• Mourning Caress is a forthcoming new band from Germany, a land that has offered and still does more than enough to the metal scene. In my opinion a band shouldn't only have nice music. It's a  must for me to have nice lyrics and not stupidly stated opinions or stories amd of course I'd like to know that I am a fan of a band with brains. After all it's us metalheads that say metal is not just an ordinary music but it's also a belief, a philosophy... So I guess you all can understand how happy I get when I meet and talk to people with a well stated opinion. Mourning Caress and Benedikt in particular are a good proof of all these I am saying. See for yourselves.

1.GIVE A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF THE BAND. WHICH ARE THE  CURRENT BAND MEMBERS?

• Mourning Caress was founded about three years ago (autumn 1998) and the line-up has remained the same since then. We've recorded two demo CD's, "The Divine Grave" (1999) and "Perspectives" (2000)  and that is about all there is to say. Founding members were Dominik (drums) and Gerrit (vocals). The two guys used to play in a band called Unburden. Florian (guitar) and Daniel (bass) were recruited from a band called Velvet Thorns and I used to play in a noisy Black Metal sort of band called Emocion Jodida before joining.

• I'd describe our musical style as straight forward rocking metal with aggression, drive, melodies and a melancholic touch. Each member in the band has different musical influences and different interests regarding bands. We all can agree on certain Metal bands such as Sentenced, Dark Tranquillity, Nevermore, Iron Maiden, At the Gates or The Crown, but apart from that our tastes differ a lot. As individuals we all listen to different stuff: Rock, Progressive, Country, Neo-Folk, Death-/Thrash- and Black-Metal, Hard-Rock, Industrial, Independent, Pop etc...

• Demos can be ordered at www.mourningcaress.de. We only have a few "Perspectives" demos left. The first demo "The Divine Grave" can be downloaded for free. The main difference between "The Divine Grave" (1999) and "Perspectives" (2000) is that the second demo sounds more mature and is of higher quality. We incorporated acoustic guitars, atmospheric parts, more dynamics and the arrangements are better. The artwork and packaging is far more stylish too...

• We're still proud of our two demos and of course we discovered things we would have liked to change afterwards, but that's what playing music is all about. There's no perfection, only the way to it. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes...

• The lyrics are all written by Gerrit (vocals) and deal more with the sad aspects of life than with the fun ones. They are quite personal and written in a metaphoric way, so that they can be interpreted freely by the listener. The lyrics deal with subjects such as disappointment, fear, melancholy, despair, hate, lost love, life & death, depressions, pain, etc... I certainly think that people are in a better position to face reality when they have fantasy. They can then deal with their pains and problems on different levels and go through hard times easier. When fantasy turns into paranoia is another thing. Fantasy is often just a way of creating metaphors for reality, I think.

• I don't think Metal should have any limits. People shouldn't be narrow-minded and should give other musical styles a chance. Metal would not develop or mature without influences from the outside. Labelling Metal music is necessary to a certain degree, so that people know what to expect. I'm against too much labelling though.

• Hard question. I don't know. You get to a point as a fan where you say: "listening to this is not enough, I also want to be part of this thing". The nice aspect of composing your own music is that you get to combine your own influences and make things sound the way you really would like music to sound. The only obstacle to making the personal dream come true is technical skill. Everyone has that problem one way or another and has to fight in order to turn ideas into cool tunes. The most important aspects for me are fun and love for the music - the rest is not as important. People playing music shouldn't take themselves too serious...

• There is enough to do except playing music. Life is too short for all the things I'd like to do and all the places I'd like to visit. I travel, read, listen to music, study and get drunk...

• I guess each member would  have a different opinion on this one, so as in some other answers I'm only speaking for myself. I'd probably choose "Dead Rose Romance" since it combines catchy Rock'N'Roll riffing with aggression and melancholic acoustic parts. The song is also a good example for the direction we are heading for on our debut-album.

• We've done a few live shows in our musical carreer, unfortunately not enough. We've only played in Germany and mainly close to the region where we live. Places we'd like to visit: lots! We'd love to play in as many different parts of Germany, Europe and the world as possible. Mexico would be a cool country and a dream come true...

• There are enough things in my past I wouldn't mind changing or undoing, but I rather not mention them, since they are quite personal.On the other hand, we live in the present and for the moment and shouln't drive ourselves nuts thinking about the past. If possible, it's better to learn from mistakes and try to head on with the intention of being a better human being...

• The actual situation is seriously fucked and makes me nervous. After those things you realize how unimportant your own life and all the little plans are compared to these global catastrophes. I hope people don't start developing more racist tendencies against people from Arabia just because of a few maniacs flying into skyscrapers. The only solution is to create peace in the Middle East and to distribute global ressources in a propper manner, so that poor countries get an opportunity to fight poverty and injustice. I don't agree with the policy of the US government at all and hope that they don't end up killing lots of innocent people as they have done in the past. Retaliation is not the appropriate answer. It's up to our governments now to avoid more bloodshed...

• My favorite author is Charles Bukowski and I like all his books, especially his novels.  I don't know whether I'd like to be the main character of his novels, Henry Chinaski, since the guy is too wasted and has to puke every morning. I guess that would piss me off after a while. I sympathize with Henry because he is very human.

• The new Anathema Album "A fine day to exit" is about the coolest release this year, I think. The new Masters of Reality and Entombed releases aren't bad either. I also enjoyed the new Ulver album "Perdition City" a lot. A band that I can recommend to you is Mindfield. They are friends of ours and in the studio right now. They are searching for a label and have so far released one album on Gutter Records entitled "Deviant". The dudes play pretty cool Metal - a unique sound a bit in the vein of Sentenced.

• I don't know which movie I'd choose. Every band-member would probably opt for a different one... In my opinion the movie should be full of atmospheric landscape-shots and have a very sad story to it. The plot should either be deeply depressing, competely satyric and ironic or a combination of both. Black humor and sadness combined, that's about the direction...

• Watch out for our debut-album on ARISE Records coming out in March 2002. The album will be produced by Andy Classen and mastered at the Finnvox Studios. It will contain nine hellish tunes...