I’ll tell you a secret. When I was younger I did not like growling and death grunts vocals in Metal. I believe the person who made me start liking growling is Mark Jansen of Epica. And look at me now vigorously consuming all the Death Metal I fall upon.
Today the band we’ll talk about is a brand new act from Spain. They were formed in 2018 and they have now released their first EP. The band is Murmur. And when a band with a female member releases a record, the FemMetal team reviews.
And so we gathered our forces last night and… actually we first played PUBG Mobile. It was a boring match. We only came across one squad and we killed it. Then we moved to listening to Murmur’s EP and realized, they KILLED IT! More about what we loved about Murmur below, BUT… as always, since we’re nice people, if you’re just here to read Beatriz’s interview, click here to jump to it.
Review
If you read Murmur’s bio you’d see them identifying themselves with many sub-genres of Metal. And indeed, their EP has elements from different forms of Metal.
The EP kicks off with Children of the Night, a song that begins with a cinematic audio, painting in our mind the image of a windy night. As the night grows darker a riff grows louder and is joined by a beat and another tune that soon darkens up and slows down to stop and introduce a faster riff with the low grunting vocals beginning to shape the song. The song carries on with the heavy riff and exclaiming vocals, until the chorus where the music becomes more melodic and the vocals continue to impress. Murmur take their time then with a wonderful instrumental, progressing into another melodic part with vocals this time as the tunes grow softer into a melancholic ending of the song. This song was 6:27 minutes long?! Damn it felt like a 3-minutes song. “Good times go by fast”
The second song is Women in Religion, a slightly angrier song that surprisingly contains a similar structure to the first, although being only 2 minutes and 15 seconds long.
The Masquerade comes next with the best riff on the EP and more superb lyrics and beats. The band proves again how great they are with making long songs with gorgeous instrumentals. I really wanted to criticize them for not having these great guitar solos you wait for in Metal. But these melancholic tunes bridging from one heavy part into another are more fitting to the style and elements Mumur has merged together. Great stuff.
We loved Mumur’s EP and think this band has a great future ahead. The vocals and guitars played a huge role in making the EP great. But also the fact that these 3 songs are completely different and yet you cannot dismiss the fact they’re on the same album is something credit-worthy.
And one more thing about the EP: The person who designed the cover art for the record deserves a round of applause. Please everyone reading this, stop reading right here, we’ll place a bookmark for you so you won’t lose where you’re at, and stand up and give them a round of applause.
We recommend Mumur’s EP, Mumur, to all Death Metal and Black Metal fans.
Ratings
The FemMetal Team has given the album the following rates:
Betty
8.0/10
Mirk
9.0/10
Rebecca
7.5/10
Total
8.0+/10
Interview
We talked with Beatriz Benett, the woman who was growling gracefully like a beast on the three tracks of the EP, and asked her questions to which she gave answers. Yes, this is how interviews work. We hope you enjoy reading the following interview.
Hola Beatriz! Como has estado tú y los demás miembros de Murmur?
Hi! We’re good, dealing with the situation the best we can, how’s everything over there?
It’s getting better with time. Alright that’s all I can do in Spanish, so I’ll continue in English. 😂 We’re going to talk about your debut EP, but first would you like to tell our readers who haven’t heard of Murmur yet a bit about your band? Who are the members? Where do you come from? What kind of music do you make?
Your Spanish is good enough 😂. Sure, we’re a blackened death metal (mostly) band from Spain, Getafe. Actually, our name in all our social media is “Murmur Xatafi” because “Xatafi” is the original name of Getafe. Murmur is formed by Alex (bass), Raul (drums), Igor and Dani (both guitars) and me, Beatriz (keyboards and vocals). We don’t like to limit our music to a certain genre, we like to explore and combine different ones, so in our albums ( yet to be recorded, but already written) you can find pieces of Black Metal, Death Metal, Folk Metal, Doom, Post Metal… To tell you a little about the band, for me, Murmur is about breaking stereotypes, we use our music to address society problems and injustice, but is also a way to portrait ourselves and talk about the things that made us who we are.
And you’re doing that brilliantly so far! You released your first EP last month. How are you feeling about the reception it got from the fans so far?
We’re very happy with the reception. We didn’t expect people to like it that much, so we’re very grateful for the support.
You’ve been a band since 2018. How does it feel to finally have a release, and does it encourage you to work on something bigger like a full-length album?
It feels really great, we were looking forward to be able to record these songs, since we’ve been playing them since the very beginning. It is our first experience recording and we’re very happy with the outcome and the process, it’s been fantastic. Actually, we have already written two more EP and a whole album. We’re working now on recording the second EP, we got a lot more to offer 😉
Oh that’s great! Can’t wait to hear. To get to know your songs from another perspective we’re going to play a game. Since your EP has 3 songs, we’re gonna play the Ancient Egyptian trinity game. I’m going to tell you the name and description of the three gods and you have to match each god to a song that represents him/her most.
Osiris, the god of the dead, afterlife, resurrection and life, depicted as a green partially mummified pharaoh
Probably The Masquerade, I feel like is the best match, because the song is based on the book Carmilla, a story about the relationship between a female vampire and a girl.
Isis, the goddess of motherhood, wisdom, and protection of the kingdom.
This one is easy, definitely Women in Religion. In this song we talk about female empowerment, so it makes sense.
Horus, the god of the sky and kingship, the falcon-headed god.
I would say… Children of the Night, since it’s related in a way with power over people.
Thank you for playing! Hope next time you’ll have a whole album and we’ll do the WHOLE Egyptian pantheon! 😉
Thank you! Let’s hope so! As a fun fact, in our next EP there’s a song about Toth 🤣
Apparently I can see the future! What bands did you grow up listening to, and which of these bands inspired you to be a musician yourself?
Well, when I was little I always listened to the music my dad had in the car, so mostly Depeche Mode and punk bands from Spain, then I started listening David Bowie, The Cure, Xandria, Rage Against the Machine… a little bit of everything 😂 But it was when I was like 15, a friend showed me a song from The Agonist and I fell in love with the way Alissa sings, because it didn’t cross my mind that a girl could sing like that, you know? So I started to look more into it and into metal itself, and here we are haha.
Besides music, what hobbies and activities do you like?
I don’t have that much free time, but (I might end up looking crazy 🤣) I love listening to podcast and watching videos about cults, serial killers, creepy stories… that kind of stuff. I also love travelling, every chance I got I try to travel somewhere, makeup and fx makeup, fitness and nutrition. Oh, and playing Borderlands 🤣
Oh wow that’s amazing. Especially the serial killers and creepy videos. According to some stats, soon more than half of artists in the Rock and Metal scene will be female. And Murmur already has 2 female members! What advice would give to young people looking forward to starting a music career, especially young girls who might have limited opportunities in certain cultures?
My advice would be that don’t pay attention to what other people may think of you. Do what you like, because at the end of the day your opinion about yourself is the one that matters. I heard that singing the way I sing is not feminine, or that I look like a guy when I sing, that kind of bullshit. 🙄 Also, you’re not alone, for example, in Murmur we are all equals, we think very similar and have common interest. You just gotta find your group and do what you love.
That’s great advice indeed. Thank you for the interview Beatriz! It has been a pleasure.
Thank you! This interview has been one of the best I’ve ever had 💜
