PRESUMPTION - Mysticism and Melancholy (Doom Metal - Interview with Moomoot)

Please introduce yourself and let me know how it all began with the band ?
Hi Fabien and thanks for the interview! I am Moomoot, Presumption's lead singer and bassist since the beginning (2007). At this time, we were high school students composed of Anaël (drummer and my brother with whom we had various bands in the past such as Azilum, “a kind of” hardcore band), Adrien (a good friend from junior high school with whom I had music projects and jam) and Hippo (Bassist at that moment. Note that now he is Bassist of the extremely good band WALRUS from Toulon - check 'em out !) and myself as a singer. Then Hippo left for his studies and we were a trio band as I played the bass and sang at the same time until Marvin arrived in 2012 as a second guitarist: this is the actual line-up.
Why did we form the band ? When I was 14, I wanted to create a new metal subgenre : music that was only slow at that moment, I only got news from music through METALLIAN Magazine for instance but I don’t know the reason, I did not know that doom metal already existed for a while, except that I remember a compilation with FORGOTTEN TOMB and THE OLD DEAD TREE perhaps... Anyway, I was tired of people playing fast. I truly discovered doom metal when I was 15 thanks to a good friend Laurent, who is an old metalhead guy as he saw METALLICA in '84 during a “fête de la musique” ("Music Fest" Ed) in a Village of Sarthe because I started to play "Black Sabbath" from BLACK SABBATH. He was surprised that I knew this band. Then he invited me to discover new bands and I became a fan of TROUBLE (still my number one !) CATHEDRAL, YOB and REVEREND BIZARRE. I was then looking for some crazy people to play with me and I contaminated Anaël/Adrien & Hippo and then we formed PRESUMPTION !

Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
You shouldn’t ! Well … some people told me that “we shine when we perform live” as we look like we are happy playing doom haha ! So if you are sad and you like depressed music but you want to feel better, come to see us! Otherwise, in terms of music, I guess we play a wide range of music styles as we do not care to be called “traditional/funeral/avant-garde/mes-couilles-sur-ton-front/stoner doom”. Plus we may get annoyed on live to play always the same kind of music! I know that some people are not fans of us as they require “to feel” the identity of a band. But we don’t care :-)

Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
We have various influences: on my side, I would say I fell in love when MONOTHEIST from CELTIC FROST was released and I am fond of TRIPTYKON. Marvin is more of a NOLA (EYEHATEGOD, CROWBAR, DOWN) big fan whereas Adrien and Anaël are eclectic. For the lyrics, I am not inspired by a specific band. Except that sometimes topics are about serial killers so probably an influence from CHURCH OF MISERY. The types of thought that we aim to develop are various: in some songs, I talk at the first person when it is about a serial killer and I try to convince the audience that he is innocent or good and that “the audience” is bad. When I talk about justice, nuclear threat and so on I include everyone as I strongly believe that we are all concerned by any action/opinion/event (just we don’t feel it because we are too high and preoccupied with our own lives.). This is globally the messages. 

About your latest release ?
Our last and first album PRESUMPTION was recorded in 2017 at La Forge Studio by Gorgore (ex-Drummer of IMPERIAL SODOMY, PHAZM and now Drummer of the excellent DEATH WHORE). All our artwork (except the EP "Ancestral Rites") are painted/burned and so on by my oldest friend Antoine that I have known since I was 4 years old. The layouts are realized by the lovely Guillaume (aka. Tos ex-member of THE BOTTLE DOOM LAZY BAND). It contains 9 songs on the CD (8 on the vinyl) and you can buy it on presumption.bandcamp.com or sleepingchurchrecords.bandcamp.com

Any plans for a future release since the album is from 2017.. ?
Probably a split-release, I don’t know when, with BARABBAS and a new album in 2025 we hope!

Future plans ?
If you mean other projects, I own with Aymerick from FATHER MERRIN and Anaël the label SLEEPING CHURCH RECORDS, Anaël is also the President of WIZARD ASSO which organizes metal concerts in Le Mans, Marvin also performs in other bands (mainly SEA’S FRIEND which is a folk/country band) and he is also president of a very good bis movie association called BIS NOT DEAD. Adrien also plays in SEA’S FRIEND as a guitarist and in STORM IN SPACE as a drummer (a kind of Groove psychedelic rock band).
If you mean the project of the band, try to continue to have nice concerts with people we like and the split + album will be already a nice achievement!

Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
Either open for TROUBLE (RIP Sir Wagner) or for DIO (RIP Ronnie !). I cannot make it crazier :-)

Your BEST & WORST concert and why ?
The best concerts are the ones that we perform when we do short tours with other bands. I have many in mind such as a doom metal fest in Louviers with THE BOTTLE DOOM LAZY BAND, FATHER MERRIN, MANTRAS and FORSAKEN PEDDLERS if I am not mistaken … a short tour with BEYOND THE STYX, WALRUS, CLEGANE, MANTRAS, DEATHBELL etc. Many good vibes and memories.
Worst gig well … I remember one of them (I will not say where and who because of the “head chopper lookalike underground metal mafia” haha !) where no promotion was made and we only had 3 persons in the gig and the guy did not offer us a place to sleep so we had to improvise... and we were very far from our places. However, the guy from the venue prepared good food so we were happy on this side!

Next live-appearance(s) ?
We have gigs planned at the end of October and the beginning of November with WALRUS (nothing confirmed yet) and maybe the end of November but nothing is confirmed yet.

Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
So many friends after all those years. First THE BOTTLE DOOM LAZY BAND, FATHER MERRIN, BARABBAS, and MANTRAS which are for me old buddies and extremely lovely people with good attitudes and who know how to perform live! All other lovely local bands from my stable SLEEPING CHURCH RECORDS such as NORNES, CARCOLH and GURU (hope to see you live guys !). And all the other bands I mentioned above!

Last word is yours ...
Love and don’t care !

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Credits :
Band photo by Trinité Marie