Mourned By Flies is the phoenix that arose from the ashes of a previous project. Erik, Skar and I were in a Gothic Industrial band called eROTic, which formed in 1999. The founding member of that band decided to move on to another project. In February of 2006 the three of us started Mourned By Flies. Between the three of us we had two guitar players and a drummer. Erik and I decided to share the responsibility of vocals and guitar. Our drummer Skar, knew a bassist looking for a band. Aimee came to a couple of rehearsals, seemed to fit with the rest of us pretty well, and we were back on track. The four of us have been the foundation of the band for the past five years.

Last fall our newest member, Parrish, joined the mix. He’s taken over the position of lead vocalist. He brings a lot of intensity to the music and the stage. At a gig earlier this year, he managed to knock himself unconscious during the bridge of the song we were playing. This was only the second or third show we had all played together; as Parrish laid there on the floor we weren’t sure if he was lying there for dramatic effect, or if he was truly knocked out.  He crawled to his feet just in time to rip the final chorus - a real showman, reminded me of James Brown at the time. James used to have his entourage begin to escort him off stage only to run back out and fall to his knees in front of the crowd. As it turned out it Parrish’s fall wasn’t for show.  He was head banging, slipped in some spilled beer and smacked the back of his head when he hit the ground. The fact that he managed to get up and finish the song without missing a beat, that’s pretty hard-core.

We describe our style of music as Metal with elements of Thrash, Industrial, and Melodic Death metal. We haven’t defined our niche any farther than that. Actually, a reviewer described us like this: " MBF avoid any label and they do it damn well,” (Markus Ganzherrlich, www.mournedbyflies.com/merchandise). We’ll stick to Thrash/Industrial/Melodic Death for the time being.

Some of the bands that we all grew up listening to bands were Sepultura, Skinny Puppy, Slayer, Ministry, and Iron Maiden. But we have our personal favorites as well. Erik is a huge fan of Throbbing Gristle, Carcass and the Butthole Surfers, Skar is a fan of Opeth, Tool and Slipknot, Aimee listens to Nine Inch Nails and Arch Enemy and I really dig In Flames, Mastodon and NoFX. We’re all over the place when it comes to influences. I think that is apparent in our music.  

You should buy our record because you’ll like it. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s the truth. We are the type of band that appeals to folks with varied tastes. If you only listen to Grind Core or Tech Death than we may not be the band for you. However, if you listen to a broad variety of music than you should check us out. As I said before, we listen to a lot of different styles of music and our band is a reflection of that eclecticism. 

To date we’ve released our album "Signs Of Life” and a couple of pre-production tracks that will be on our upcoming album. Response to our releases has been interesting. When the album was first released we got several stellar reviews. We had some great write-ups in Italy and Greece, as well as here in the States. The funny thing was that we were relatively unknown in our own local scene at the time. 

Yes, we play live. I think I sort of eluded to that earlier. We play once every month or two here in Colorado. We love to play shows. I think that’s why we do what we do.  Songwriting is only a part of it. When we are working on a new tune we always try to keep in mind of how it will land when it’s played for an audience. 

Zines, labels and promoters should be interested because we are doing something unique. I think we’ve managed to take the defining aspects of several metal genres and develop a sound that is unmistakably Mourned By Flies. What we need now is someone willing to help us promote and advertise more effectively. A European distributor would be nice.

 

Our immediate future plan is to record our second album. We have been writing material for two and a half years. We are pretty excited to hear how it all comes together. Recording a record is an interesting process. Songs really seem to have a life all their own. Sometimes one will turn out differently than initially planned, and better than you had thought possible.  We plan to start preliminary tracking as soon as the end of April.

WWW.MOURNEDBYFLIES.COM. That’s our website. There you can find anything you might want. Links to our album on CD Baby, iTunes and our Reverb Nation page. We’d like to see people buy our music through CD Baby but the album is available through most digital distributors like iTunes. We’re also on Napster, Spotify, Last FM and several other streaming services. We also have merchandise available for to purchase on our website as well as in our Reverb Nation Store. 

Here are some places to find us:

April 2011