Mellom
The Empire Of Gloom
"Immerse yourself in MELLOM's "The Empire Of Gloom", a realm with the attraction of a dark magnetism that is simultaneously filled with cold, fear and pain. MELLOM are a duo from Frankfurt am Main whose atmospheric, darkly melodic compositions combine death metal - sometimes heavy grooving, sometimes fast-paced and driven by powerful drums - with elements of black metal, tragedy and urban melancholy. Everything is crowned by the expressive vocals of singer Skadi, varying between venomous black metal screams and growls. The album title "The Empire Of Gloom" symbolizes the concentration of all the darkness on earth. Dave, the initiator of MELLOM, wants to channel the omnipresent longing for death in black and death metal - a longing that he does not share - in a different way than is usual in these genres. The lyrics are primarily about powerlessness and despair in the face of the inevitable confrontation with loss and death. The title track, for example, deals with the imminent death of a loved one and the associated fear of loss, and "Rules Of The Universe" is also dedicated to the confrontation with mortality and the act of dying. Dave: "Death threatens to tear a person from life, while those close to them try in fear to save them from death, with the impending pain of loss already looming. This 'in-between' between life and death is taken up in the band's name: 'Mellom' is the Norwegian word for 'between'. The idea came from Skadi, who feels very close to Norway and is learning the language. In addition to Dave's regular musical projects in death (Discreation) and thrash metal (Odium), there was always a wish for another field of activity. This gave rise to the "13 Days Before Suicide" project, and in addition to purely instrumental rock songs ("13 Days Before Suicide" album), German-language pieces were also created that can be located in black metal - "Kurzer Moment" EP and "Nichts bleibt" EP - while the most recently released "2021" EP was more about djent. While the musical output here was characterized by the one-man background and different musical styles, the wish for a musical activity that felt like a permanent band, moved in the intersection of black and death and took the atmospheric more into account than the bands mentioned above, grew more and more over the years. The basic idea for MELLOM was finally born and the first songs were written. The contact with Skadi already existed, as she had auditioned for the vocal position in one of Dave's bands, but in the end someone else got the job. However, this was by no means due to Skadi's - quite outstanding - vocal skills, which Dave remembered very well and which ultimately resulted in the collaboration for MELLOM. "