In Memories Past

KittyKatatonia

KittyKatatonia

Member
Apr 17, 2006
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Does anybody really like this song as much as I do? It's the one song the band has done that has more of a stoner-doom/rock feel to it. When I first heard this song when The Knowing came out, I thought the band might be going in more of this direction for the future. Or at least do some more songs like this. It didn't happen of course, but looking-back it's a pretty unique track in the band's discography.

Can any of the band members talk a little about this song? Like how it came to be, what you guys think of it now, if you've ever played it live, etc.
 
I like this song very much too. Unfortunately I think I'm the only one of my bandmates who thinks this way, lol. It was definitely a departure from our usual sound, but I think "The Knowing" really benefitted from it being there.

Eric (Burnley, ex-guitarist) was the main writer of the song, if I recall correctly Eric, Mary (Bielich, ex-bassist) and myself put it together rather quickly one night at Mary's place. At the time the three of us were pretty interested in the stoner-doom thing (mind you this was 1999, before the genre got a bit played out, at least in my opinion) and thought it would be cool to try doing something along those lines. We had touched on that style somewhat before with "Forever With Unopened Eye" on Of Sculptured Ivy and Stone Flowers, so it didn't feel like it was that much of a stretch. I think the other guys acknowledge that it's a decent song but it's just not everyone's cup of tea, so to speak. Paul was fairly adamant that he didn't want the band to venture any further into that territory, and by the time we came around to making To Welcome The Fade it was pretty clear that we'd moved on from that anyhow.

We have played the song live on a few occasions. Actually the most recent time we played it was for the acoustic one-off gig in Antwerp. Did we actually play the song at the show.....my god my memory is bad!?! LOL I know it was at least rehearsed. I'm pretty sure we did do the song. Prior to that however, we haven't played the song live for several years. It just doesn't fit in so well with the rest of the set, same as "Forever With Unopened Eye" though I think that song fits a lil' bit more.

Side note-- Shortly after The Knowing, after deciding not to take that stoner-doom route with future ND recordings, I almost started a project with bassist Ron Holzner (Trouble) and a couple other guys from Chicago bands like Loudmouth, etc. But I got so busy with ND, and Ron got so busy with Trouble reunion and Debris Inc., it never materialized past a few rehearsals. I kinda wish it could've gone further, I'd love to have seen what'd come of it.
 
Yes, we did play that song at the acoustic show. It fit perfectly in that atmosphere, and if we play acoustically again, I'm sure it will be included in the set. Larry is right though, I never wanted ND to go into a stoner rock direction. It was a nice contrast for The Knowing, and I do like the song, but after In Memories Past, and Forever With Unopened Eye, that's all the stoner rock ground ND will travel.
 
Larry's right, I recall sitting on Mary's apt floor working out the progressions for this song. Wimmace the 30-pound cat did not approve of its rocking-out-ness. I think Matt Tuitte (guitarist frmrly of Wickerman, Mustache, Penance, and Mary's now-husband) was there too, offering input?

Within My Flesh was the next logical step from those two songs in my mind - a bit more traditional doom than stoner rock.
I recall playing all 3 of these tunes at the Spirit Caravan / Place of Skulls show?
 
TheNewChupe said:
Larry's right, I recall sitting on Mary's apt floor working out the progressions for this song. Wimmace the 30-pound cat did not approve of its rocking-out-ness. I think Matt Tuitte (guitarist frmrly of Wickerman, Mustache, Penance, and Mary's now-husband) was there too, offering input?

Within My Flesh was the next logical step from those two songs in my mind - a bit more traditional doom than stoner rock.
I recall playing all 3 of these tunes at the Spirit Caravan / Place of Skulls show?
Click to expand...

Yeah we did. We added them all to the set to help "fit in" with the overall vibe of the show. We still play Within My Flesh from time to time as well! That's a great heavy song!
 
No I agree Rachel I think those kinds of songs work better and stand out more significantly because they're not a regular feature of ours. What I really like about this band is the fact that we're not restricted to just one or two styles, we have that ability and freedom to branch out and have ballads or stonerish songs or faster metallic songs and so forth.

I really hope soon we can do another acoustic thing, and record it properly and professionally, so everyone can hear us do songs like "In Memories Past" again, especially with a different twist.
 
At a Chicago Powerfest several years ago at JJ Kelley's, In Memories Past was the song that made me go up afterwards to this big tall guy from the band and say (paraphrased) "Damn, that was a good song! What CD is it on?" I think I also asked if it was a cover since it was different from the rest.

That tall guy was Vito, I started buying Novembers Doom CDs, and here I am today!

Ken
 
That song's got a nice groove to it and is pretty cool live (saw you do it at a show in Milwaukee years ago). I actually did a cover of that tune to try out some new recording equipment. I've posted this a few times before but since you brought it up again, here it is again.

http://www.nathanholly.com/In%20Memories%20Past.mp3

But what's weird to me is you would think that song should screw up the flow and vibe of The Knowing but it doesn't. Not sure how it fits, especially being in between Last God and The Day I Return, but it does.
 
I think because "In Memories Past", along with "Last God" and "The Day I Return", though they all are kinda different in feel and style, they still all manage to sound like Novembers Doom. Paul's voice helps that alot, plus I think you can tell that it's the same instrumentalists playing each song.....or at least I hope so! It's something we've strived for very hard over the years. Even on our new albums, you've got fast songs, slow songs, ballads, etc., but we try very hard to keep our identity present in each song so that you have no doubt that you're listening to the same band throughout.
 
Oh and I still have your cover version downloaded on my computer from when you first posted it years ago. I've played that for people from time to time because I always thought it was a pretty good take on the song, I enjoyed it.
 
It definitely has the ND feel, but the atmosphere (the groove feel) of it compared to the other two is very different which is probably why it works out well. Too much of the same can put you to sleep quick. And when I saw you guys do that live there where a lot of people who perked up a little more and started paying attention. That seems to be a song that can draw in the fans that have never heard you before.

And that cover was pretty fun to do. I listened to the song a few times and then didn't play it again until I was mixing to make sure I wasn't simply reproducing it. I don't find covers that are the same as the original very interesting. Glad you liked it.
 
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