THIRD WORLD'S MOURNING interview 2006

Spanish underground metal remains confidential and a band like THIRD WORLD’S MOURNING shall have a nice point of view about it. Jonathan & Mikel answered my questions with honesty, talking about their band and how they music shall sound, and they give us a personal view of the Spanish scene.


Jonathan, hello to you and your band mates! According to your biography, TWM was a fucking mess until you found the good line-up. We can distinguish two periods. Can you briefly explain to our readers?

Jonathan: Mikel is the only who could better answer this question; I can only say that this happens among the best families, it is difficult to find a definitive line-up.

Mikel: oh yes!! Apart from having an extended hiatus of almost 4 years, I tried to contact with so many people to recruit the rest of the band members. First of all I contacted with David the drummer, who openly agreed the new ideas that were coming in the year 2000. Then came the line-up movements. We had a bassist and a singer , Txaber that now is in NOTHUM, Ander was half fled and left from the band because of the lack of attitude and because of the lack of interest, then we recruited Jonathan who seemed to be the permanent singer for TWM and himself also recruited a new bassist Ander , both of them are great persons and crazy guys an all of us are comfortable. Nowadays we are discussing about having a second guitar player because we need a lit bit of more strength, but this is going to be a good challenge.

THIRD WORLD’S MOURNING is an uncommon name for an extreme band. What is the meaning behind it?

Mikel: yes many people may can be confused because the name does not suggest a lot of brutality as many people are used to listen such band names as ending with – ation, -ity, -ally hehehehe you know what I mean. The band name was invented by Jon the old member of TWM when he and myself were both making vocals. In those days the meaning of the band has much to do with the political common causes and criticise the world in which we live, we wrote songs like”Shit at Us” or “Workhorses”, but now the atmosphere has changed it still remains a bit of what we were but we turned into more obscure landscapes but the attitude is the same we are still a bit punk, heheheeheh BEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!! Jejeje.

I got from you a DVD-R from a live gig at MUNICH 72. A quite original stuff to promote your band, but why didn’t you release a demo or even a rehearsal?

Jonathan: Befote releasing the DVD-R, TWM recorded a demo entitled “Workhorses” in the year 1999 but the change in sound and atmosphere changed a lot so we decided to publish an uncommon thing a live demo in DVD format. We thought that could be a good idea because we offer but sound and visual entertainment, the image quality and sound are nice. But we will record some demo soon, to have a better thing to show.

Mikel: the DVD-R´s idea came from Jonathan´s brain, I had some ideas about it but I was not so sure by the time, then I decided to contact with some friends to make the cover design and that was all. We also have some rehearsal songs...if you go to our website there you have one rehearsal song that is more or less O.K. I am sure that you know that to release and record something cost time money and a lot of patience so soon we hope to have our breeding among our hands and say “ ohhh at least after years of playing we have what we really desired”, in my case i have been fighting for getting this dream real in some way since the year 1998.

On the video, we can see that you are playing in front of many people. Is there always a good affluence at gigs or people only support famous bands and don’t about the local ones?

Jonathan: Being sincere and optimist, in Spain it is where shows work better, we are proud of having a good audience, mostly in the basque country and Galicia is where we are most informed about it, without desconsidering other places around Spain. This works about seasons you know, sometimes a lot of people attend to the shows and others not, but anyway the people know what is the meaning of Underground. There is a cool brotherhood for example in the TUNK venue, we are close with French friends and many more bands, zines, fans , etc...It is like a family.

Mikel: I also agree with you, in the video you see a lot of people but being sincere as well, they were mostly close friends of TWM and members of other bands, I mean that the true family is composed by friends and members. I really like this kind of atmosphere because we are some bands and we know all each other and we are always there to help in everything they need or we may need. The most pleased people are the fans or friends. When you end a show and they come to thank you feel and enormous gratitude inside because you feel like someone else apart from you likes your shit heheheheh.

Your music can be described as a mix of US brutal death with some grindcore influences. I think about bands such as BRUTAL TRUTH, DEVOURMENT, DRIPPING, PYREXIA… Do you agree with me? Can you talk about your musical influences?

Jonathan: Yes, I agree with you. Some people say that we have some Slam/Death influences like MISERY INDEX, DYING FETUS, VOMIT REMNANTS or even CEPHALIC CARNAGE, ANAL BLAST or DEEDS OF FLESH. Our influences are very wide, from some “funky” parts passing through some old school death metal, grindcore, even some sparks of black metal....but we are mostly a brutal death metal band in general terms of brutality but being diverse.

Mikel: Basically what we like is death metal in the US style, but we tried to refresh the music and find our special background in composing the songs apart from having a wide inspirational sources that can go from very sad riffs without distortion to more noisy parts. Then when we are compared to other bands i could say yes and no, my main influances are DEEDS OF FLESH, DYING FETUS’ typical cutting riffs and some blasting riffs from DEVOURMENT, but when someone said hehehe “you sound like DRIPPING” I was like very surprised because I really like them but never ever thought to sound like them. And talking about future , we have composed a very deep and raw song its close to be ended it will be a very blasting song in the way of DEVOURMENT and even may sound like a little homage to them, and other one that we took again the source of funky rhythms using a wah wah pedal hehhehe this song is complote the deconstruction of a song heheheh.

Your songs titles are quite weird and obscure. You seem to use metaphors for social and psychological themes. Explain. What do you think of gore and satanic lyrics? Too much used and abused?

Jonathan: Before hand we pretend to have an extreme lyrical concept, dark and personal. We tend to use a lot of metaphores to get implied in the lyrics then to transport it to our point of view of the most common things of life. I think that the gore and satanic lyrics are very used and abused but I also think that if they are written with the heart, honestly and knowing what it is about I think that is very respectable.

Mikel: yes, hehehe our song may look rare or even atypical for the people who are used to read about guts pentagram sand all that stuff. In my case I got tired of those kind of lyrics when I was younger I really like DEICIDE´s lyrics for example they were very brutal and bloody, but nowadays they dont say nothing to me, they lack originality and evene they lack of a bit art in writing because apart from sonoric offering you are also offering some thoughts or some interesting stories, for example I really like the lyrics of CEPHALIC CARNAGE “Eradicate authority” and DISGORGE (USA) ones being so dark and atmospheric. In TWM I will try to keep this kind of style of wrting it is my background in writing…next titles could be “Unfolding Belphegor” talking about gluttony and infamous deities that are more real than we can imagine.

The Spanish scene owns some good bands such as AVULSED, FERMENTO, GODUS, HAEMORRHAGE, IMPURE, and many well known ones, but can you talk about more underground bands that, according to you, deserve support?

Jonathan: I would name bands like: SCENT OF DEATH ( IMMOLATION´s way), CAUSTIC ( KRISIUN/HATE ETERNAL/ANGEL CORPSE way veteran band ), CEREBRAL EFFUSION (really good friends and brutal and funny guys), SUFFERING DOWN (great atmosferic Death/Black ), NUMEN (Brutal Pagan Black Metal), LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER (Grindcore masters!!!),... As you can see Spanish scene can be unknown for some Europeans and even more for Americans but I assure that these bands have such a great incredible potential, you only have to look for them and listen to them.

Mikel: yes there a lot of really good and professional bands. We for example, we are another band more, that is what I think, if someone thinks that we are cool, it would really awesome and pleased, but I saw bands like BRAINWASH, ECZEMA and NAKKIGA that really impressed me for a good purpose. I hope that someday more Spanish bands conquer Europe and tour around it, because we as many other countries we have something interesting to show.

You shall be part of a split CD released on METAL RULES productions with DEEP VEIN, BRAINWASH and SADOK. I know DEEP VEIN for being part of the band but can you give us few words about SADOK and BRAINWASH?

Jonathan: SADOK plays a blend of Thrashcore/Death sung in spanish and really interesting, they have released some demos so they are a well-known veterans. BRAINWASH is one of the bands that most has improved their style and technician ship, they play death/grind well executed and compact, I think that they will surprise a lot of people. They had also played on tour with PANDEMIA and GOLDENPYRE for example. They have a great show and a double singer chaos that is awesome.

Do you know bands from France? You surely know ZUBROWSKA, KRONOS and VORKREIST because they are signed on XTREEM music? Do you like them?

Jonathan: I really love the French scene of brutality, along with the Portuguese and the polish one is the one that has more strength. The bands you named are awesome and mostly ZUBROWSKA and GOJIRA who played near here around one year ago and they left us astonished. And other cool bands like: SUP, ANOREXIA NERVOSA, 7TH NEMESIS, NEHEMAH, AES DANA, MONOLITHE, MUTIILATION, ARKHON INFAUSTUS, MISANTHROPE ( who played in the Loiu Underground Fest 2 near here too) and many more to mention. The most I like are the bands about black metal. I really liked the Fury Fest festival and all the kind people form there.

Mikel: I will be short in the answer. France has a lot of good bands, from grindcrustcore to black metal....but the ones that really shocked me were the guys form GOJIRA, the live sound was incredible and I am feeling that from that and so on they are improving and being one of the most reprensentative bands of France.

If I propose you a gig in my fucking country with local bands, what would be your conditions?

Jonathan: The only condition we need is a kina and beautiful French girl for Mikel, hehehehehehe. I was kidding. Conditions? Nahhhh we are a really small band, this is underground. If someone call us from France to play there and if we have available dates, the only conditions we have to see how we are with jobs, studies and transport the rest is another thing. Be sure that we will go there whenever we had the chance to give a good show and have a brutal experience with you.

Mikel:hehhehe ...oh a French gig could be a good idea...ohh French girls are famous for their beauty hehehe. The only thing we may need is a place to sleep ( friend´s house for example) and thats all, I think, that if we are capable to go there we would be really glad to be there, we are not a new band that is going to shock the people, we assum eoursleves as a band of death metal with influences and many wishes to improve and play it is our hobbie, at least mine.

Can you give me your actual playlist?

Jonathan: the current setlist is this: “Servants Of Disgrace”, “Height And Length Endurance”,”Focus Of Infection”, “Bullfighters Dance”, “Despiadados Sentimientos” (“Ruthless Feelings in English), Exhuming The Laws Of Calvary, Holden´s Rye, Coated With My Semen (LIVIDITY Cover), Monarch And Misery, and Exhumed Remains (CEPHALIC CARNAGE Cover). We are also working in a third cover that could be Birth Of Ignorance from BRUTAL TRUTH, and we are also finishing 3 new songs that i think that will be awesome.

Mikel: of course as John said, that is the current setlist, and we may make some changes up to now, because we are working in new songs and we will have to delte some old ones.

That’s all for today. Thanks for your time. If you have anything to add, someone to threaten, future plans… Bye!

Jonathan:I would like to thank you Jim for this incredible interview, it was a pleasure and really confortable to answer and our first foreign interview. We hope that all the French supporters be interested in us. For more and useful information : http://www.myspace.com/twmourning , our Demo-Dvdr available at 4 €, postpaid included and also write us here: jonathanidibi@hotmail and snail mail : THIRD WORLD’S MOURNING , C\Karmelo Torre Nº 14, 4ºD , 48970 Basauri (Vizcaya) SPAIN. Stay Extreme & Underground!!!!
Mikel: hehehe ok, do not write to John!!! he does not know a fucking word in English. Anyway I am really honoured and pleased to answer this interview I hope that this could help us a bit in the future. Well, for foreign contact or information just e-mail me whenever: scolopendracingulata@hotmail.com good luck in the future and keep brutal intense and raw hehehehehe. =)