Doomed Confessionary: Dennis Lefebvre (Marche Funèbre)
Since their formation in Mechelen, Belgium at the dawn of 2008, Marche Funèbre have carved their own indelible mark into the annals of heavy music. Originally inspired by the renowned triumvirate of Peaceville bands – My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Anathema – Marche Funèbre have long since shaped those influences into a sound that is all their own, a unique distillation of melancholy, atmosphere, beauty and soul crushing heaviness.
With revered albums like 2017s »Into The Arms Of Darkness« and 2020s »Einderlicht« they have risen to a place of prominence within the mournful ranks of doom metal’s elite – and still their creative star continues to rise. With a new deal in place with Ardua Music, Marche Funèbre are ready to unveil their fifth full-length album, »After The Storm« – the most impactful and emotive set of songs to bear their name. »After The Storm« will see the light on September 27th, 2024.
Marche Funèbre are Arne Vandenhoeck (vocals), Boris Iolis (bass, vocals), Dennis Lefebvre (drums), Kurt Blommé (guitars) and Fré De Schepper (guitars).
Can you say a few words about your band?
We started out back in 2008 because we shared a love for doom metal. We set out to make music together in the vein of the bands that inspired us, the Peaceville 3 to put a name on it…
Since then I think we can say we’ve evolved and bring our own thing to the table, still heavily rooted in the Doom Death Metal grounds…
With the upcoming »After The Storm« album we have 5 full albums under our belt + some EP’s and splits and we’ve played shows from LA to Moscow and from Denmark to Malta so I guess that after all these years we finally know who we are as a band and where we stand for, which is a nice place to be as a band I think.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
As a band you are constantly facing challenges, to overcome them together makes or breaks you as a band, I think we always came out stronger…
Releasing an album in the middle of the Corona crisis was a big challenge (tour-/shows being cancelled and rescheduled and then cancelled again and so on, hard to promote a new album that way, but we managed to do it one way or another)…
But the biggest challenge to overcome for the band was very recently when Peter (founding member) decided to quit the band. This came to us right before the recordings of “After The Storm”. Because we are not 15 anymore we could all go and sit around the table and see how we would handle things… There were no hard feelings and everyone could speak his mind, that is an advantage if you spent so much time together waiting in cars, backstages, airports,… You get to know each other quite well 🙂 and we all respect each other for who we are so things can be put on the table in an open mindset atmosphere…
We decided that Peter would still record the album and would also get a cool farewell show, we focussed on the recording of the album and decided to postpone the search for a replacement until after the recordings…
We did the farewell show and found someone willing to step in to do the remaining live shows after that until we would have found a full time replacement. Just before the first show this guy was about to play with us he fell and broke his hand… So Peter luckily stepped in one last time so we did not have to cancel the show. Later Robrecht (from My Lament) stepped in and agreed to play two shows with us (Liverpool and Paris).
After these 2 shows we decided it was time to start the search for “the new guy”, we did quite some auditions and personally I was amazed by the talented guys that sent in their application…
We tried out with 4 of them and ended up choosing Fré as our new lead guitar player… Cool thing is that when we went mixing »After The Storm« Fré and Peter were there with us which was a bit like a “passing the torch” thing. By now we have played some shows with Fré and I am happy to say we made the right choice, we even started writing new stuff together already so I am hopeful and confident for the future…
But Peter announcing the fact that he would be leaving was certainly the hardest challenge for the band so far… Bring it on!
What can you be most proud of so far?
Next to the fact that I am pretty proud of the last albums, I think what I am most proud of is that we are a really good live band. We have played so many countries in so many different conditions and circumstances and I think I can say we always give it our best and we always deliver.
How much I like making music, playing shows is what it is all about for me…
What was your biggest regret?
I try to live without regrets, what is the use…?
If you decided to do this or that in the past, there must have been a reason for it, so you just have to live with the consequences and move on…
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
After so many concerts it is a hard question because a lot of shows are great in their own way and for various reasons… I’ll name a few to make you happy:
– The 1st show of our US West Coast tour in Seattle was amazing (the whole tour was but this particular one stands out as an all time favourite)
– Some festivals come to mind too (Alcatraz gave me goosebumps, Metal Gates in Romania was another really great festival show).
– And of course our very own Darken The Moon festival appearances are really cool.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
The friendship between bands, it’s like having family all over the world.
It is really weird to describe but with some bands you just click and when you meet each other somewhere it feels like coming home…
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Next to the stuff that is always there like Motörhead, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper lately there is a lot of Hypocrisy, Borknagar, Baroness and Crowbar passing by…
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Don’t make things too complicated so you can have fun playing your parts in all situations…
Another one is don’t be too hard on yourself after a gig (I still have a hard time living by that advice, but it is a good one).
What are your guilty pleasures?
I don’t feel guilty about pleasure.
Can you say something more about current music scene in Mechelen / Belgium?
I think the Belgian metal scene is really rising above itself in the last 10 years…
We always had a cool underground scene but lately I see more Belgian bands play “the big shows” and quality is really on the rise imho…
In our hometown alone there are (next to us 😉 ) some high rated bands like Psychonaut, Hippotraktor, Pothamus, Drawn Into Descent,… for a small town of not even 100000 inhabitants I think the quality of the scene is quite remarkable
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We have some release shows planned in Germany, The Netherlands and of course our Darken The Moon Festival in our home town Mechelen (with Tiamat)… For more shows and details check our socials and if you want to book us get in touch!!
You can also catch me playing live with my other band Witch Piss but that is not the topic of this interview…
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Write decent music and play a lot of shows all over the place !
A simple but great plan imho…
How can people best support your band?
If you like us, tell your friends, spread the word. Come to shows and buy some of our music and merch…
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Thanx for taking the time to read this and go check out our new album »After The Storm« (out September 27th through Ardua Music)!! Cheerzzzzzz
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well