DAWN OF TEARS

I didn't know of Dawn Of Tears until a promo copy of their latest release, the MCD 'Dark Chamber Litanies' found its way to my mailbox and later on my CD player. A Spanish band playing melodic death metal sounded a little obscure in my ears, hail prejudice.

I came through all my ingrown notions of Spanish metal and gave the release a spin with fresh ears and a clean mind, and liked what came out of the speakers. Well played and -composed metal with influences from death metal, sweeping melodies and a nice melancholic atmosphere surrounding it all. Later on I got in touch with the musical mastermind behind the band J.L. Trebol and threw some questions his way, his answers are to read below here!



Hi there, how are things at your end?

Everything is ok. Thanks a lot!

Will you please start off by telling a bit about yourself and how the band got started?

Of course! I started thinking about the project in 1999, but it didn't became a reality until Jesus joined the band on 2001. Then we started working hard, a thing we still do. In general, Dawn Of Tears can be considered as a melodic death metal band, but we have many other main influences like gothic metal, classical music, and I think that makes our music richer.

Dawn Of Tears is not a name I'd expect from a melodic death metal band, how did you come up with the name and what does it symbolize?

Although we consider Dawn Of Tears as a "melodic death metal" band, I think our compositions have a deep gothic sense, especially in the thematics of our lyrics and melancholic and sad melodies. Dawn Of Tears is a name that reflects our music in a perfect way.

You released the MCD 'Dark Chamber Litanies' earlier this year, how has the reactions on the release been?

We are really surprised and satisfied with the reactions of the metal press and people in general. One of the premises of this MCD was to do it better than our first release 'Descent' because it received a lot of excellent critics all around the world, and was nominated to Metal Storm Awards '07 as the best melo-death album (In the same category as bands like Dark Tranquillity and Arch Enemy). I really think we have done it better!

How do you feel about the record now when you have gotten a little distance to it?

Sincerely, we are very proud about it. I think we made a great MCD and I just cant wait to see if we can do it even better with our next album.

Who is writing the music in the band and how are you working when you finishing the songs etc?

I am used to write all the music and orchestral arrangements. Then when the song is done, me and Jesus work on the lyrics together. Maybe, this way of writing songs may change in the future, because we have three new members in the band.



Where do you find inspiration for the music?

If we talk about the music composing process, I really can not talk about inspiration, because all the music is born in a spontaneous way, you know? I just play the guitar and imagine the melodies... I don't think on anything special.

Melodic death metal has in way too many cases been quite boring the latest years, though you have added a touch that makes your music great and exciting, what do you have that other bands lack?

Thanks for your kind words. I think the big attraction with Dawn Of Tears is that we don't play melodic death metal in a strict way. We don't discard any kind of influences in our music and although we are considered as a melo-death, you can find some gothic metal melodies, classical music influences, power metal riffs, etc...

Who is writing the lyrics in the band and what topics do the lyrics deal with?

One of the differences between 'Descent' and 'Dark Chamber Litanies' is in the texts writing process. This time, 80% of the lyrics have been written by Jesus Alonso and me. Literature, art, love and personal feelings are really important when we compose, especially when we write lyrics, not in a descriptive way, but we like to use those feelings to create stories and carry the listener out of reality.

You are currently searching for a label to release your future material, have you had any label interest since the release of 'Dark Chamber Litanies'?

Yes, we had several offers from small labels. But our music is too important to us and we prefer to be patient and wait until we find guarantees of good work and promotion for the band.

Are you working on new material and what can you tell about it, if that's the case?

As I said before, our composing process is so spontaneous. We don't stop writing music when the album is done and starts again 5 months before recording a new release. We are composing constantly.

What do you expect or hope from the future of the band?

We would like to get signed with a good record label soon, but we are patient. We'll go on working hard the same way, we have done so far.

If you should sell Dawn Of Tears in 5 words, what will those 5 words be?

Passion, darkness, honesty and heavy metal.

What 5 albums have you been spinning a lot lately?

Hard to answer, though I'll try!

Guns 'N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side
Cradle Of Filth – Dusk... And Her Embrace
In Flames - Clayman
Faith No More - The Real Thing

Thanks a lot for answering my questions, if you have anything to add, feel free to add it now!

I just want to thank you and invite everyone to download our two albums for free on our website http://www.dawnoftears.com.

http://www.myspace.com/dawnoftears