Massachusetts death metal crew Fuming Mouth are poised to do the best work of their 13-year existence this summer with their third album, The Ringing Bell. Featuring the band’s core lineup of guitarist/vocalist Mark Whelan and guitarist Pat Merson, plus new bassist Chris Berg and drummer Jay Weinberg (ex-Slipknot, et al), The Ringing Bell takes Fuming Mouth back to a leaner, meaner place.
Hot off the release of their new single, “Cheat Death,” Whelan jumped on a Zoom call with Decibel to talk about working with Weinberg, why he enjoys working with an independent label and the power of a positive mental attitude in 2026. The Ringing Bell is out on July 17 via Triple B Records and it’s up for pre-order.
The most noticeable change for a lot of people is that Jay Weinberg is drumming on this record. How did you guys connect with him? Have you known him from before Slipknot or did it come later on?
I reached out to him through his website. It was later on. I seriously just emailed him and I didn’t hear back for a few days and I got a text message and I was like, “Oh, that’s Jay!” I looked in my email spam folder and his response was there. I almost missed it and if he didnt’ text me, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have played drums on the record.
I think it came out really well. He really fits with the band despite some of the stuff he’s known for being Suicidal Tendencies or Slipknot.
That’s the thing. We know of each other—he knew of Fuming Mouth well before I ever reached out to him and I obviously knew of him. I’m trying to trace it back. It has to be Madball, just from my love of hardcore. That’s like 16 years we’ve known each other, been in the same circles. He’s toured with a lot of my friends and all that kind of stuff. We have the same exact vernacular for music and a love for a lot of the same death metal, a love for a lot of the same hardcore, a love for a lot of the same punk. It was just seamless.
Did you have music written you sent to him or was it more collaborative?
I started writing right after the last record because I knew the direction I wanted to go with this one. I wrote out the drums in midi and when I brought it to him, he just took it and made everything better. Once it got brought to him, that’s when it actually became very collaborative and the songs changed a lot. It was a two-part thing. I wrote it and it was re-worked, re-written.
Since he has the same vernacular in hardcore and death metal, it sounds like it was a pretty natural fit.
Yes. For example, I remember emailing him for the song “Self-Exhumed” and being like, “This is the demo I have, but I want to go for something between Motörhead ‘Stay Clean’ and Entombed ‘Eyemaster’ and he said ‘I love those songs.’”
It was boom, immediate. He knew what he was doing.
How long would you say you were working on this album? Did you start right away with it?
I started working on it right after we recorded the last one. I’ve been chipping away at it. I would say 2025 is when I had one big session, a ton of songs, tons of riffs. 2025 is when everything really got nailed down with Jay. It’s hard to say exactly but I really mean it: within a week of finishing Last Day of Sun, I started working on this record.
It seems like on this one it goes back to what people associate with the older Fuming Mouth stuff. A little heavier, a little more focused on the crust and hardcore side of things. Was that an active decision you guys made or did that develop as you were writing?
When I listen to Sepultura, something off of Arise, something like “Dead Embryonic Cells”—there’s that riff that goes [mimics “Dead Embryonic Cells” riff]. I was just listening to it when we were touring with Suffocation in Europe and everyone was moshing and super fucked up, but I was chilling and listening to it. I was like “Is this a breakdown or a riff? Because I don’t even know if people called riffs breakdowns. I don’t know if this would be considered a breakdown,” and I just started thinking about our music differently. I just kept hearing stuff like that, like a Slayer part and you hear it kind of broken up. I just started thinking about riffs differently and how simple they can be. That realization is new territory for Fuming Mouth. We’ve never, ever had a china cymbal on a song. I don’t think we’ve ever had positive lyrics in a song.
When you were writing it, did you actively want it to be a more positive record?
Yes. 100% yes. Zero discussion, conscious [decision of] “This is going to be a positive record.”
Is that because things have been going well for the band and your personal life has been a little more stable the last few years, with the illness being further in the past? Or was there a different logic?
I don’t know if there was so much of a logic as much as it’s things were just really scary, whether it was me being sick or friends dying, overdosing, taking their life, things like that. It just became overwhelming. It felt right for the theme to be being positive moving forward as opposed to this cathartic thing. I’m not saying anything bad about negative lyrics; I think it’s extremely important in music. We know I’ve done that with Fuming Mouth for over a decade but it’s not like that anymore. It’s about moving forward and being positive.
I think everyone in the world can really agree it’s been a really long five or six years since Covid. The stuff that was dark before is so much darker now. You need something that isn’t just constantly fixating [on darkness] these days.
That’s why I was hesitating before, because it’s not just about me being sick. This is an everyone thing. That’s why I say friends passing away. I feel like it pertains to everyone. I’m really trying to push and encourage this message of moving forward, being strong, believing in yourself, not being negative.
Would you say that’s where the album title comes from too? Ringing the bell, moving toward the next part of life out of a negative period?
Yes. There’s a finality to it but it is death metal that we play. There’s a yin and yang. A bell can be funeral bell, it can be a wedding bell. How do you look at the world? The title and the message, it’s very much “What’s your perspective?”
The record is on Triple B this time. Do you prefer to work with a smaller label? Do you think that provides more intention?
We did one EP and one LP with Nuclear Blast and completed the contract. Triple B is just a cooler label. It just made more sense.
For a lot of bands that play death metal and hardcore, stuff that’s more underground or heavier-focused, it’s really easy to get swept up on a larger label, not even as a fault of the label.
Yeah. Nuclear Blast is different. They’re very focused on artists like Marilyn Manson now…. it’s widespread to everyone now. I’m really excited. A lot of it is done independently, which feels really hard. Sam [Yarmuth, owner] is totally supporting us and I’m really proud of the record.
You’ve been working with Kurt Ballou since 2019. For you guys, what does working with Kurt add to the music? Do the songs like they did when you came into the studio?
I did not let him touch it at all. He said that’s why he likes working with me. I don’t need a producer, in his words. I need an engineer. I like recording and stuff, but when it comes to setting up mics and the proper distances across a drum kit, that’s not my expertise. When it comes to mixing, I have way too many crazy ideas and he’s really good at grounding me. I’m really proud of mixing this one all by myself.
It feels very direct and focused. Now that the album is done and you’re able to look back on it, are there songs that stand out the most to you or things that you’re especially proud of?
I’m proud of the whole entire record. I’m proud of every single song. I really mean it. I can’t wait to play every single song. I wish there was one singular thing I was the most proud of but every song got the same amount of love. Each one got the proper amount of work. “Barbarian Scourge,” the second-to-last song on the record feels particularly good to me.
Everything you’ve said sounds like it’s a big step forward for the band.
It really is that simple. It’s awesome.
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