1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
The idea came in the summer of 2025. And although it started partly as a joke — or rather as a way to release tension, because the past few years were very hard (though I think millions of people feel the same) — I started writing songs to get that pressure out of myself.
At the same time, I wanted to talk about topics that concern me personally and that I feel are important to address, because either very little is said about them or they are considered taboo.
Then I called two of my friends, who are also fantastic musicians: Istar (guitar, bass) and Pseudonymum (drums). They listened to the still-forming songs, I explained the concept to them, and they immediately said yes.
It feels really good to do this together with great musicians and old, close friends.
I am the vocalist, so I handle the vocals and all the other instruments as well. And inspiration came in a way it hasn’t for years — it’s still “flowing” out of me.
All three of us come from different musical backgrounds within metal, but we all love quality extreme music, and as it turned out, it had been a long-time dream for all of us to express ourselves through the language of black metal.
2.Recently you have released an ep, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
The foundation is black metal, but obviously we don’t listen to just one style. I personally graduated in 'media-composer', and I’m very close to film scores, classical music, Celtic and other folk music, as well as other metal subgenres.
All of the band members also play in completely different formations that are not extreme like this.
Melody is very important to us. With this debut EP, I wanted to show my first ideas — what I think (and what we think) about black metal — because contrary to popular belief, it is capable of expressing a huge range of emotions.
That’s why alongside the rawness there is orchestration, choirs, epic elements, atmosphere, and of course the stories themselves.
In some places I’m singing on eight layers at once and also using my clean voice to achieve the sound I had in mind (as the choir).
And if people connect with it and we continue, there will be many more surprises, because I like to push boundaries.
Fortunately, we also received enormous help with the sound from a good friend of ours, Borisz Sarafutgyinov (aka Boris the Savage), who — besides being the frontman of the German band Fleshcrawl and the Hungarian band Deprived of Salvation — runs his own studio called The Savage Lair, where the songs were recorded.
He’s a good friend, a great professional, an excellent musician, and he’s open to every crazy idea we come up with. We owe the strong sound of the EP to him.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?
I think the Intro (Porta) is quite self-explanatory, although in the end sex is not portrayed as a sin, but rather as liberation and opening up.
In 'Reverse', similar motifs are hidden as well, but the main message is that in the 20th century many ancient symbols have been completely twisted and misinterpreted.
Anyone could look up the original meaning of the pentagram — it had several meanings over thousands of years — yet when people see, for example, the tattoo on my chest, even some of my friends immediately ask: “Are you a Satanist?”
And my answer is: “Dude, let’s start by clarifying what ‘Satanist’ even means, because there are just as many kinds of Satanist as there are kinds of Christians. And secondly, no — that’s not why I have this tattoo.”
Or take the inverted cross. Originally, it was the symbol of Saint Peter. That’s Reverse.
The 'Dead on the Throne (897)' is about an event in the year 897 AD, when the corpse of a pope was exhumed, dressed in papal garments, tied to a throne, and put on trial by a court because they believed he had been sinful in life.
This is incredibly absurd. Christians digging up Christians, desecrating a corpse, and then passing judgment.
When I listened to this sick historical story, I realized I had to write about it.
The closing track of the EP directly addresses what I mentioned earlier regarding violence versus sexuality.
All of the lyrics also contain ironic lines and even references to real experiences, and I don’t think we always have to take ourselves so seriously.
One of my core beliefs is:
“Take what you do seriously — but you don’t have to take yourself seriously.”
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Sesquipediophobia'?
After a long and exhausting shift at our civilian workplace, my friend 'Fado' (who is also the drummer of Deprived of Salvation) and I were joking around about how many random and absurd phobias exist.
As a joke, we wondered whether something like “the fear of long words” could actually exist. I looked it up, and it really does.
Originally it’s called 'HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPEDALIOPHOBIA', which literally means “the fear of monstrously long words.”
When I decided that this would be the band’s name, I didn’t want us to be associated with a fucking hippopotamus, so we went with SESQUIPEDALIOPHOBIA instead.
It’s extremely ironic that a phobia like this is expressed with such an insanely long word, which made it instantly appealing to me — even if it’s hard to pronounce at first.
It’s ironic, unique, and it fits our music perfectly.
If someone doesn’t get the joke in this — or in the lyrics — then there’s really no point in explaining it to them.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?
The cover artwork was created by another close friend of mine, the painter Tamás Jakab (Jaki). It’s an oil painting, and it’s actually hanging on the wall in my room right now.
I wanted something that truly reflects the lyrics. I wanted eroticism to be strongly present, but not in a direct or explicit way — rather in a unique, symbolic form. Jaki has this distinctive style that I really love.
He worked on the cover just as conscientiously as we worked on the songs.
There is an altar and a sexual act, symbolizing that sex is not a sin, but a form of connection.
There are also Palantírs (a reference to Istar, our guitarist, as well as to Tolkien’s mythology), along with several well-known symbols that are deliberately distorted.
6.Has the band done any live shows or open to the idea?
We haven’t played live yet, and since all of us are involved in multiple bands, nothing is set in stone at the moment.
What is certain is that we want to continue this band, at least as a studio project, but we haven’t made a final decision yet about live performances.
A lot of things depend on this. The last thing we discussed was focusing on releasing our music and records, and occasionally playing live shows — but again, this depends on many factors.
The most important thing is that SESQUIPEDALIOPHOBIA will continue to exist and new songs will keep coming.
Live performances depend on the band itself, the audience, and of course the opportunities that come our way.
Because even as a studio band we aim to deliver the maximum — and if we do play live, we want to give the absolute best, not just something “average” that people walk away from saying: “Well, it was 'okay'.”
7. Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have you received any interest?
At the moment we don’t have a label. The EP was released independently in digital form, and if everything goes as planned, it will also come out on a proper CD in a limited edition early this year.
After that, we’ll see whether it catches the interest of any labels.
At the beginning, we wanted to prove that we are able to get this project off the ground on our own. That said, with some external support we would clearly be capable of doing much more.
New songs are already being written, we have a lot of (wild) merch ideas, and next time we want to push ourselves to deliver an even stronger release.
8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
We are still very much at the early stage of promotion, so I can’t give a definitive answer yet.
However, based on statistics and numbers, for a debut release by an extreme metal band, we are moving forward steadily — slowly, but in a positive direction.
So far, people who have heard the EP — whether friends or complete strangers — have reacted with surprising enthusiasm, saying things like: “This is a fucking great record.”
I’ve also seen the material being shared further in other countries, and people starting to follow the band.
Some listeners even contacted us "randomly" to say how much they liked the EP and to ask when the next release is coming.
Moments like that really make me feel that all the money, energy, and long nights spent working on this were worth it.
We’ve already been asked about merch as well, but that will still have to wait a little.
Hopefully the music will spread further, and next time I’ll be able to answer this question with even more concrete feedback.
9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
As I mentioned earlier, there is no shortage of creativity or inspiration — and now Istar and Pseudonymum also want to take part in the songwriting process.
I can already say that I personally have five or six new songs waiting to be finished, so I truly hope that around this time next year there will be a real chance for a full-length album. Of course, that doesn’t depend on me alone.
If it were up to me, I would walk into the studio on January 1st and not come out until the album was finished.
Right now I’m in a very strong creative phase, and ideas keep coming constantly.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
I’ll speak in my own name first, but I know that all three of us love good, fast music.
Istar and I both mainly come from a power metal background, while Pseudonymum was already deeply into very extreme metal as a teenager.
Because of my family, I grew up listening to bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. Later came the more melodic, newer-generation metal bands such as Nightwish, Rhapsody, Kamelot, Dragonforce and Therion.
I clearly remember that the first three defining bands that pushed me toward extreme metal were Behemoth, Emperor, and Dimmu Borgir.
An then...Without aiming for completeness: Amon Amarth, Burzum, Darkthrone, Satyricon, Mayhem, the first few albums of Sear Bliss, and the work of the Hungarian keyboardist Winter (Sear Bliss, Forest Silence, Nefarious) were also very influential to me. And I like seriously for example the Lorne Shore, Shadow of Intent,...
It’s harder to speak on behalf of the others, but Istar has long been a big fan of Yngwie Malmsteen and Rhapsody, and among heavier bands he really likes Belzebubs, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir.
I first got to know Pseudonymum in high school, when he was already playing Slipknot, DragonForce, and especially deathcore on drums.
Bands like Nile (one of my personal favorites as well), Despised Icon, and Job for a Cowboy had a huge influence on him.
So both of them are absolute beasts — I honestly can’t come up with anything stupid enough that they wouldn’t be able to play.
That’s when I really feel safe about our music and know that I can let my imagination run completely free.
11.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Our motto:
“Desire becomes pure where shame ends.”
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