From the ashes of The Plague Of Gentlemen Belgium's newest and heaviest Doom sensation, Serpent Cult have risen. Our very own Jules caught up with Frederik Caure to give us the low down on his latest outfit.

Hi Jules! Things are going fine right now, summer holiday, doing the usual stuff we should do in that period, but also spending some sweaty times in our dark and smelly rehearsal room…

TPOG split up last summer due to some sad events… Front-man Steve got arrested for some horrible facts, and the band split up right away after hearing the news. Sad facts indeed, and such a waste for such a great band… All the stars were at the right place when the split happened, we just signed a great record deal with Listenable Records, and there were some great shows and other events coming up, but of course, all this melted like snow for the sun when the band split up.

So after the split of TPOG, Cozy, Steven and you got Serpent Cult together. How did this come about and why stick with a name that has links back to TPOG?

The same day TPOG split up, we all met at a High On Fire gig, we needed to go out and talk about this. After talking about what happened, we off course started to think what we would do in the future. It didn’t take us too long to think about starting a new band the three of us. We ‘ve chosen Serpent Cult as a band name, because we think it’s a very strong and powerful name. It was meant to be the name of the 2nd TPOG album, and therefore we hesitated quite a while if we would pick that name, but people all around us advised us to go for it, because of the great name, and to hell with what happened in the past anyway… I think we have much more to offer with Serpent Cult nowadays than we did with TPOG in the past.

Michelle, lead singer, will be unknown to many outside Belgium. How did she come to join the band, and was it your intension when forming to take a female vocalist to front the band? What were the selection criteria you were looking for when recruiting your vocalist?

She wasn’t only unknown outside Belgium, she was unknown to most of the Belgian fans as well! When we started rehearsing as a trio in the beginning, we had the intention of Steven and me singing. But we soon found out we sucked pretty hard at singing, and that we needed to move along to better things. So we started looking for a full time new singer and front-man. We had some candidates, but never really had the ‘this is it’-feeling, and honestly; we were already starting to get a frustrated by the fact we couldn’t find a suitable singer. From the beginning it was very clear that we wanted a melodic singer, powerful and epic, we wanted to do something really different than what TPOG did in the past. It was at that point we were sitting in the rehearsal room, evaluating the candidates we had, and all having that same ‘meh’-feeling that Cozy suddenly came to think that he knew this girl in his neighbourhood that could sing very well, and what the hell, why not give it a chance. Michelle had a complete different metal background than us, but we took this as a plus instead of making a problem out of it. The first audition she came, we did some small try outs, and we knew this was the thing we needed to do. This was the switch for us that we could make a complete break with the past, and come with something completely unorthodox, unexpected and extremely good at the same time.

The bands debut release, “Trident Of Fire” has just been released. How was the recording process for you all; has the EP been well received?

We recorded, mixed and mastered the whole EP in 2 days… Needless to say it was a bit short. Luckily Kris from CCR studio, which we worked frequently with in the past, knew our sound and way of working, so we could get the max out of it in 2 days. All in all, I think the sound is excellent, for having done all this on such a short notice… We weren’t happy with the first mix, so we had another mix done an evening some days later, and I’m happy we did, cause it was worth the extra work. The EP has received some very good comments; we expected to be compared with TPOG all the time, but I’m happy the writers are intelligent enough to know we’re a complete new band! The only remark we get from time to time is that the vocals don’t fit the music… To each it’s taste; I think it’s a perfect and that we’re making HEAVY metal in the true sense of the word again!

Rumour has it that the band plan to release your first full length album in late 2007 / early2008. How is the writing process coming along, will this release feature any of the “Trident Of Fire” tracks or will this be totally unheard material?

Exactly, we schedule to record the album in December/ January to have a release early 2008. Most will be completely new stuff, maybe we’ll take 1 song from Trident Nor Fire again, don’t know yet, but we have enough material for a complete full length already.

Mostly I come up with a set off riffs and arrangement ideas that fit in one concept to make a song, and I throw the ideas in the band on the next rehearsal. Then we start jamming around it, add and take away some stuff, and mostly after a few hours we have the music of a new song ready. Vocals are mostly written afterwards, but we keep singing lines in mind while writing the music, Michelle is always around, haha…

Well, we knew Ola from I Hate for quite a while, and worked with him in the past already. He was very interested in hearing the new stuff we were doing with Serpent Cult, and after sending him a demo, he set up a deal for the mini CD.

On the live front the band have just returned from the famous Doom Shall Rise festival. How was the show for you, and any nerves to be playing such a prestigious festival?

For some strange reason, we’re not really nervous or stressed before playing gigs… The show went great, and we got some great reactions, sold a lot of merch. I love to go to Doom Shall Rise every year, also as a visitor. The festival breathes a relaxed atmosphere, great people, great bands, great beer, and more… The organizers deserve a statue for this!

Along with the DoomShall Rise slot, some Belgian dates have been announced. Are there any plans to tour a further across Europe in support of “Trident Of Fire”?

Yes, we’re doing some festivals the coming weeks, and also a show with mighty Candlemass next month. Unfortunately, our autumn tour with Centurions Ghost has been canceled, but we’ll do another, more extended tour in 2008 when the album is out!