Doomed Confessionary: Abel Lara Herrero (God’s Funeral)
God’s Funeral is a death/doom metal band formed in Tarragona, Spain in 2016. Featuring current and former members of Arkhaeth, Cvltist, Destino/Entierro, General Winter, Mørknatt, Umbrae Nemoris and more. The band’s current line-up consists of Abel (bass, vocals), Iban (guitar) and Sergi (drums).
God’s Funeral just dropped their latest 12″ split with fellow Catalan death/doom outfit Bocc on April 11th, 2024.
Can you say a few words about your band?
Hello. I’m Abel, bass and vocals. God’s Funeral we formed in 2016, from the first formation we continue Sergi, drums, and today, Iban, guitar, since 2019, if I remember correctly. We have released a demo, four splits and an EP of covers, this year we hope to release our first LP.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
The biggest challenge is to continue with the band’s style, in our country it is difficult to make slow music, most of the concerts we do are with death metal, black metal, crust bands, even grindcore… concerts where most people don’t like the style, or directly have no fucking idea what they’re listening to… This without taking into account the problems that a normal band already has…
For me, in the extra musical section… meeting my girlfriend through the band has been one of the most important things.
What can you be most proud of so far?
maybe what I was saying before, to stick with the style we do regardless of the rest.
The recording of the album, which should be released this year, is also something I am very excited about, we have all worked very hard so that the result is the best possible, within our possibilities.
What was your biggest regret?
At the moment I think it’s nothing, we have done the best we could, at some point we could have been faster doing things but in general I’m happy the way we work, we try to play as much as possible, besides doing everything related to the band ourselves, recording, covers, posters, looking for gigs, looking for labels…
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
In terms of volume of people, a couple of months ago we played in Barcelona, along with several other bands, about 170 people came, it’s the first time we’ve played for so many people. I personally had a great time on the last tour in the north of the country, people came to all the shows, the band sounded good and we saw many friends and made new ones… that’s the best thing about being in a band, playing, traveling… and meeting other bands.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
If you refer to bands, I really liked the last album of Peine Kapital, band from Strasbourg, I really like Barbarian Prophecies, label mates, Ballard, Blazar, with whom we have shared release, the last cds of Brygmus, Trollcave, Nakkiga, Dantalion… I could name two more pages… Hahaha.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
My taste in music is very varied, besides death doom and funeral, besides the rest of slow styles like sludge, drone, what I hear lately is death metal, flamenco and jazz, also a lot of classic punk, GBH, Doom, Discharge, Wolfbrigade and punk from my country like Cicatriz, Eskorbuto, GRB and other bands from the 80’s.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Make the music that I like and, if I want to achieve something, keep going until I get it… I was given several tips on musical technique but I’m not the best bass player or singer in the world, I’m not the best singer… hahaha
What are your guilty pleasures?
I really like sweets… which is not very good for my figure… I am almost as tall as I am wide.
Can you say something more about the music scene in Tarragona, Catalonia?
In our city there is hardly any movement, besides us there are Sota Terra, a crust grind band, very good friends of ours, Grip, stoner doom, Tümba, Siegehammer, Rotten Cavern. In Barcelona there is a lot more scene, there are great bands there like Bocc, Cruz, Neton, Tugurio and many more.
For a few years now we have many good bands in Spain: Orthodoxy, Barbarian Prophecies, Vilmort, Graveyard, Balmog, Traitor, Atonement…
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
This year we have a concert in Valencia, in June, in September we have a couple in Barcelona and Castellón and, if nothing happens we have several dates in France, we are still finalizing these.
We also have a couple of festivals in the country that the organizers will announce shortly.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Right now the most important thing is to finish mixing the album and look for labels that want to release it, once it is on the street, play as much as we can and wherever we can.
How can people best support your band?
For me the best way is to help us get gigs, especially outside our borders, we know it is difficult since we are not a well-known band but we would like to be able to play in Europe at some point.
That people buy your music is also a great help, the last split is selling very well, so we are very grateful to all the people who have asked us for the album.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
We appreciate the support you have given us over the years, we hope to see you and have a beer together, or ten.
I also thank you Bojan for including us in your zine. I love that there are zines like this, dedicated to all slow styles… We are few and we have to support each other!
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well