Fuming Mouth at Saint Vitus Bar 1-8-2023
Photo credit: Tom Campagna

Fuming Mouth's Blazing Death Metal Returned to New York City 1/8/2023 (Live Report + Mark Whelan Interview)


A four-band bill on a Sunday night means an early start at New York City’s Saint Vitus Bar: 6 PM doors. Walking in at a little after 7, I heard signs of life coming from within the darkest depths of the venue, via Long Island’s Blame God taking their slaughter to the stage. The powerviolence collective (who released their latest album on this most recent Christmas day) were powering through their set of vicious and fast tracks to an already well-attended venue.

Blame God at Saint Vitus Bar 1-8-2023
Blame God. Photo credit: Tom Campagna

Following this was the first of three Massachusetts bands, Final Gasp. The band brings to the stage everything that you love about the goth-tinged stylings of TSOL and The Misfits with a little less over-the-top-stage presence, like Devil Master. Wielding a sickle during part of the band’s performance, the band culled the tide until the next combatant came to the stage.

Final Gasp at Saint Vitus Bar 1-8-2023
Final Gasp. Photo credit: Tom Campagna

High Command led the charge into battle complete with large sword in hand and one of my favorite albums from 2022 to their credit–the incredible Eclipse of the Dual Moons. The crowd responded in kind to the excellent performance. Bodies flew around the stage leaving nothing but thrown beer cans, sweat, and tears: lingering traces of the night’s excitement left on the wooden floor.

High Command at Saint Vitus Bar 1-8-2023
High Command. Photo credit: Tom Campagna

The night broke out into a total frenzy when Mark Whelan (making his NY return to the stage from cancer treatment) of Fuming Mouth took to the stage. The tall, slender frontman and guitarist was in good health, delighting a crowd that sorely missed what one of Massachusetts’ premiere extreme metal bands brought to the stage. There was plenty to love from the band’s debut The Grand Descent and their more recent EP Beyond The Tomb, plus the band played a new single “Out of Time” from a yet to be released new full-length. The night ended early, but the crowd got more than they were likely asking for on a sweaty Sunday in Brooklyn.

Fuming Mouth at Saint Vitus Bar 1-8-2023
Photo credit: Tom Campagna

I spoke to Mark a few days after the show to see what his thoughts were about the weekend, his past year of treatment, what’s next for Fuming Mouth and much more below. Have a read to get an idea of the levels of adversity that this man has had to endure just to make this weekend happen.

What were the two shows like in Massachusetts before heading down for the Brooklyn date?

We actually originally had one date but the tickets sold out so fast that we added another one before the NYC date. Both shows were in Worcester, both at the same venue, different lineups. We played at a place named Ralph’s a lot when we were first starting out and that’s where the shows were this weekend. When we first played there, we played to less than 20 people at that venue and some of us were underage, so it made for a really awkward show while the bartenders gave us dirty looks. Years down the road we are playing sold-out shows there, everyone is acting like animals. A total 180.

How have you been feeling?

I’m good, really just wiped out from the shows. We did a few festival appearances in December that were a set and a day off, a set and a day off. This however was 3 shows in 3 days. I’m definitely feeling it right now. Saint Vitus even called us to remind us that this was a Sunday show so everything was shifted an hour earlier, so doors were at 6 instead of 7. Definitely an earlier night regardless.

That Nuclear Blast America shirt in your cancer-free post was sick, is that an original?

There is a guy on Instagram that collects tons of different band shirts and I had to get it. I love all the NB logos including the new one; they are one of the best labels of keeping their logos consistent. That America logo was fantastic. I am wearing a t-shirt right now from Therion for their The Beauty In Black EP and it has the Nuclear symbol on it. You can’t miss it.

Walk me through the last year of your life, seeing as it seems like only a year ago you had received the diagnosis of bone marrow cancer, and here you are hitting the stage again.

Once I got the diagnosis, feet hit the ground and it was all about how could we get this thing into remission, beat it immediately and we did it really fast. It was already in remission by the end of December of 2021. This type of cancer tends to come back if you don’t take measures like more extreme chemo or a transplant and I did the latter. A lot of the past year was the transplant and the recovery from the transplant. I was decommissioned so while recommissioning I was able to get back onto my own two feet and start walking and being able to play guitar again. After this weekend, I think it’s safe to say that I’m back.

How did you make it known that you were ready to hit the stage again?

It kind of all just happened after I had made the post that I was cancer-free. I think we reached out to Albert at Decibel about Metal and Beer fest, and he was the first to confirm a show with us. I spoke to Sam Yarmuth from Triple B about America’s Hardcore in passing and we were like “let’s do it”. Then that got us to be able to do a fest in Little Rock which is run by their death metal scene and the Los Angeles fest, one thing led into another.

You mentioned while on stage that this was the first time that you were headlining Saint Vitus and that you had played a lot there in the past. What were some of the other venues in the metro area you played in the band’s earlier days?

In 2016 our first time in NYC was at Vitus with Outerheaven, matinee. Not a lot of people showed up since there was a Profanatica show that night, we weren’t at the forefront that day. We played Knockdown Center for Vans’ Thrash or Death Match and that was a huge show for us right as we were putting out our album The Grand Descent. We have played Jersey too at The Meatlocker, I love that venue.

While you were on stage at Vitus, what was your mental state like up there while you were performing?

I gotta be honest with you especially about the Vitus one. It was crazy, a lot of people going really nuts. A lot of the fans of our album, that some of the fans were so wild, my amp got unplugged. It was hard to describe what the guy did to do that. There was a lot of damage control on our end. It got unplugged a little, but just enough to let me know, Andrew’s guitar string broke, it was just so wild. I still need time to digest all of it. I gotta play these guitar solos and everything needs to stay plugged in. It really felt like a prison riot.

Anything in particular that you are excited about with Metal and Beer Fest?

Hanging with Escuela Grind will be cool, I love Katerina’s lyrics, she’s super underrated. Every time I listen to Memory Theater, I say to myself “This is so awesome” I’m not even sure we have even played a show together.

What’s in the pipeline for Fuming Mouth right now?

We recorded our second full-length with Kurt Ballou and it will be coming out in 2023 on Nuclear Blast records. We wanted to get our part of the record down in October (2022) but every spooky Halloween bit of Salem bad luck happened to us, an amp broke, all of the AC that has been working for 15 years at God City went out.

Any parting thoughts?

I am really grateful for playing these six shows in the last five weeks. After all of the cancer treatment and the recovery, I am ready to do more.

Follow Fuming Mouth on Bandcamp.

Fuming Mouth will be going on tour with The Black Dahlia Murder soon:
TBDM+Fuming Mouth