Formed in 1999 near Germany’s Dutch border, Black Moon Empire has grown into a force in blackened death metal. With albums like Sorrowpath and Si Vis Pacem, they’ve now reached new heights with Abyssus. In this interview, bassist Patrick Wiroth and the band discuss their journey, the dark themes of Abyssus, and their 2025 focus: "Playing live will be the highest priority."
Serial Metalbums: To start, can you introduce Black Moon Empire to our readers? How did the band come together in 1999, and what have been the key milestones in your journey so far?
Patrick: Of course. Black Moon Empire is a blackened Death-Metal-Band from mid west Germany, close to the dutch border. In the late nineties the metal scene was very active in this area, so Roman (guitar) and Daniel (drums) came together and formed Black Moon Empire, while being busy in other projects. In the following years there was many line up changes, and because of that, and by the fact that all band members was full employed, it took several years to release the first self-produced album SORROWPATH in 2013, followed by SI VIS PACEM in 2022. I guess, one of the biggest milestones was the vinyl release of ABYSSUS.
The current line-up is:
Kai Thiele - vocalsLars Schultewolter - guitar
Roman Kuhn - guitar
Daniel Mittelstädt - drums
Serial Metalbums: When you started working on Abyssus, did you have a clear vision of the sound and atmosphere you wanted to create, or did it evolve throughout the process? How would you describe the main message or concept behind Abyssus?
Patrick: When we started recording in October 2023 it was clear that we wanted to show a rise compared to SI VIS PACEM. For this reason we hired a professional mastering engineer to create a more powerful, denser and thicker sound for ABYSSUS.
The biggest part of songwriting, I guess 95%, was done by Lars (Schultewolter, guitar), while we gave the songs their final touch together. For this period this process was the most efficient one. Kai (Thiele, vocals) wrote all lyrics, partly in German, partly in English and on ABYSSUS he was able just to focus on the vocal job. All stories behind the lyrics narrates on human and spiritual abysses, caused by violence, sickness or self awareness. For this reason we called this album ABYSSUS.
Also the cover artwork (souls wandering beside an abyss surrounded by geometrical forms) takes up this topic.
Serial Metalbums: Tracks like Die Erkenntnis and Vikings Curse showcase a mastery of transitions between raw and melodic passages. How do you approach finding this balance in the studio? And how would you describe your music?
Patrick: We all love this transitions. The most of them was created by Lars, who is strongly influenced by OPETH and, of course, many other bands. Wandering away into melodic parts is like recharging the audience’s acoustic batteries, after being discharged by digesting raw, aggressive or blast beat parts. Also finding the balance between modern styled and old-school riffing was very important embodiment to deliver a timeless album.
The sounds engineers job was to recognize our musical intensions and to handle them in the right way in the studio. There was a constant and very efficient communication between us.
The result is a blackened death metal album, we all love to represent and to play live in 2025.
Serial Metalbums: The track Schatten features prominent black metal influences. How did this aesthetic find its place in an album that’s primarily death metal? And what were your main musical influences?
Patrick: Yes, this is a fast one and I think it’s the pendant to Battlefield on SI VIS PACEM. Schatten carries the most black metal influences and when I listen to it, this song reminds me a lot to Scandinavian bands, like DISSECTION and AT THE GATES.The bands musical influences reaches from black metal acts, like DISSECTION, DIMMU BORGIR, MGLA, BATHUSHKA etc. via death metal (HYPOCRISY, BOLT THROWER etc.) to modern an avantgarde-ish „post-metal“ stuff (HIPPPOTRAKTOR, TOOL, CULT OF LUNA and of course OPETH).
Serial Metalbums: The vocal performance on Abyssus is varied and powerful, with deep growls and visceral screams. What was your approach to diversifying vocal styles across the album? And solos like the one in Schatten, are memorable and seamlessly integrated. What role do solos play in your songwriting process?
Patrick: Kai did an excellent job on this album. He enhanced his vocal ability a lot and he is also able to perform live on this level. No one told him to do so, because his vocals on SI VIS PACEM was great already. It was his choice and his expression based on the lyrics storytelling, what led him to this stylistic range.
The most guitar solos was done by Lars so far. During the recording process, while figuring out some tonal disharmonies, we missed to hear in the rehearsal room, he was challenged to adapt some of them to fit better to the background riff.
Serial Metalbums: The modern production of the album highlights its technical and blackened influences. How did you work with your producer to achieve this result? How have fans and the media received Abyssus so far? Were there any reactions that surprised you?
Patrick: There was a high frequented communication with our mastering engineer (Konstantin Fischer of KONST FISCHER MIXING), who listened to the previous album first and then asked us about our sound goals. The reactions are quite positive, much more positive than expected. THAT was a surprise.
Serial Metalbums: Can you tell us about your first album Si Vis Pacem and how your music has evolved? And what’s next for Black Moon Empire? Are you already working on new material, or do you have other projects in mind?
We wanted an realistic and homogeneous step forward with ABYSSUS, both tonal and structural. And we will proceed this way with the next releases. For the near future we planned to be more on stage, before we will begin the songwriting process for new songs.
Building up our social media range or doing videos will be side projects in 2025, but playing live will be the highest priority.