it doesn’t really matter (the one thing you should know, however, is that they participated on a tribute to the best Portuguese band ever, Mão Morta, actually playing my favourite song of theirs, ‘Cão da Morte’, do check it out). ‘Catharsis’ is such a well-contained, finely crafted universe that you should just get lost in it without much forethought. Just don’t do it with a headache, for christ’s sake. Besides, because TDM rules, we managed to get the band to chat with us, so all extra info you need shall be readily available to you after the jump. You’re welcome.
‘Catharsis’ is out now via Raging Planet Records.
Find Music In Low Frequencies on Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.
“We can’t write without emotions attached to that writing. It’s part of our identity.”
— Music In Low Frequencies
Can you guide us through the origin story of Music In Low Frequencies? ‘Catharsis’ and your live performances this year might have been the first contact many have had with the band, but you guys already have an important longevity going on, right?
Music In Low Frequencies: That is true, we could even say that we are entering our pre-teens, since we’ve been around for twelve years almost, that’s probably where we get some of our “edginess”! Jokes aside, it really has been some time, and with that background also comes some responsibility to produce something that is meaningful to us and that we hope might be for others too. Music In Low Frequencies essentially formed in 2012 after a legendary reunion at a festival all of us know very well as SWR - Barroselas Metalfest in 2011, and on that very same lovely night of drinking, the idea came up for us to get together on a project that was a little different from what we had done so far. Something with a darker sound to it, slower, muddier, but at the same time more melodic, eventually. Where we could express ourselves in another way. We threw ideas back and forth until the morning, but it was only until we got together in a rehearsal room that we had the definitive proof that it was going to work. After just one rehearsal we already had the backbone of what would become our first song, ‘Unending Lies’. We carried on, wrote four other songs, and the first shows took place already in that same year of 2012. In 2014, our firstborn ‘Sowing The Seed’ came out, and with it a few presentation shows throughout the country and a small European tour. After that promotion cycle, we refocused on writing new songs again, with an EP in mind. In 2016 we gathered for pre-production, and that was the most important moment in the history of Music In Low Frequencies and the actual definition of what the band is. From there, ‘Catharsis’ was born, along with all that it means to us.
So what happened in the meantime, and what lead to this reactivation finally, what reinspired you to get back in the saddle?
Music In Low Frequencies: As everyone knows, there really was a long hiatus between the two records. ‘Catharsis’ had been in the works for a long time, it was being built even without us knowing it would become the record that it is. In 2016, there was that pondering about how we would build the songs, as there was still a certain anarchy and chaos that were in opposition to what we wanted to express in our music. As such, we had to rethink some structures, and that surely lead us to find a more individual identity. The main trigger, however, was life itself. Catharsis happened in fact within the band and in our personal lives, and everything came together to make the album what it is, a reflection of a very troubled and dark time. At the same time, it’s also a record that gives us hope and motivation to keep on weathering the storms.
It does seem like an unusually intense album - there is a lot of raw emotion, a lot of weight that does not only come from the sound itself.
Music In Low Frequencies: It’s a very introspective and intimate album, and without being too presumptuous about it, we think it couldn’t have been done in any other way. When you create something and you put your body and soul in it, when you give yourself to it without restrictions, you will see the reflection of your deepest being, and these past few years forced us to have that introspection. We just tried to get the best we could out of these dark years and get back up as better human beings. We would say that from the bleakest moments in life, come the best inspirations for art and creation, whatever form it might have. We tried to use that in the best way, to convert all that blackness into hope and into a form of catharsis. Hence the title of the album.
Is there a song you would like to pick as a good representation of what the band is about?
Music In Low Frequencies: Undoubtedly we’d pick ‘This Corpse’ as a token of what the band represents and the path we want to tread in terms of sound and lyrical content. It’s a song with a strong emotional charge, and we think we’ve achieved a parallel between that component and the songwriting itself. It’s a song that symbolises the perfect union between the message we want to put through and the way we deliver it. It touches us in a very personal way and represents the start of the ‘Catharsis’ era, so to speak, so it’s a special song for those reasons.
Right, let’s do the influences question. I hate that specific word as TDM followers probably have noticed, but I really want to know what music inspires you guys, what makes you tick. What have you been listening over there?
Music In Low Frequencies: Each of us listens to very different stuff, but which is also found in some way crossing paths with several of our songs. We all drink from the kind of doom and post metal that you can find in Cult Of Luna, King Woman, Alcest, Amenra, Oranssi Pazuzu… Black metal is also a big influence, with bands like Mgła, Behemoth or even our countrymen Gaerea. We could, however, mention so many others that influence us lyrically and instrumentally, such as Brutus, My Dying Bride, A Swarm Of The Sun, Marilyn Manson… an unending list of good influences.
How has the reaction to the album been throughout these months, has it fallen within your expectations? It’s really tough for small DIY bands, from “peripheral” countries on top of it, to rise beyond the pile these days, as much as that might seem like a contradiction with the instant access we have to everything. Do you think you’ve been able to break a few of those barriers?
Music In Low Frequencies: The reactions to the album have actually surpassed all our expectations, because we didn’t have any. Since we come from such a “small” and peripheral country like you said, and we know that metal is still a limited niche overall, we thought we wouldn’t have much impact, at least locally. We always thought we might do better abroad, since we play a sort of a sub-niche of a niche. [laughs] However, the feedback in Portugal has been btural, way beyond anything we ever imagined. We couldn’t be happier with the results of our work, and also the continuing efforts that are represented by the shows we’ve been playing, where we show ourselves and can actually reach the audience that supports us, and also those that don’t know us yet. Despite all the digital platforms and all kinds of advertising means that exist these days, it really is not easy to have any kind of impact or income without a big investment and intermediaries who also have to earn their cut of it. We’ve always been very DIY in all aspects that are a part of a band’s logistics, but that limits us somehow. On the other hand, it’s very satisfying whenever we sell a record to some distant part of the world map, to realise that even without some big ad campaign, someone far away can connect with what we created to the point of wanting a physical copy of the album. Each one that we sell, we see it as a conquest, it’s something that fills our hearts immensely.
What can we expect from the forthcoming shows, how would you describe yourselves as a stage band? The participation in important events like the recent Laurus Nobilis festival and the forthcoming Under The Doom festival, is it important to the growth and exposure of the band, for instance?
Music In Low Frequencies: We always prepare ourselves in a special and unique way for each show. We take our live performances very seriously and we want to deliver the best of us to the audience at each minute that we’re on stage. That connection between band and audience is made of small details and we pay a lot of attention to them. Our motivation is always guaranteed. Appearing on bigger events, just by itself, gives us a bigger recognition and an opportunity to reach a wider audience, but on the other hand it also raises the levels of responsibility in terms of performing live. We like those challenges… We work for these opportunities in these stages, and now we are going to prepare something also unique for Milagre Metaleiro and for Under The Doom, which are our next appearances.
How do you look at the future of the project? Hopefully we’ll get something before another nine years of waiting?
Music In Low Frequencies: Right now we’re savouring everything that ‘Catharsis’ has to offer us, and it’s been giving a lot more than we ever imagined. We’ve thought about new songs, we’ve debated ideas, and we’re preparing to actually start working on them. But just like it happened for ‘Catharsis’, we need experiences that make their mark on us and force us to write about them… we can’t write without emotions attached to that writing. It’s part of our identity. We can’t work in another way, other than the one we found when we did ‘Catharsis’. One thing we can guarantee, and that’s the fact that we won’t release anything that we feel is lesser than ‘Catharsis’, whether that takes one or nine years, we’ll see.
