
Greetings Johan and welcome to Voices From The Darkside. I hope you’re doing well and that you have a bit of time available for a bunch of questions related to MOONDARK. First of all, congratulations to your debut album “The Abysmal Womb”, which turned out absolutely amazing. Could you tell us a bit more about its origin maybe? When did you start writing songs again, how long did it take you to finish the material, where did you record them and did you have to face any difficulties during the whole writing or recording process?
“Hey! Thanx for the invite and the interview for MOONDARK. Yeah, finally the album is out after many years. Well, I actually did the first riffs around 2011 or something and have been working on the new tracks since then. The last songs were completed in November 2023, I think. The work with the album has been done between my other bands duties and albums, so it has been a slow process. About the recording, we started to track drums in the middle of March in a studio in Ludvika with Johan Hjelm at Wellbay Studio. Then we recorded all guitars and bass in our rehearsal room in May with Peter Bjärgö (TYRANT, ex – CRYPT OF KERBEROS, MACRODEX etc) at Erebus Odora Studio. The vocals were recorded by Alex at his home in the beginning of June assisted by me. Then Peter Bjärgö did all the mixing and mastering during the summer.”
Why did it take you so long to return to the scene? I mean, your one and only demo already dates back to 1993, so why was the band so shortlived back then, despite the very promising material?
“Well, MOONDARK was just a fun side-project we did back then. So when we had a bunch of songs we decided to record a demo in a studio here in Avesta and the plan was to send it to labels, but it never happened because of laziness. We did a show in Avesta right after the recording, but that’s it. Then we just continued with our other bands…”
Your line-up has changed a little nowadays, since your original bass player / vocalist Mats Berggren has been replaced by Allan Lundholm on bass and Alexander Högbom on vocals. Why is Mats no longer part of the band and how did you hook up with Allan and Alexander?
“Well, Mats hasn’t played in a band since he put his own band FULMINATION to rest in 1994 / 1995. Then he moved to Uppsala and went to university to become a teacher / head master and got family there and so on. But we’re still in touch sometimes and I have kept him updated about MOONDARK through the years. Allan also plays bass with our other band INTERMENT since 2013, so it was natural for him to join us. Alex does the vocals in OCTOBER TIDE, where also our guitarist Mattias plays guitar, so we just asked him to join and he did.”
When I read the name MOONDARK for the first time, I immediately thought that you would be a Black Metal band… So, who came up with the idea for the name and have you already experienced similar reactions?
“I don’t remember exactly, but I think we got it from the old movie “The Darkside Of The Moon” where CRYPT OF KERBEROS have some samples from on their first demo from 1991. No, you’re the first who has mentioned that…”
Your demo has been re-released in all kinds of different formats, through various labels over the years, so I suppose the demand for it never really stopped. Was this interest part of the reason why you decided to get together again after all those years?
“Well, it was nice to finally release the forgotten demo in 2007 and it was actually Martin Schulman (CENTINEX / DEMONICAL), who first released a limited edition on CD on his own label Dreamtide Music. Then he got in touch with No Colors Records, that released it on digipak CD and Temple Of Darkness, that released the vinyl the same year. Of course we talked about to get together through the years, but we have been busy with our other bands all the time. It was actually when Daniel at Killtown Deathfest asked us to play there in 2014, when we decided to reunite and here we are…”
Why did you choose the name “The Shadowpath” for the re-release versions of the demo and which edition do you personally like the most? Are there also any bootlegs among those editions or have all been released officially in co-operation with the band?
“I thought it was better to have a song title for the releases instead of “Demo #1”, so that’s why it’s called “The Shadowpath”. I like all the editions, but especially the CD version that Xtreem Music released in 2015, when the great artist Juanjo Castellano Rosado made an awesome front cover for it! From what I know, I don’t think there are any bootlegs out, so all the releases are in co-operation with us.”
The sound that you already had on the demo and which you perfected on the album now, is incredibly heavy, so how did you achieve that? Did you use any special equipment or is it just the low tuning of the guitars and a more dominant bass that resulted in that?
“Well, the sound of the demo is quite crappy in my opinion, but that was the result of a sound guy that didn’t have recorded Death Metal before us. The only thing we did was to have low tuned guitars in G and the BOSS HM2 pedal and a bit low-pitched vocals. I met some people on the festivals that we played from 2014 – 2017 that said that our demo had a big impact on them, because of the dirty and special sound. That’s insane to hear, but great that people like the stuff we did as a project back in 1993. As for the new album, we still wanted to sound old school, dark and heavy, but with a bit modern sound and range. That’s why we wanted Peter to record it, because he knows the drill since the days with CRYPT OF KERBEROS etc. The guitars were not recorded with the classic BOSS HM2 pedal. We used the amplifiers distortion and a distortion pedal this time. And we are all more than satisfied with the sound on the new album.”
Did you finance the album recordings on your own at first and then started to shop for a record deal with the finished product or did you have label interest already before any of those songs were written?
“No, I talked to Pulverised some years ago about it and it was no doubt that he wanted to release the album, so that was confirmed already. But we did the contract in early 2024, before we started to record the drums. Roy is a great guy and I have been in touch with him since 2010 because he has released our INTERMENT albums on Pulverised.”
Was Pulverised Records your number one choice for the release of “The Abysmal Womb” or did you also negotiate with other companies as well?
“Yes it was. No, as I said in the last question, we already decided years ago that Pulverised would release the album.”
None of the 1993 demo songs were re-recorded for the album. Did you want a totally fresh start or weren’t you satisfied with the old songs anymore?
“Yes, that’s right. We are quite tired of the old songs and wanted to have only new songs on the album. Actually I found an old song that we didn’t record for the demo tape in 1993. The song was ok, so we recorded it for the new album, but unfortunately we had to skip one song for the vinyl, because of playing time / quality. So in the end we chose to skip that song. It will be released on a split 7“ EP together with ETERNAL DARKNESS later by Pulverised that also will release their new album in 2025.”
I already mentioned, that I thought of you as a Black Metal band because of the band’s name and now I see an album cover in black and white, with a drawing on the front that looks like a threatening cave and a dark landscape on the back and again I associate you with Black Metal. So, is that intentional from you guys? Are you inspired in any way by Black Metal as well?
“The cover art is actually photos from caves at Mallorca, taken by Allan last summer. The inspiration for the cover goes with the very dark, apocalyptic lyrics. So it was already decided that it should be something with dark deep caves, crypts, abyss etc. on the cover. No colors at all, except of black, white and grey. Read the lyrics and you will understand the theme… I think we may be close to Black Metal, but different though.”
Talking of influences, if I should have to describe your music to someone who’s not so deeply rooted in the underground, and who’s just aware of the better known bands, I would say that MOONDARK sounds a bit like a mixture of “Lost Paradise” era PARADISE LOST, early GRAVE and some BOLT THROWER elements incorporated… are those bands among your influences or where did you get inspiration from when you started writing the music for MOONDARK?
“The main influences for MOONDARK are still actually CRYPT OF KERBEROS and ETERNAL DARKNESS from Eskilstuna. Of course some BOLT THROWER as well, but mainly those bands. Maybe you can hear some early PARADISE LOST, CATHEDRAL and GRAVE, as you and others have mentioned, but nothing I have thought about…”
Would you generally consider MOONDARK a Doom / Death Metal band?
“Yeah, I think that is the simpliest definition of our music.”
What about the lyrics? I suppose when you write and play music, which sounds so rotten and apocalyptic, the lyrics will probably be along the same lines, aren’t they? Could you give us a little overview about what the songs on the album are about?
“Yes, you’re totally right. The lyrics are mostly about total death and darkness, the extermination of mankind and hell on earth.”
Fredrik Karlén of MERCILESS / DREADFUL FATE is credited for the band photo in the booklet of the album, so is he working as a photographer nowadays or is he just a good friend of yours, who was able to handle a camera properly? Has he done photos for other bands as well already?
“No, he’s not a real photographer, and I don’t know if he took photos of other bands before. He just took some band photos on his phone when we rehearsed and partied hard in Avesta in November 2021. It’s taken outside our rehearsal room. I liked the photos and wanted already then that we should use it on the album. He’s a great friend to us and I have known him since the early ’90s. Me and Fredrik play together with DREADFUL FATE nowadays.”
All of you guys are playing in several other bands besides MOONDARK as well, so does that mean that it will take another 30+ years until we hear new music from you again, because you’re all too busy?
“Nah, this time it will go faster for sure, but now we must do a new album with INTERMENT first. Then we are working on new stuff with DREADFUL FATE, NEKRODAWN and my Crust band PARASIT. So we’ll see when we can begin on a new album with MOONDARK.”
How about MOONDARK live shows? Have you played any shows in the early days or will you play live in support of the album now?
“As I mentioned earlier, we did our first show in our hometown Avesta in 1993. Then it took 21 years until we played at Killtown Deathfest in Copenhagen in 2014. The year after, 2015 we played at Wolfthrone Festival in Paris and the last show we did was at Finnish Death Metal Maniacs in Espoo in 2017. We have some live shows confirmed for 2025 and 2026 already. So of course we will support the album and spread some darkness. We’ll start with two shows in Sweden this spring, then we play Finnish Death Metal Maniacs again in June and two more festivals after the summer. Hopefully we will be booked for Germany and other countries that we haven’t played yet later on.”
Ok, Johan… thanks for your time. I wish you guys all the best. If you would like to add something to our interview, feel free to do so now.
“Thanx alot for the interview. Don’t know what to add but if any promotors and organizers read this and are interested to book us in Germany or other countries please get in touch via our Facebook or Instagram page.”
www.facebook.com/moondark666, www.instagram.com/moondarkofficial666
Frank Stöver