Congratulations on This Bleak Descent…it’s a great record.

– Cheers for the review, glad you liked it.

Tell me a bit about the history of The Drowning. I have to sadly admit to not hearing band before receiving the CD…

– The Drowning started in 2003, with Mike and me.  We had an opportunity to record some material, so we went in, laid it down and the end result was our Withered EP.  This still stands as a good starting block for us. Jason joined soon after and we began work on our debut. When The Light Was Taken From Us was released with our current line up, in 2006 and we took our place on the Doom/Death scene. From there, to this our second album, This Bleak Descent has already had a lot of serious interest from record labels and fans alike, and the reviews … well they just keep on coming.

Who/What inspires the band’s music/vibe? What makes The Drowning sound like The Drowning?

– Inspiration for The Drowning comes from many different places.  The obvious Anathema, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost of course, without these bands the whole scene would never have gotten off the ground.  The early 90’s holds a lot of good memories for us. The less obvious inspirations come from the old bands, such as Celtic Frost, Venom, Judas Priest, Sabbat, etc. etc. This is where we started listening to real Metal. And yet that said Jason has different influences, bands such as early Motley Crue, Van Halen, Iron Maiden and Metallica. Steve our drummer, he’s much younger than all of us, so he doesn’t dig our scene as much, he’s more into modern Metal bands.  It’s strange but it all seems to work, and none of it conflicts.

How was the writing/recording experience for This Bleak Descent?

– This Bleak Descent was written from a live point of view.  We decided to drop a lot of the keyboards that were more apparent on our first album, so that we could capture the full force of the songs in a live performance, without anything missing. With this in mind, the studio flowed quite easy, because everyone knew their parts well, it can all be played live if need be, and most of it is.

What’s your touring schedule like? You have any dates coming up?

– This year will see the band break into Europe, to continue promoting This Bleak Descent.  Ireland is another place we’d like to play, but you can’t be everywhere at once.  Playing live is a very important part of being in a band, if you’ve got the material, take it to the masses, sell your merchandise, recoup some of your money and drink lots of beer…great stuff.

What’s your take on the Metal scene in Britain? Would you say it’s healthy?

– Britain has a massive commercial side to its metal these days.  This isn’t all bad, but I do wonder if the younger listeners are being spoon fed pop culture, rubbish, which won’t be around in 18 months time.  Then they’ll have missed out on all the real metal, or they’ll play catch up, and never truly understand why something was written, a certain way, at a certain time.  Or maybe we’re just jealous because they make a shed load more money than we do?

How does The Drowning fit in with the other bands in your area? Are there more bands like you, or are you an altogether different beast?

– Once again most bands in our area play a more commercial sound, but we have got some really good friends in My Silent Wake, they’re just across the bridge so we see them way too much (haha). Some of the other bands we’ve played with who are deep into their underground Metal, include The Shallow Souls, Tor Marrock and Ghast, all Welsh, all true to the cause.

Where do you see The Drowning heading in the next year or so?

– News Flash: My Silent Wake and The Drowning are working on material for a split album, to be released late 2009…you heard it here first! That’ll keep us busy till early summer.  We haven’t even booked the studio time yet! The band just keeps on writing new material, we can’t stop, and we’re already focused on our 3^rd installment…something dark, something dreary.

What do you hope fans take from your music?

– A difficult question, we write for ourselves, but also knowing we have a market to sell to. The listener should find strength and aggression in our music. We’re not a quiet and, some of the more light pieces on the new album, took longer to write than the powerful stuff.  That said, we hope to have displayed a varied collection of songs, and if you find yourself, tapping your foot or even banging your head, we’ve succeeded.

Anything you’d like to say to readers who may not have heard your album?

Check out our MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thedrowninguk – leave us a message. It’s good to talk to true Metalheads on the other side of the pond.  If you’re looking for something reminiscent of Novembers Doom or Morgion look us up … we won’t water down our sound, we’ll keep it heavy… keep it dark.