Summon: How did the band get started?
Moonlord Akhkharu: The band was founded in August 2011 which then was just me as a solo project. Before that I had been playing guitar for 3-4 years and I had made several songs in more black/thrash style for couple of years. Then I heard again the calling of darkness so I made in short time a lot of music with much better quality than before that so I decided that maybe I should take this doing into more serious level and here I am now.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Black Metal with the essence of old.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Moonlord Akhkharu: I have received generally very good response from several people. Though the band is still rather unknown, even in the underground I suppose, there are people finding the music listenable.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Before this current name “Moonkult”, my solo thing was called something lame and when I started to come up with better music I thought that name I had was not good to represent my new work.
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Moonlord Akhkharu: I play guitar and sing, Niflungr plays bass and R.I.P is a session drummer.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Moonlord Akhkharu: So far I have made both the music and lyrics. But in some future that might change so that Niflungr also contributes to the writing process.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Lyrics tell a story. Main theme is a struggle of people who have a gift of foresight to obtain freedom from enslavement, as people with no gifts enslave these prophets or seers for the ability to see to the future. I also add some things from pagan cultures/religions into this and also some of my own views of the world. Some kind of misanthropic dark fantasy.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Many years ago satanism was something with some interest to me, but not for long and nowadays I have no interest towards it. Occultism might be a thing of some interest, but in general in this context I am only interested to study pagan cultures of Eurasia and how the foreign ways of abrahamic religions were forced upon people.
Niflungr: People should practice what they preach. So do I.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Moonkult: “Tears of Seers” demo in 2012 and “Profane Nightmare of Seers” full-length in 2013.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Moonlord Akhkharu: “The Great Purge” lyrically explains best the theme of the debut album. The concept of higher beings being enslaved by lesser ones. “Beyond to Infinities” for the latter part explains my view that humans as hunter gatherers had the purest soul and that human life different from that is filled with vanity and searching meaninglessly meaning to their life as humans are not living in their natural state. Perhaps people in reality are trying to return to that, but blindfolded.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Niflungr: I also play in bands like Azaghal, Wyrd, Black Blessing, Kingdom of Agony, Niflhel, just to name a few.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Emperor, Mayhem, Bathory. I learned to play guitar by learning how to play Emperor songs. I used to play also keyboard and then I played classical songs like Bach. That might have had some influence on my songwriting or maybe it didn’t. I don’t think about these things too much.
Niflungr: 90´s Norwegian Black Metal is the main source for my inspiration. I listen to music from various genres but I can´t say that I´m musically influences by them.
Summon: Which current bands?
Moonlord Akhkharu: None.
Niflungr: Perhaps Taake, Trelldom, Ragnarok and Mayhem are the greatest of the still existing bands. The ultimate shining star of the genre, Emperor is no longer with us.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Moonlord Akhkharu: We haven’t played live.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Some big names come or have come from US like Morbid Angel, Death, Possessed, Inquisition etc. But besides that I have no idea about Black Metal/Death Metal scene in US. Only I have heard about some hipster Black Metal acts of whatever crap is going on with them, don’t know and don’t care.
Niflungr: Atrum Inritus is worth to check out. Inquisition as well, or do you count them as Colombian? Older Morbid Angel is great, even though I´m not listening to much of Death Metal these days.
Summon: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Don’t know what means “Overseas scenes”. But I much like the scene in South America.
Niflungr: The previous answer pretty much sums it up. Anyway, the situation is much better now than 10 years ago, what comes to Black Metal scene.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Förgjord, Vorum, Malicious, Hautakammio and Sawhill Sacrifice.
Niflungr: The Oath, Hautakammio, Sawhill Sacrifice, Anguished and Kalmankantaja.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Moonlord Akhkharu: Writing of new material is pretty much done.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Moonlord Akhkharu: A split will be released with a Hungarian Black Metal band called Solus and it will be recorded during end of June. After that no idea at this point.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/Moonkultband
