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| This interview was made in collaboration with Last Cathedral Records |
As part of the The Final Witness compilation, I had the opportunity to speak with Susi from Sunday of the Dead about the band's approach to Doom/Death Metal, their place within such a diverse genre, and the evolution of their sound. We also discussed their contribution to the compilation with “The Fall”, the lessons learned from the recording of their 2025 EP Memento Moribundis, and the band's songwriting process. Susi also talks about the importance of atmosphere, dynamics and variation in Doom Metal, as well as the direction Sunday of the Dead wants to take in the future.
Asmoth: When you started working on Sunday of the Dead, what kind of feeling did you want the listener to be left with after the music ends?
Susi: A sense of beauty within darkness has always been very important to us. We try to create songs that feel coherent as a whole, while still containing as many different facets as possible, groove, melody, melancholy and heaviness, but also more crushing riffs and moments of a certain grace or elegance. We like a song to move through different moods rather than stay in one emotional space. Doom Metal is often perceived as a rather stereotypically dark genre, and part of what we want to express is just how much variety and emotional range can actually exist within that darkness.
Asmoth: Your Doom/Death Metal has a strong sense of weight and atmosphere. When developing a new song, which usually comes first for you: a riff, an emotion, or a particular image?
Susi: For me, it is actually a mixture of all three at the same time. Most of the time I simply pick up the guitar and start with either a main riff or a melody. Sometimes a melody just appears in my head, even in a dream or overnight, and then I try to capture it.
I usually don't work with a predefined song structure or a fixed idea of how often certain parts should return or where they should appear. I prefer to let the song develop naturally and see where it wants to go. From there, the ideas are brought into the band and shaped further together with the input of the other members.
Asmoth: The Fall was chosen for The Final Witness. Why did you feel this song was a good representation of what Sunday of the Dead has become?
Susi: “The Fall” feels like our most mature and fully developed song so far. It has a very distinctive main riff, and the female vocals are also given more space than on some of our earlier material. At the same time, it is probably a little more immediate and accessible, while still retaining the heaviness and atmosphere that define us. In a way, the song contains a bit of everything that makes up Sunday of the Dead. It brings together different sides of our sound and therefore works as a good cross-section of what we have done so far, while also pointing towards the direction we want to take in the future.
Asmoth: The Final Witness brings together 20 bands with very different approaches to Doom Metal. Did discovering the other artists on the compilation change the way you look at your own place within the genre?
Susi: Doom has always been one of the most diverse genres in Metal to me. If you look at everything from Epic Doom, Stoner Doom and Gothic Doom to Funeral Doom, Death Doom or Black Doom, there is an enormous range within the genre. You can go from classic old-school bands like Trouble or Pentagram to Candlemass, Skepticism, Paradise Lost or something as different again as Dopethrone.
So discovering the other bands on the compilation did not fundamentally change the way I see Doom, I was already very aware of how broad the genre actually is. At the same time, Doom often tends to get reduced to the idea of simply being slow, heavy and melancholic, and I think it is sometimes underestimated or even slightly dismissed within the wider Metal scene because of that.
Sunday of the Dead has always been intended as a mixture of several different sides of Doom rather than fitting neatly into just one subgenre. In that sense, I think the compilation reinforces something we already felt about our own music: that diversity within Doom is not an exception, but one of the genre's greatest strengths.
Asmoth: Your 2025 EP Memento Moribundis marked an important point in the band's discography. Looking back at it now, is there anything about the recording that you would approach differently today?
Susi: Looking back, the main thing I would approach differently today is the production process itself. We had worked with the original producer before and had good experiences, so we initially felt very comfortable with that choice. But with this EP, the recording and mixing process ended up taking much longer than expected, even though the songs themselves had already been finished for quite some time.
At a certain point, the project simply stopped moving forward in the way we needed it to, so we eventually decided to continue with another producer, which unfortunately also meant additional costs for us.
So the biggest lesson for us was probably to define the production process, deadlines and expectations more clearly from the beginning. Musically, I still stand behind the EP, but the path towards the finished record was definitely more complicated than it needed to be.
Asmoth: How do the four members contribute to the songwriting process? Is Sunday of the Dead driven more by individual ideas or by what happens when the whole band works on them together?
Susi: Up to now, a large part of the songwriting has come from me, Susi, as the guitarist and one of the founding members of the band. I have usually brought in many of the initial riffs, melodies and structures, which were then developed further within the band. Our frontman's background in philosophy has also contributed a lot to the conceptual side of Sunday of the Dead.
For the future, however, the songwriting will become much more of a shared process. Phil, our other guitarist, is an equally strong creative force with his own distinctive ideas and approach to songwriting, and I expect his writing to have a major influence on the direction of the band. Together with the input of the whole group, this will open up new possibilities and allow the sound of Sunday of the Dead to develop in ways that go beyond what we have done so far.
Asmoth: Doom/Death can be very demanding for both musicians and listeners. What do you think makes a slow and heavy song remain engaging instead of becoming repetitive?
Susi: For me, it comes down to structure, dynamics and subtle variation. Even within Doom Metal, there is plenty of room to move between slower and faster passages, and that contrast can make a song feel much more alive. Atmosphere is essential, but so is having different layers within that atmosphere.
Vocals can contribute a lot to that as well, changing the rhythm and expression, moving between growls, screams and even more lamenting or mournful vocal styles. And especially in Doom Metal, I think the drums have an enormous influence on the overall mood of a song. They can completely change how heavy, oppressive or spacious a riff feels.
Ultimately, you need a certain instinct for atmosphere and emotional dynamics. And as a Death-Doom band, I think we have the advantage of being able to move a little more freely in what we are doing.
Asmoth: If someone discovers Sunday of the Dead through The Final Witness, which aspect of the band would you most like them to explore further?
Susi: At the moment, we only have two releases, but you can already hear quite a clear stylistic development between them. On our first record, Disrupt the Night, the drums were still programmed, we had a different vocalist, and the guitar work was generally more straightforward and less elaborate than it is today.
What I would like people to explore is exactly that development. Sunday of the Dead is not meant to stay fixed in one very specific sound. We definitely want to remain rooted in the Death-Doom and Gothic spectrum, but at the same time keep evolving, experimenting and allowing the style to change from record to record.
For me, it is important that the band continues to grow rather than simply repeating the same formula.