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Like Wheat from Mills of God

This is actually a video, they just play THAT slowly.Listening to monstrous German psyche-doomers Mills of God‘s Modus Operandi debut, Call of the Eastern Moon (reviewed here), the trenchant pace with which its two tracks unfold is as much a part of the music as the notes that comprise it. The instrumental trio of bassist Kai Peifer, guitarist Moritz Czerny and drummer Patrick Alt induces a Yob/Ufomammut-style hypnosis without ever copycatting and over the course of the two new tracks on the record exercise a sonic lethargy that grooves on arterial doom and pulled strings.

It’s as though they asked Max Ludwig, who recorded Call of the Eastern Moon, “How much tape do you have?” and then without waiting for the answer, said, “We’ll take it.” It’s a rare band that works with a format as distinct as Artwork by Tom Denney“20-minute doom epics only,” but Mills of God present an encompassing crush that draws you in for a listen and dismisses you only after the marrow is gone.

They first appeared with “The Seed,” in 2005. The song makes an appearance as track three of three on the CD version (the vinyl is just the two new songs) and is less set in its mission than its companion cuts — perhaps replacing then-drummer Christoph Salzmann with Alt had something to do with that — but the growth is nonetheless evident in even the most superficial listen. A Bob Weston (Shellac) mastering job makes Call of the Eastern Moon sound sharp and mean and loud, and it’s abundantly clear that this trip is just beginning.

After the jump, Peifer checks in with the band’s ambitions and processes, including how they got started, whether or not they’d ever add a vocalist to the mix, how slow is too slow, and when we might expect another installment of their thickly riffed madness.

Hi from Saarbr?cken!When you guys were first getting started, did you know specifically that all you wanted to do was make 20 minute doom epics? How did the band come together? What happened with Christoph and how did Patrick end up joining?

The band came together when Christoph and I quit our last band. We were looking for a guitar player and found Moritz. At first, there was no real intention to play this kind of epic psychedelic doom, as we all had more or less a hardcore and metal background, but I already have been a huge fan of ’70s psychedelic rock and equivalent modern bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard at that time. After our demo, which obviously sounds more “modern” than our recent stuff, Christoph left the band due to time reasons. We luckily ended up with Pat. From a technical point of view, Christoph was the better drummer, but Pat fits much better into Mills of God since he hits really fuckin’ hard. That enriches the whole experience a lot!

There is a lot of growth in between “The Seed” and the other two tracks on Call of the Eastern Moon. How do you think the band changed between the two releases, aside from bringing Pat in on drums?

Well… Let’s say I could convince the others to adopt my passion for doom and ’70s rock and the outcome was COTEM. We already started to switch our style before the recording sessions for “The Seed,” but we didn’t want to throw the song completely away, so we used it as a demo. But we don’t play it anymore. I think that the main Mr. Peifer of the Low Rumble.difference between the pre-demo era and now is that we learned to enjoy the concepts of jamming and improvisation. For me, those issues are among the essence of epic and psychedelic stuff… and doom in particular!

How much of the songwriting process is improvised in the jam room and how much is thought out beforehand? When you’re writing riffs, do you know how long they’re going to be played, or is it just done by feel?

It depends. The rough structure is 90 percent songwriting and 10 percent improvisation, but all those little things that keep an epic tune alive and interesting arise out of jamming the shit over and over again until it fits! When I play a riff alone, in a quiet way, it often becomes boring quickly, but when we play the same stuff together as a band and fuckin’ LOUD, then you can meditate over it. So the final version is more a result of feeling than planning.

Was finding a singer ever a consideration or did you know right away you wanted to be instrumental? If you found someone who was a good fit, would you consider bringing them on?

Yeah. I actually started singing after the recording sessions for COTEM. We came to the conclusion that live performances simply work out better when doing some vocals as well and what can I say… it works out great! Took some time for me to develop some skills but now the songs are enriched by a fourth instrument. But we don’t sing all the time. “Call of the Eastern Moon,” for example, has lyrics for about two to three minutes of the whole song. “Monolith” has some more, because it simply fits better here. I would call us now semi-instrumental, hehe. The new stuff is also with vocals, of course, but economically used!

You manage to avoid the trap a lot of instrumental bands fall into where lead guitar just takes the place of vocal lines. In terms of the solos, how is the work divided between you and Moritz and how is it all pulled off live?

We always define some song parts as solo parts for guitar or bass and then the soloist has entire freedom here to play whatever he wants. We also encourage Pat to do some more improvisation from time to time! 90 percent of what you can hear on the record is also being played live but the solos change from time to time. As I already said, those elements are the key to prevent repetitive stuff from becoming boring.

How was the recording for the album done? Did you record live or one at time? How did Bob Weston get involved in mastering?

The whole thing has been recorded live, together as a band, in one piece (20-minute takes for each song) on analogue tape. There were no digital tricks involved, just a few overdubs for soloing. Concerning the mastering: At the time we finished our recording sessions, Bob just had opened his mastering studio and I believe our stuff has been among the first of his jobs. We simply asked him and he delivered.

The Tom Denney artwork fits the album perfectly. Did you give him ideas to work from, or did he just come up with the design on his own?

They should call this "Ent Metal" because they never say anything that isn't worth taking a long time to say.Yeah. We provided some rough ideas but in the end, Tom himself came up with some drafts. It was a pleasure to work with him, especially since we knew that he really liked our shit! His style and music are amazing and he is a really nice guy as well.

Is the new material you’ve written since different from the two tracks on Call of the Eastern Moon? You said on your website that you’d still be keeping the 20-minute song format. What would happen if a song ended sooner?

The new stuff is similar to COTEM, but we included some vocals straight from the beginning. Again it’s two songs of about 20 minutes, epic riffs, psychedelic jams, meditative heaviness. If a song would end sooner then we’d let it end! There’s no dogma that forces us to exactly compose in this way, but the 20 minutes format also has its benefits for a vinyl release: one song per side!

Any idea when the next release might be out?

We’ve almost finished the writing process and if everything works out well, we’ll hit the studio again in about six months. If the mastering and artwork processes won’t take as long as last time and our label guys from Modus Operandi can afford some resources for another release, then our next record could possibly be available in early 2010. But I actually don’t want to be too specific about that. It often turns out that those things take longer than anticipated.

How slow is too slow?

Ha ha. Depends on the band! SunnO))), Khanate and Earth are allowed to play really fuckin’ slow, Slayer aren’t! Simple as that!

What are the plans for the band? How much touring will you do?

There is no specific plan for the band. We want to play as much shows as possible, to do as much recording as possible and to have as much fun as possible! Though we get a lot of positive feedback for our recent record from all over the world, it’s still difficult for us to find opportunities for performing live. But well… what can I say… since there are no plans for becoming famous anyway we don’t care too much about that, ha ha!

Excerpt of “Call of the Eastern Moon”

Mills of God on MySpace

Modus Operandi

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