1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?
Mormânt De Snagov is a Finnish Black Metal band founded in 2008. We have released one full length album in 2010 and few smaller limited releases. Our second full length album will be released on June 30th 2013. The basic idea of Mormânt De Snagov is not to create unique music or ideology, but to perform such music and lyrics that comes out by itself in the writing process.
2.How would you describe your musical sound?
You can find elements of traditional Scandinavian Black Metal in our music mixed with elements from death metal and other sub-genres as well. The second wave of Black Metal is very strong influence to myself, which is of course heard in our music, but you can also find surprising and uncommon riffs there. The first album was more traditional and the second one takes us to more atmospheric and experimental areas.
3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
The lyrics deal with the issues mankind is facing. First of them is of course religion and the blindness it causes. People cannot see the obvious anymore, but instead tend to believe all kind of shit that is told to them, especially in religion, but also in politics. However Mormânt De Snagov is not a political band! The lyrics also deal with things that I read in the news. Death is also a fascinating thing to explore when writing lyrics. It's really interesting the way people handle it. Most people try to avoid talking about death and find excuses so they don't need to think about it. For example the belief of paradise and afterlife. It's all just nonsense that keeps people's hopes "high" and keeps their thoughts away from the truth that when you die, you simply don't exist anymore. Sometimes our lyrics are straight forward stuff about subjects mentioned. In some songs I have hidden the ideology behind a horror story and in other songs I might just keep it simple and concentrate to giving middle finger to all religions and their gods.
4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?
The bands name refer to Dracula's grave. It's a very common subject in metal, but we decided to use Romanian language in the name to make it sound a bit more different. I have always been a big fan of horror books and movies, and when I came up with that name, it was clear to me that this is the right name for the band.
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?
We haven't played too many shows during our career. We love playing live though and we are willing to travel different places to play live just to spread the word and our ideology. So far our show has been an overall experience. We had corpse paints, blood, dead animals (pig heads, dead and dissected rats, etc...) a big upside down cross with a bible impaled to it and so on. In every show people in the crowd rip pages away from the bible and burn them. It's a very hateful and aggressive experience. Since then we have changed our outfit a little bit to match our current music. We have taken away the corpse paint and cleaned up the image bit. We haven't played any shows after this change so it will be a mystery what Mormânt De Snagov live show will be next time. I'm sure we will still have that cross and bible ready to be desecrated again. Come and see.
6. Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We have booked only one show next autumn in Finland, but we are about to book some more once we get the new album out. So no tour in plan at the moment, but we do not fear to hit the road if there is a demand for it.
7. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?
It's been positive. I've seen only one negative crush review from our first album. The new album hasn't been reviewed yet in many places, but I have a feeling it might get good grades. Anyway the album is recorded and I'm proud of it so it really doesn't matter. Mormânt De Snagov will go on even if no one likes us.
The thing is that the current state of underground Black Metal is very healthy, almost too healthy. That means there are thousands of bands out there and it's very difficult to stand out from the mass. Especially when we haven't done anything that hasn't already been done. Our mission is not to be different and make a big fuss about us. I see things like this: If you want to hear good BM with killer lyrics and dark ideology, then buy our album and come to see a concert. If you're not interested, then don't buy it and go see some other band.
8.What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
We have three new songs completely ready and the direction is slightly more progressive than before. A bit longer songs and more complicated riffs. To keep the balance we have also written possibly our simplest song ever. We have no plans or blueprints of the future material. We keep doing things as we have done before: write stuff that sounds great to us.
9. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
When I first started this band I listened a lot to Secrets Of The Moon at that time. I had been listening to Black Metal for ages, but somehow their album Antithesis lit the spark in me to write Black Metal myself. Before Mormânt De Snagov I have played in several bands, but never written music or lyrics myself. It goes without saying that we sound very different than SotM, but you can pick hints from them here and there. So Secrets Of The Moon was the spark for Mormânt De Snagov but still the biggest overall influences are Emperor and Mayhem, although personally my all time favorite band is surprisingly Megadeth. In Mormânt De Snagov everyone listens to a bit different kind of music from death metal to progressive stuff.
10.Does Occultism play any role in your music?
No. We concentrate only on mocking religions, waking people up and creating conversation. I do not believe in gods, spirits, ghosts on any other such things. For example to me Satan represents simply the common sense of mankind. A common sense that makes people ask questions and criticize what they are told. We use some Satanic symbols like inverted crosses and pentagrams. Those symbols represent the freedom of will to me. The freedom to criticize and to speak out loud whatever you want. That freedom is exactly what for example Christians fear the most. In other words, Satan!
11.Outside of music what are some of your interests/
This might be a bit surprising but I play golf an spend a lot time with my family. I also love cooking, especially when the end result is successful. I'm not a common visitor in local bars. I only get out to see interesting live shows and festivals.
12.Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
The new Mormânt De Snagov album "Derisive Philosophy" is out on June 30th 2013. I can't tell the details about distribution yet, but follow Mormânt De Snagov website / facebook and Pest Records website / facebook. If you find out that you don't like OUR dark art, then spend you money to some other bands records and t-shirts. The underground metal will never die, but it doesn't harm if you support it. Thanks!
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