If you’re already familiar with Swiss grinders Mumakil, you know exactly what to expect from them, an extremely chaotic and relentless dose of grindcore. Their newest effort “Flies Will Starve” sounds pretty nasty and catchy on some occasions, but for the most part the music slips into this huge pile of indiscernible and boisterous noise that’s hard to recognise where exactly one song ends and another one starts.
I was massively into their previous work “Behold the Failure”, but sadly Mumakil offer nothing here to prompt you to choose this new work over said album. “Flies Will Starve” possesses neither the raw energy nor the dynamics of “Behold the Failure” and bare a few notable exceptions like “Built of Lies”, “Wrong Turn” and “Blind Disciples”, the songs fly by without leaving a lasting impression. Instead, you’ll get some formulaic and bland riffs that sound way too calculated to grasp the interest from fans of a more inventive brand of grindcore à la Napalm Death or Nasum.
I do reckon that it’s extremely difficult to come up with some truly challenging in the realm of grindcore, but that’s not an excuse for the little disappointment that is “Flies Will Starve”. There’s just a paucity of high class killer riffs here to make this more than a simply okay and solid grindcore release.

Band info: www.facebook.com/Mumakil
Label info: www.relapse.com
 

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I’ve first seen this interview from 1989 with David Vincent from Morbid Angel done by a Swiss fellow on an Invisible Oranges post a while back, and man that was simply hilarious and I almost laughed myself to death with such stupid questions. Who in their right mind would have ever thought of asking Morbid Angel’s frontman their thoughts on lemon pies, microwaves ovens and the Goo Goo Dolls? Admirably, Vincent never looses his composure and answers every question politely when others would have simply laugh at that journalist’s face and ask him if he’s serious or just taking the piss.
I was curious to find out if other moments like that ever happened to other bands, so I’ve questioned a few of them on what was the dumbest question they ever been asked in an interview.

“I guess there's at least one dumb question in every interview haha! Yes one time I had to answer to an e-mail interview. I think the guy didn't know Mumakil at all, or he never listened to our music…
One of his questions was “I really like the atmospheres and ambience in your music, can you explain us how you can deliver such emotion through it?”
I mean... Maaaaan come on, what is this question??!! haha!!”

Sebastien Schacher/Mumakil

“You have used Greek language in your last album...Are you nationalist????????
Yes I have heard this!”

Sakis Tolis/Rotting Christ

“Would be quite a cliché to answer "this one", wouldn't it? Heh ... well, I don't know about "dumbest", but I've indeed got many amusing questions due to bad language skills. Sometimes you wonder if they simply run it through some free online translation tool. It's quite common you get a "statement" rather than a "question" which makes you quite uncertain on what to say...”

Patrik Lingren/Thyrfing

“I don't actually recall any especially dumb questions. My answers are usually dumber, haha. One question got me bit offended though, but I think there might have been some language- issues there too, how they were putting out the question. Anyway, question was about fans and how we kind of "select and approve" ours. I mean wtf? If you get your kicks out of Ghost Brigade, that's everything and enough to me. At that particular second I was that offended that I politely refused to answer, haha.”

Tommi/Ghost Brigade

“I have probably been asked a lot of stupid questions during interviews, but I tend to forget them afterwards. I don’t want to spend energy on remembering negative things, especially such un-important things a weird question. I’m pretty sure that no harm is meant by asking a question, even if it might be slightly stupid, so I feel there is no reason for getting angry about it.”

Jørgen Munkeby/Shining (NOR)

"Are you djent?" A new fashion term that means nothing for me and seems to represent a certain style of music.”

Franck Quintin/Eryn Non Dae

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Like the terrifying Tolkien creature they’re named after, Swiss grinders Mumakil are bound to inflict some serious aural damages on the listeners with their ruthless and riotous grindcore sound that is akin to a massive and enraged herd of mammoths, exactly like the one depicted on the front cover, trampling furiously into your direction. This might sound like an advertisement, but is absolutely true as the utter intensity this Swiss group pulls off is downright crushing and devastating. Mumakil like to keep their songs short and to the point and as a result “Behold the Failure” features 27 tracks spanning less than 36 minutes. They waste no time to mess around and do exactly what’s expected from a grind act, an all-out blastbeat affair with no pauses for breath that will certainly be appreciated by fans of Nasum, Misery Index and Rotten Sound.
It’s pretty redundant to do a track by track analysis as the whole 27 tracks are made from the same mould and in many instances it’s hard to distinguish them apart from each other, yet despite the feeling of sameness emanating from the brutal grind of Mumakil, “Behold the Failure” still remains a good and strong album in the same league as essential works as “Helvete” and “Exit”. (7.5/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/mumakil
Label info: www.relapse.com
Distributed in Portugal by www.majorlabelindustries.com

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In the acclaimed J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional tales of the Middle Earth, the mûmakil were described as pachyderms akin to mammoths, beasts of gigantic proportions with blood-red eyes and monstrous tusks highly feral and nearly indestructible in battle. In the realms of Grindcore, Mumakil are a four-headed collective from Genève - Switzerland, nowhere close to resembling the creatures imagined by Tolkien, though perfectly capable of storming a similar havoc and mayhem with their ultra tight and ferocious grindcore onslaught.
While I’m obliged to concur that it’s a pretty fitting name that somewhat summarizes the band’s sonority, it’s nevertheless a bit strange to see a Grindcore act picking a name from one of the tales of a fantasy author like Tolkien. Does drummer Sebastien Schacher better known as Seb agrees with such observation?

“Eheh thanks for this description! Well yes the name ‘Mumakil’ is a good image to represent our music, that's why we chose it. Grindcore bands usually take gore, brutal or anti-politically-oriented names, you're right. But we simply have nothing to prove with such a name… It's just like, take this huge Mumak on your face and goodbye eheh.
We also chose that name because actually the Swiss Government secretly possesses several Mumakil as weapon of mass destruction...”

Up to this point you should have guessed that Mumakil is not an ordinary Grindcore act. While many grindcore bands of today deal with tales of zombies and gore, the band prefer to express their disgust and rage at today’s sickening and decadent world. A more thoughtful and down-to-earth approach to their lyrical content, definitely closer to bands like Napalm Death and Nasum than acts like Carcass or Regurgitate.
What can you tell us about the lyrical subjects Mumakil is dealing with on the new record “Behold the Failure”?

“As you said, we prefer dealing with political or social problems through our lyrics. We don't have any interest in gore lyrics. For that you just have to see the latest "SAW" movie and you can get your daily gore dose. It's ok for us. "Behold the Failure" is an insult to a lot of things or persons we dislike: war (Parasites), cops (Pisskeeper), apathy of the masses (Brothers in Slavery, Whip Reward) and more…”

“Behold the Failure” is the band’s debut for independent label Relapse Records, following their relatively unknown work “Customized Warfare” on a defunct label called Overcome Records. What were your first reactions when Relapse approached the band with a record deal?

“We were very excited of course. Relapse is the biggest name in extreme music and released such sick bands as Nasum, Brutal Truth, Dillinger Escape Plan, Dying Fetus etc. We're really proud to be signed to this label but there's still a lot of work for us to do like promoting the new album with tour dates, etc. We like that. It's an extremely motivating challenge.”

What’s been like since you signed up with Relapse, have you noticed a surge in interest in the band since that?

“Yes we did, mostly on internet supports like Myspace, Facebook, which is actually normal because Relapse works a lot on distribution and promotion. We also have a really positive feedback from fans about "Behold the Failure".”

Do you think it was a bigger challenge for the band this time around to write and a record this new record, knowing that it would have the Relapse stamp on it and consequently a bigger exposure?

“Of course yes. We worked very hardly at the studio to produce our best album so far. But the writing process evolved naturally. We didn't change anything in our music just because we're a Relapse Band. They were waiting for something that sounds like Mumakil. We remain free in our writing process, that's a really important point.”

“Behold the Failure” was recorded at the band’s rehearsal room located at guitarist’s Jerome house and it seems to favour a more Crust and Punk approach to Grindcore in detriment of the more Death-Metal tendencies that characterized the band’s previous work “Customized Warfare”, do you agree? What have you guys done differently with this new album in comparison to its predecessor?

“Yeah, but ‘Customized Warfare’ was also recorded at the same place. We just evolved in our musical approach of grindcore. I mean, we pay a lot of attention to all the details through our tracks and we devote the necessary time to get the result that we expect. Our music came more grind than death-metal because we like even more the punk approach of grindcore, it's more energetic and goes straight to the goal. We're also big fans of death-metal bands like Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Nile... Maybe in the future we'll add more brutal death-metal elements, I don't know. "Behold the Failure" is just the result of our current inspiration.”

Do you guys still have a very independent DIY attitude towards their music and the things surrounding it or you’re letting Relapse stepping up to help the with some issues like promotion, booking and so on?

“Relapse takes care about everything around the new album regarding promotion, distribution and also gives us a hand for the booking. But we're still doing the booking by ourselves, for now it's easier for us to deal with it in that way.”

So what kind of roles each of the band members have besides playing their instruments to keep the engine functioning and running?

“Tom (vocals) and I are taking care about the booking. Guitar and bass players bring beers to the practice room. And oh sorry... They’re also responsible for the riffage in Mumakil.”

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