Funereal Moon is one of the grimiest exponent of the real old school Black Metal sound, they have prove it with six full lengths and a big amount of demos, EPs, etc. The band started an atmospheric horror filled satanic act; to lately (un) evolve into the crude and straight sound they have offered at the band’s latest albums. This time the band is working in the final part of the trilogy started at “Rites Of Black Putrefaction”, so we contacted Impure Ehiyeh to talk about everything we would like to know about this ancient satanic band and he kindly accepted to answer or questions… (Interview by Alvaro Pacheco) 

BB: Hails! First I would like to thank you for giving us this interview. Funereal Moon is a veteran horde in the Black Metal scene…  Can you tell us about these 17 years of career?

I.E:  Hails Satan!! Thanks for this interview, your interest and support. Funereal Moon was formed in 1994 from the ashes of Leteo (a solo –project of mine, which unleashed a rehearsal entitled “Prayers Of The Crystal Tablet Of Beli” in 1993). Firstly the band played a mix between Black Metal and Funeral Dark Ambient. We were pioneer in the genre called “Funeral Musick”, our style was considered as unique and different to everything that circulated back in these years. During these 17 years in the Underground scene we have recorded a total of 17 releases (between demos, splits, albums, compilations, EPs, vinyl, etc), and we are still in battle. These years have been great for us and we hope to keep offering our blasphemies to this world of perdition, all in the name of Satan!!

BB: Funereal Moon was created in the golden years (also called “second wave”) of Black Metal, and that’s reflected at your macabre compositions. Can you tell us how you developed your sound in parallel to the Scandinavian sound?

I.E: The sound of Funereal Moon is something personal and different to everything you have heard before. I’ve been strained to create a characteristic sound for my band and I think all these have been reflected in all our recordings. I can say there’s no a single work of Funereal Moon that sounds like the previous one. This is the main difference between us and other bands. When our demo “Silent Night Of Full Moon Shine” was released, followed by our debut album “Beneath The Cursed Light of a Spectral Moon”, both were widely praised and we reached the cult status in the international underground. We were at par with Scandinavian acts, I think the difference between us and them, was they had the resources and publicity to get higher.

BB: Coming from one of the most religious countries in Latin America, how you lived the whole 90’s Black Metal phenomenon?

I.E:  We have been always ignored in our country; nobody is prophet in his own land, ja! But this have saved us from countless problems and it’s a good thing for me, I don’t like to be questioned or pointed by anyone, and it’s not like I care, is just I like to remain anonymous, in my own world, far from everyone else. I’ve been always very reserved with my beliefs, and I’ve been not running around preaching my devotion to Satan, as many have done. Here in Mexico there’re two kind of Christianity; one shows a true devotion from the heart, they will give their lives for their god and see the divine intervention in every moment of their lives. The second type of Christian is this that only remembers his god when need some support. Anyway, both kinds are fucked and I deeply hate this hypocrites and conformist human beings. There’s no god, but is a big obstruction!! There’re no gods, no heaven, no hell!! How blind is the blind who don’t want to see!! If we were more popular, we will certainly have several inquisitors behind our heads! Ja!

BB: During all these years of career, how have you seen the evolution of Black Metal?

I.E:  I’m not a Black Metal follower, but I think it has reached its maximum point of saturation, and there’s nothing really interesting that can make this genre evolve.  Many bands have started to mix it up with styles such pop or alternative styles such grunge, etc, but I don’t think the true spirit of Black Metal is really present at these new tendencies. There’re thousands of bands emerging from everywhere and very few of those bring something interesting, and all becomes an endless calamity full of tedious and unimagination, the new groups just want to sound like their idols; some of those just do it for fun and for taking pictures of themselves dressed in leather, full of spikes and corpse-painted, but they don’t know the real meaning behind all this. This new generation is so ignorant, just like the Christians they limit themselves to be just followers. I think Black Metal, once it gets free from the trend, will return to the underground, from where it never should go out.

BB: How would you describe the sound of Funereal Moon?

I.E: Like your worst nightmare, it’s a lugubrious and crude sound, without any inclination for the technical execution. It’s completely grotesque, ugly like a decrepit, syphilitic and drugged whore. From the beginning we were completely aimed at creating degrading atmospheres of total obscurity and perdition, now this need of bringing hell to earth is still alive, but we have left behind the atmospheres and we have concentrated in the metallic elements. Actually our sound could be defined as Bestial/Satanik/Black Noise Metal, it’s something you should definitely hear, is completely different to everything that actually exists. We can warranty that what you heard is completely unique and there’s nothing like it.

BB: Conceptually your band has always moved between rotten and blasphemous topics, completely straight and unadorned. Can you tell us a little about the conception of these lyrics?

I.E:  It’s all in our minds; the message is totally obscene, antireligious and straight. First we conceived the music, and then come the lyrics. We are always obsessed by the morbid topics. Our lyrics are little stories full of blasphemy and dirty sex; they are filled with hate against society, politics and religion but undercover behind this ancient satanic halo and complete anarchy. The characters at our lyrics are negative entities that aim to cause the greater spiritual and physical suffering to their enemies, that is to say stupid, conformist and pure of heart Christians, enclosed in a world of light and happiness. Some of or lyrics also deals with deeper issues such death, mental states and transcendental experiences originated by drug and alcohol use. We worship the excess, perverse rites of the black goat, as crude, violent and degrading as it can be. Hail Satan!!

BB: How do see Satanism, as a personal way of growing, far from dogmatism, or as an opposite, inverse response to Judeo-Christianism? 

I.E: Satan represents men and men are a creature full of vices, decadence and imperfections, but is also full of virtues, in his hands and mind is the power of creation and destruction. Satan is just the definition of the human being in his purest state. Satan in what gives us the freedom of acting according to what we believe is the best for ourselves, is the spirit of rebellion and liberty we all carry inside. Satan is the eternal question, the eternal anti-conformism, and the only reality that lives inside of waiting to be liberated. Satan has nothing  to do with religion or imposed dogmas, is, in simple words the complete liberation of the transcended being to superior levels of creation and evolution, the freedom of the intellect.

BB: I had the luck of visiting Mexico a couple of years ago. I was very impressed to see how the pre columbine vision of the death seems to be still present in the actual society. Do you think this glorifying vision of the death have influences the sound and concept behind Funereal Moon?

I.E: My conception of death is what I inherited from my ancestors, and that’s the complete acceptation of an inevitable end; the end of the flesh and matter and the liberation of the spirit. Te cult of death in Mexico is a big celebration where the dead and the death itself are glorified. We see death as something inevitable, something that has got to happen, and something as natural as breathing. We live with the death, is part of our everyday living. Death receives great respect but is not considered as negative. Death has actually influenced our lyrics and it’s part of Funereal Moon. We talk about death as an allied to our cause and is, within the apocalyptic worlds created at our lyrics, the only solution to the victims (nuns, virgins, angels) tormented by our legion of demons sick of lust and anger. Their suffering is eternal they wish to die…

BB: What bands influenced the early sound of Funereal Moon? What bands could be considered as an actual influence?

I.E:  We got several influences, not only musical. Funereal Moon is the result of many things that dwells in my mind, things that collapse, melt, to create our peculiar sound. I wouldn’t know what bands directly influenced the sound of Funereal Moon, but I can mention some bands I’ve always admire such Venom, Hellhammer, Sarcofago, Beherit, Black Sabbath, Blasphemy, Mutilator, Vulcano, Sodom, Destruction, Cirith Ungol, Archgoat, Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Kiss, countless old Heavy Metal bands, and primitive Thrash, Death Metal bands. 

BB: What bands are you listening nowadays?

I.E: The same I used to hear twenty years ago, although I tend to listen some South-American bands like Bestial Holocaust, Assault, Witchtrap, Hadez, Anal Vomit, etc…

BB: Can you tell us a little about the experience of a live presentation of Funeral Moon?

I.E: We have played live very few times, and there were when we as into the atmospheric sound, so our presentations were black and blasphemous rituals under a chaotic and doom sound, full of distortion and disharmony that puked heresy, We played completely drunk, with our war-painting, black tunics and hoods, blood bathed over a satanic altar, full of skulls, inverted crucifixes and black candles as ornament on the stage. In some occasions we used to go out with whips and lash the people in the audience. It was a real black mass of chaos, that didn’t lasts more than 15 or 20 minutes because the audience wasn’t prepared for such thing, so they turned frenetic and teared the place down. We were banned from several places, we got the reputation of a “chaotic band that incited violence”, and so the concert producers never wanted us in their flyers. Actually is the same thing, we are not invited to festivals or concerts; they fear us and don’t want to have problems with us. Mexican producers just want trendy standard bands that causes no problems, they just want to entertain the masses. Those times we played live were memorable, and will remain in my mind forever.

BB: Which bands have you most enjoyed sharing stage with? Which bands would you like to play live with? After hearing to “Rites Of Black Putrefaction” I think to see you playing live with Profanatica would be an infernal experience… 

I.E: We played with Sargatanas in the past and was really nice; we also played with “Satyripop” once, and was a torment for the homosexual pseudo-blackers that went to support this shitty little Nordic band, they insulted us, they want us crucified. But we hanged on and resulted victorious in front of the poser audience. Hail Satan! We would like to play with Beherit and Blasphemy; I would have liked to play with Sarcofago and Bestial Summoning. Playing with Profanatica would be interesting, but I would like more to play with Havohej.

BB: Your new album “Evil Night Of Heresy” was recently released and have received some very good critics already… Can you tell us about this album?

I.E: “Evil Night Of Heresy” has become a classic of the band like “Beneath The Cursed Light Of A Spectral Moon”, “Grim… Evil…” and “Satan’s Beauty Obscenity”.  Musically this album is chaotic, crude and straight, no ornaments, no technisism at all.  It’s a compiled of true satanic and primitive metal, with the only intention of keeping alive the ancestral spirit of metal that was used to be produced 20 years ago. The album was recorded with cheap, dirty equipment, eight channels, second hand instruments, low budget, under the influence of alcohol and the eternal darkness and a great which to create something completely different to the over produced, full of technology , virtue and luxury but completely lacking of feeling. “Evil Night Of Heresy” have received very positive comments, especially for its ancestral spirit, there’s a rising stream of “retro” sounding bands, worshiping the old cult, but there’s no comparison, they just want to sound old school, we are the old school!! Some have written this album have a marked primitive Death Metal influence and that this album sounds more like a pioneer Death Metal band demo, or that sounds like recorded by the legendary Brazilian label Cogumelo Records back in the 80’s. But the truth is this album is bestial satanic metal without pretentions. You just have to listen to it and get your own conclusions…

BB: I understand this album is the second part of the trilogy started at “Rites Of Black Putrefaction”. Can you tell us about the concept behind this trilogy?

I.E: All started back in 2009 when I decided to give the band a radical change, to redirect it in a more violent and metallic sound. Ideas started to came and songs started to take shape. When I walked towards a more metal sound, like the sound I’ve been hearing for 20 years, the results were a sound in the old Bestial Latin-American sound of bands such Mystifier, Sarcofago, Parabellum, Blasfemia, etc. At this moment, after hearing my first creations I decided to create something conceptual and retake every influence I grow up with to make my new project, from the lyrics, the music, the art, etc, everything should be related to this glorious time I lived with my partner in crime Darvula. And so this trilogy is born, totally dedicated to the grotesque, primitive, unadorned, under produced music that was like a punch in the face of religion and society, to the Satanism in its more mundane but straighter and offensive form. This trilogy was conceived to pay tribute to all that has defined our lives, to Satan, to decadence.

BB: What can we expect from this third and final part of the trilogy?

I.E: It will follow the path of the first two creations, but it will keep its own identity. All the songs are ready; just some details need to be polished. It’s still primitive but never repetitive, ancestral sounding but without being a copy or retro sounding. We have maintained the style of the band, the album still sounds like a Funereal Moon album and will maintain the morbid and blasphemous spirit of its predecessors. The title is “Cult Of The Black Goat” and I think this album will become a milestone in the band’s history. We still don’t know who will produce this album, it will most likely released by our own label Goat Scrotum, but we are disposed to work with labels that show interest. We are open to proposals.

BB: Tell us about the split you released with Holy Mary’s Blowjob. I have never heard about this band before. How did you choose this band for releasing this split work?

I.E:  I’m still waiting for the copies of this split. I’ve heard this split (the record label) was a complete scam and the guy from the label was a rip-off that who sells the record as mp3. Personally I do not support this production; I have nothing to do with it because the whole deal was made by our vocalist Darvula. I have never heard to Holy Mary’s Blowjob so I can’t tell you if they’re good or not, by the way our tracks included in this split will be soon released at a limited edition tape album, which will contain unreleased demos and rehearsals under a reliable and true label from the U.S. Unfortunately we were victims of a fucking rip-off with no respect for the true underground spirit.

BB: What are the future plans of Funereal Moon?

I.E:  We will edit “Cult Of The Black Goat” album and we will release and split album with an European band soon. In a couple of a tape album containing unreleased material from 2001 – 2008 will be released along with some rehearsal tracks recorded with our new drummer Yuggoth, under Nihilistic Winter Productions from the U.S. We have also plans to re-release our first recording but we have concrete nothing with the interested labels yet. I hope to reveal more information about this soon.

BB: Thanks once more for you time and disposition. Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?   

I.E:  Thanks a lot for this interview; it has been satisfactory to answer your questions. Keep the infernal flame burning and do not let the infernal Metal die!! To all our loyal followers I would like to thank you all for your unconditional support along all these years of existence. I hope you like our new albums, they have been created for you, and they are dedicated to you. Satan bless you!