Interviews

Interview with Moon Tooth

Published

7 years ago

July 19, 2019

Long Island natives have had quite a ride over the last few years. My first introduction to their music was after Tim Howley of Fit for an Autopsy, posted the video for ‘Igneous.’ The first guitar riff got me hooked, the band took elements of Metal, Prog, playing technique, and fused them with Rock to put together something original sounding. The band released earlier this year Crux, a follow up to 2016’s Chromoparagon. Crux is a polished and more refined Moon Tooth, the songs still have that hard rock edge but seem to of had more attention in the approach than the previous album. I was able to speak with Nick Lee, and Ray Marte to learn more about the band.

GA: Can you tell me how the band started?

RM: To go back in history, Nick and I were in a bandExemption, back in middle school. We had a small career; did some tours and after that, the band broke up. The singer left to pursue other musical endeavors. We started Moon Tooth right after that, that was late 2012. We met John and Vin early on, we knew John for a while but never had a chance to play with him. Vin was playing in another band during the 2008/2009 era and we met him through that. Vin’s first show ever was when we were opening for the Misfits and he saw us. Ever since then, he had to meet us, and play with us. Eventually that came to fruition which is cool.

NL: John also played drums in a band I was in (prior to Moon Tooth), and he gave me a solo ep of him singing, which I didn’t know he could sing. It had these layered vocals, and it was well done; I was blown away. He was coming to our old band’s shows, and when that broke up, he was the first person to hit me up. He was like, ‘I know you are going to want to take your time with looking for someone, but I am your guy.’

GA: The band recently released Crux the follow up to Chromaparagon, what was the process like writing this album?

NM: The writing process for Chromoparagon was a lot of Nick and I in the beginning trying to get guitar and drums together. We would write parts here and there, and jam on them. We already had some songs written, then everyone else joined, then tried to piece things together where they would fit. At the time we were impatient to get a full record out, because we already had the Freaks ep out. We started recording music before it was completed and able to be performed in a room.

Crux is the opposite of that, where we did a lot of work together in the jam room. Songs were pieced together beforehand, put together as whole before the recording process. We did a lot of demoes and restructured things around vocals, which is something we didn’t do for Chromoparagon. We basically just wrote crazy music, then gave it to John for him to fit vocals in. Crux is a bit more vocal centric, and we put in more work on the songwriting for this album. We worked with Machine and Mark Morton for production. We already had that mindset before working with them.

GA: The band is known for throwing in several elements of music into your songs, from rock to metal to even prog. When writing for a song, do you have a road map of where you want to go when writing or is it more about the feel?

NL: It can go either way. We usually start off writing riffs, sometimes that riff will develop into a song quickly, or I will give that part to John to get a vocal melody which will help shape where we go from there. Sometimes the music is just there, and John will write to it, other times we are piecing things together. That is what has been happening more over the recent years. I have found it is more fun to piece things together, rather than be like my music, ray’s music, everyone has their own distinct music. Our music is becoming more of a group effort from the ground up, then saying hey I have this song put your parts on it. We ask more questions now, like what do you want here, or how long should we do this before the chords change. Even for John, we can say things like, I love these lines you wrote but what if the last line did this instead? We became very open to each other’s creative criticism. I think this makes everyone happy; instead of it being one guy does the lion’s share of the writing, and everyone else can kind of do a bit. Those kinds of bands tend to go through multiple lineup changes. At a certain point if you are not having fun and don’t get to express yourself; you got to dig down for a reason to stay, especiallysince we don’t make a lot of money doing this.

RM: The whole point is to get what you think is in your soul out to the world.

GA: The band also has a knack for balancing aggression and emotion, when you write how do you find this balance? Is it something that comes naturally or is there someone in the band who is like hey we must ring that back a bit or push harder here? How does that work for you all?

RM: I think it comes naturally for us. Everyone in this band likes the juxtaposition of heavy and beautiful together in our songwriting. We play a lot of with the dynamics, but never go to far one way or the other.

NL: I look at it like this: when you listen to old Sabbath records, there is always one or two songs that Tony will do this cool instrumental. I remember sometimes those songs would become my favorite songs on the record. It would be that one weird clean song on an otherwise heavy record. Mastodon is a big influence on me, they kind of took from Neurosis, that clean but heavy writing style. Emotion wise it is very heavy, but guitar tone wise it is just clean guitar. You can make an acoustic guitar sound heavy in that style of writing.

GA: One of my favorite songs off the album is ‘Through Ash’, it has a very prog feel to it with a bit of an 80’s metal feel to me, the song just flows throughout. What would you say is your favorite song off the album to perform?

RM: For me it would be the song ‘Trust.’

NL: For me this is a hard one, I have had a lot of fun playing ‘Rhythm and Roar’ lately. We have been fitting it into our set more. It is one of our more rock songs, and I love playing the solo in it. I also have to say the title song ‘Crux’ has been a challenge. I go from super quiet finger picking to aggressive playing along with the scream at the end of the song; I got topull it off every night. We have been closing with it every night, so after an hour set it makes it challenging. It is a song that I look forward to playing during the set, but it is also the most intimidating as well. When you play slow and quiet, if you make a mistake it is very noticeable, as opposed to playing distorted heavy guitar where if you hit an off note it can sometimes be hidden in the mix,

GA: I first heard about the band through Tim of Fit for an Autopsy, which you also toured with, can you tell me more about how that relationship began with FFAA?

RM: We have known Tim for a very long time.

NL: We met him when were fifteen. He is from Long Island where we are from. He had a metal band before FFAA at the same time as our former band, so we did a lot of shows together. This was the old Myspace days, of house parties and DIY shows. We stayed close this whole time, also Joe their singer, is from Long Island as well. When Tim joined FFAA we were all very excited for him. It has been amazing to watch how far they have come. They took a heavy style of music and are doing some serious shit with it. Traveling the world and playing with some very notable bands.

RM: We are making a pastime of smelling their old unshowered butts. We have their old van.

NL: We got the offer for that tour, Fit for An Autopsy and Tombs, which is a heavy tour for us. We can get heavy, but it is not the same crowd. I was super excited for the challenge of that. To be like we are kind of the weirdos opening the show, we wanted to see how many people we could convert by the end of the show.

RM: We were ready for people to not accept us. Maybe I was, I was prepared for people to not dig it at all.

GA: Those are the types of shows I enjoy. It is refreshing to see a band play on a bill where they may not actually fit with the other acts.

RM: I feel that people tend to like shows that are more diverse in their line ups. I don’t want to see five death metal bands in a row, mix it up; throw in a grind band, or a thrash band. Those usually make for the best shows.

GA: What equipment are you using for your live set up, if you have any endorsements please mention.

RM: I have an endorsement through Sabian cymbals. I play with Vic Firth sticks. I also use Remo, and Acrylic Drums.

NL: I use Vigier Guitars, I have been with them a couple of years now. I also use Ernie Ball strings, and Empress Effects, I have a huge board with a bunch of effects. I also use Electro – Harmonix. I use the Freidman overdrive through an old 1974 Hiwatt DR103. Fryette just lent me an attenuator, the Powerstation 2, which is my newest toy. For years I have been to loud on stage, because it is an all tube head, so working with Fryette they lent me the attenuator. This is the first tour with it. It is making playing fun because sometimes I use it to make myself sound even louder. It sweetens up the saturation in a way that sounds really cool. I am still dialing it in. When we were out with Animals as Leaders, you would think you would want to be louder for a bigger room, nope. The sound guys were like let the PA do the work. Now I can turn down my volume without sacrificing the tone.

RM: Our bassist is with Spector Basses, Ernie Ball strings, and he is using an Aguilar Tone Hammer for his amp.

GA: So, what was your inspiration for learning how to play music, what got you into wanting to play instruments?

RM: My parents were very musical. My mom played guitar and piano, my dad and sister also played guitar. When I was younger, I wanted to be able to jam with my sister, and there were enough guitar players in the house. I picked up the guitar a little bit, but mostly started on drums when I was about 8 years old. I started dabbling with guitar and bass when I was around 14, but mainly stuck with drums. My early influences were Weird Al, Led Zeppelin, Pantera, System of a Down, Slayer and many more.

NL: My direct family didn’t play music, but a bunch of their friends played in cover bands. So, I was always around music when I was young. When I was 6, I heard ‘Enter Sandman’, and was obsessed with metal ever since. I asked for a guitar, and my parents were very into it, they have been very supportive. I remember trying to choose another instrument in school, in 4^thgrade and my mom was like, ‘nope you stick with guitar.’ At the time I didn’t understand because all the other kids were picking instruments to learn.

RM: She was like ‘don’t be a loser, fuck trombone’.

NL: She pushed me to practice and I got really into metal. I got into all the classics at first then, worked myself to a point where I was trying to find the most extreme and grossest thing I can find. Then I went the other direction, getting into The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley, everything but metal. I just circle through all of it now.

GA: What is next for Moon Tooth after this show?

RM: We have Chicago tomorrow; we are in the middle of the Light the Torch run which is spread out different kind of tour. Where we are doing a few dates with them, then go off on our own and do a few head liner shows, then link back up with them. After that we will be writing again. We are always trying to come up with new music when we can. We are also going to get some touring plans set up for the fall.

NL: We haven’t gotten the packages together yet for fall, but we are hoping to get back out to the west coast and possibly head to Europe for the first time.

GA: If someone was to want to follow the band online or purchase merch where can they find the band and your merch store?

NL: Moontooth.org, which will direct you to our Bandcamp and you can get merch through there. We are on all the major social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. Our music is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

RM: We still do everything by hand, so when you order something; it is the band members packaging the items and shipping them to you.

GA: Anything else you would like to add?

NL: Come on out to a show, the music is better live.

For all things Moon Tooth related please visit Moontooth.org

About Author

George Archibald

See author's posts

Related Topics:Empire Extreme featured Moon Tooth

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Interviews

EIHWAR COME TO BALTIMORE TO BRING THE VIKING WAR TRANCE

Published

6 days ago

August 20, 2026

Ron

IVE BEEN SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THE UPCOMING TOUR FOR EIHWAR. I FOUND THEM ON THE INTERNET AND THEY BLEW ME AWAY WITH THEIR VIKING/FOLK/PAGAN MUSIC MIXED WITH ELECTRONIC. EIHWAR WILL BE COMING TO THE RECHER IN TOWNSON MARYLAND ON AUGUST 30TH. EMPIRE EXTREME GOT TO ASK THE DUO A FEW QUESTIONS BEFORE THE SHOW.

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT DOING YOUR FIRST AMERICAN TOUR? ANY AMERICAN THINGS OR PLACES YOU WANT TO EXPLORE?

ASRUNN: For now, I have to admit I’m still completely stunned. I’m not excited or imagining it yet at all. Right now, I feel like I’m about to go to a country that only exists in TV shows, so I’m still kind of wading through disbelief.

Once I’m actually there, though, I’ll probably start talking way too fast and way too loud, and I’ll want to go way too everywhere.

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN VIKING WAR TRANCE AS A GENRE OF MUSIC?

MARK: Viking War Trance is basically what happens when you mix Nordic folk influences, tribal rhythms, electronic music and something much more primitive and aggressive. We wanted music that makes you want to dance, fight and enter some kind of trance at the same time. So instead of trying to fit into an existing genre, we just called it Viking War Trance. And about the word “war”: it’s not a war against others, but a war against ourselves. Against our rigidity, our limiting beliefs, our fears. Victory is letting go.

WHAT CAN FANS EXPECT WHEN SEEING THE BAND LIVE?

MARK: Our concerts are much more physical than people sometimes expect from listening to the albums. We want people to dance, scream, jump, crowd surf and completely lose themselves for an hour. It’s somewhere between a concert, a rave and a pagan ritual, but with a lot of joy. “Joyful chaos” is the word that Asrunn often use.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE PLAYING HELLFEST AND WACKEN?

ASRUNN: It’s basically spending an entire hour on stage thinking, “Seriously, what the hell am I doing here? This makes absolutely no sense,” and then, the second it’s over, thinking, “Fuck, that was WAY TOO SHORT!”, hahahahaha!

In reality, it’s a mix of intense concentration and this explosion of joy inside when we manage to bring such a huge crowd into our madness with us. It’s as if, all of a sudden, we’re no longer men and women, but one human tribe, united by joy and raw energy.

HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR STYLE OF VIKING MUSIC AND IMAGE DIFFERS FROM OTHER VIKING AND FOLK METAL?

MARK: What sets us apart from folk metal is simply that we’re not metal. We don’t use distorted guitars or acoustic drums. As for pagan folk, I think the differences are pretty obvious too. Most pagan bands take a fairly ceremonial approach, resulting in atmospheric, ambient music. Some of them are even very serious. From our point of view, seriousness is a symptom of bad digestion. We prefer to fool around.

As for the peace you find in atmospheric ritual music, we don’t know much about it. Asrunn, our leader, is nothing like a priestess in a linen dress singing with butterflies in the forest. She’s living anger. Our music is joyful and brutal, primitive techno made to dance to until the end of the night.

The biggest difference is also, and perhaps above all, harmonic, in the musicological sense. With ancient instruments, it’s difficult to modulate frequently or to play every note in every octave. We use machines, and that gives us much more freedom to create melodies and chord progressions that evolve constantly and are far more pop-oriented than ancient instruments would normally allow.

DREAM TOUR: YOU CAN GO ON TOUR WITH ANY 2 OTHER BANDS, WHO DO YOU CHOOSE?

ASRUNN: MmmmdzgebhfugzFDBZueisfg that’s WAY too hard to choooooose HAAAAA! I’d say……….. NIN and… well, Sofia Isella, lately. She’s tooooooo good to be true.

MARK: The Prodigy and Peter Gabriel

FAVORITE GAME OF THRONES CHARACTER?

MARK: Don’t know, but I like the soundtrack.

ASRUNN: Bree Van De Kamp.

IF YOU COULD RESURRECT ONE HISTORIC VIKING WHO WOULD IT BE?

MARK: Honestly, my memories from that time aren’t clear enough for me to really know. But I was very fond of the monk Eadwig of Durham, and I’d be curious — and happy — to see him again.

ASRUNN: Lagertha, to prove to Mark that he’s wrong when he says she had bigger boobs than me.

IF YOU HAVEN’T BOUGHT UR TICKETS YET GET THEM HERE

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

See author's posts

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH KURT DEIMER

Published

4 months ago

May 8, 2026

Ron

EMPIRE EXTREME GOT TO INTERVIEW KURT DEIMER ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM “A GROG IS BORN” HIM WORKING WITH GEOFF TATE AND JOSH TODD AND BEING KILLED BY MICHAEL MEYERS AND HORROR MOVIES

About Author

Ron

See author's posts

Empire Interviews

Inferious—Interview

Published

4 months ago

May 5, 2026

Josh Drespling

by Josh Drespling

I was at Preserving Underground to cover Filth and Resistor. I was all set with my photo pass and cameras at the ready. And then this young band exploded onto the stage. No grand entrance, no intro music, no flashy lights—just a wall of noise from the first guitar chord and a guttural growl that seemed to come from somewhere below the floorboards. I was blown away. Thoroughly impressed.

This band was Inferious, out of Dayton, Ohio. If you look up the word “inferious,” most dictionaries will tell you it means something low-status, submissive, or fit for sacrifice. But this Ohio metalcore outfit Inferious has spent the last several years proving that definition couldn’t be more wrong. Tonight in the basement of a converted church, Inferious delivered raw, sweat-soaked fury to all who were smart enough to show up early.

Before their set was even half over, I made up my mind that I had to talk to them and let our readers know about this band. Here is how it went:

Empire: This was the first time I have ever seen you guys. I’ve heard your name before but never had the chance to listen. The show tonight was freaking awesome. I loved it from the first few notes. The vocals and the guitar tone just hit ya right in the chest.

Since I am a new fan, can you give me the nickel tour of how you came together and I understand you are from Dayton, Ohio.

Shaun O’Shaughnessy – Guitarist: I live in Dayton, and the original band members all formed in Dayton, but it was kind of a collage of multiple band folks. People from the southwest Ohio area. Gabe [McQueen – vocals] and I were there at the beginning, and then through some line-up changes, this is our current and most solid touring line-up so far with Cody and Kyle. They also are from the area and have been in several bands. So they were always in the same circles, at the same shows, talking to the same people. It all worked out one day.

Empire: Given that, it seems like there is a healthy music scene in Dayton. Are there any good clubs, any fields to play in?

Shaun: It’s hard to say Dayton, Ohio, specifically so much as just southwest Ohio because of the way that Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati form like a little triangle. You’re only an hour apart from each other. So we can get into that larger music scene pretty easily. So Dayton itself has venues, but the whole collective area has stuff. There’s some house venues, like Gnome House, there’s Bob’s, but then Cincinnati has Madison Live, and Design Collective [DSGN CLLCTV] was doing shows for a while, but I think they got in trouble.
Cody: Yeah, it some code stuff.

Empire: I think there are a couple decent places in Akron, and even across the border is Huntington, WV?

Shaun: Yeah, that area still does have sick stuff. It’s just farther away from our personal local scene. Cleveland is kind of separate from us too.

Cody: That’s not necessarily our scene, but there is such a good underground local scene from the Huntington / Athens / Charleston area. Shout to Feverwar.

Shaun: We were just at the Grog Shop [outside Cleveland].

Cody: We were at the New Foundry not too long ago.

Empire: Oh, yeah, like upstairs?

Shaun: No, it is Foundry’s new location.

Empire: I’ve not been there.

Shaun: It looks basically like the old one, but it’s new.

Empire: You mentioned the Grog Shop. Were you guys there with Filth and Resistor?

Shaun: Yeah, we’ve been on tour with Filth and Resistor. The first half of the tour had Two-Piece on it; we missed them, but now Mono’s [Monochromatic Black] on for the second half, and they’re homies.

Gabe and I toured with them in Inferious a couple years ago with band called AMTAE, and Monochromatic Black. So, those are long-time homies as well. So, we’ve known Tanya [Elizabeth (Beickert) – Vocals] and Eddie [DeCesare – Drums] for a long time, and Pierce [Akers – Guitar] is our new best friend as well.

Empire: So, it’s just like a big hang for you guys.

Shaun: Yeah, all the homies are back. We’ve toured with Filth before too; we were out with them on the Oceano tour, and then actually a year ago, I think like right now, like today a year ago, we toured with Filth also. So, it’s Filth and Oceano, and then Filth again.

So, it’s been fun to have a full circle of friend hangs, and every night’s been sick. The show turnouts have been amazing, and then just hanging out with all our friends has been amazing.

Empire: That’s part of what makes it fun. Whether you have 50 people or 1000, you have that camaraderie and shared experience.

Empire: So do you currently have an album out? Where do you guys stand with that?

Gabe: We have music out everywhere, on all music platforms: Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and YouTube Music. Shit, if you even got to rip that shit, YouTube to MP4, do it, man!

Shaun: We got your back. We got three full lengths and an EP. We are working on a new EP with a label we’re signed to that we’ll announce here soon, but that’s going to be really exciting stuff, and just stoked to be able to get that out soon.

Empire: Cool. So don’t say the label name, but your deal is in place, and then the new album in the fall, winter, spring?

Shaun: Yeah, the EP should be coming out sometime this year, if all the schedules align and everything, but that’s in the works.

Empire: Cool. Filth tour, what’s after that?

Shaun: Finishing up the EP. Record release cycle, and then hopefully touring in support of that. Whether it’s co-headlining with somebody or doing some more support stuff, we’re down for whatever. Hopefully we can fill up the rest of the year.

You know, touring is hard financially, so while we’re able to still make ends meet on the road, it’s hard to pay all the bills, so we’ve got to go home, stack our bread back up, and then be ready to go back out again.

Empire: I understand. Is this your first time in Pittsburgh?

Shaun: We’ve actually played Preserving. This is at least the fifth time.

We played the DIY room, we played this room, this orientation, we played this room when it was facing the other direction. AJ, the owner, has been good to us. He is a rad dude.

Empire: AJ is great.

Shaun: The record shop and merch store upstairs is sick, I just bought a shirt, a Never Ending Game shirt, because we have to do a laundry soon, and I bought a shirt to extend one more day to get through.

Empire: Anything you guys want to add, anything going on? Shameless plugs?

Shaun: This has been a kind of sick tour, because I think we’ve all got to see family members. Gabe’s dad dropped him off, so we got to see Gabe’s dad. We got to go get breakfast with my mom and some family, I saw my aunt. Cody’s mom let us stay at her crib, and we got to hang out with her and his family. Kyle’s family came out last night and hung out, and that was pretty sick, so it’s been a good time.

Empire: Kyle hasn’t said anything, so tell me about your family coming out and seeing the show.

Kyle: I mean, it was my sister’s first time seeing us live.

Empire: What did she have to say? I mean, I’m sure she knew the style.

Kyle: Oh, yeah, she’s conditioned to it.

Empire: She’s not like a Britney Spears fan at a hardcore show?

Kyle: No, no, she’s by far not a normie, but close to it.

Empire: Thank you, gentlemen. That’s all I have today. Appreciate it, and thanks for the show. It was great; loved it.

Shaun: See you next time.

Before that night at Preserving Underground, I’ll be honest: Inferious was just a name on a show flyer. Another opening band before the acts I actually came to see.

That’s the thing about this level of heavy music. The headliners get the lights, the longer set, and the crowd that’s already warmed up. But the openers? They get twenty-five minutes, a soundcheck that barely counts, and a room full of people who are mostly looking at their phones. Inferious didn’t just overcome that. They incinerated it.

What struck me most, sitting down with Shaun, Gabe, Cody, and Kyle after the show, was how unpretentious they were. No egos. No rock-star posturing. Just four guys from southwest Ohio who’ve been grinding in the same circles, playing the same basement venues, and slowly building something real. They talked about the small venues with the same reverence other bands reserve for stadiums. They shouted out Feverwar. They bought merch from the shop upstairs to make it through one more day on the road.

That’s the part you don’t see from the crowd. The financial grind. The van trouble. The “stack our bread back up” reality of modern touring. And yet, here they were—genuinely stoked to have seen family members at shows, genuinely grateful for AJ at Preserving keeping the doors open for underground bands, and genuinely excited about an upcoming EP they couldn’t even name the label for yet.

Inferious may have a name that suggests something low-status, something sacrificial. But after watching them level a converted church in New Kensington, and after listening to them talk about their scene with the easy confidence of people who have nothing to prove, I think the definition needs an update.

Check them out on all the streaming platforms. Catch them when they roll through your town on the next tour. And for the love of God, show up early.

You never know which opening band is going to blow your doors off.

About Author

Josh Drespling

Josh is the Publisher and creator of Empire Extreme and it’s sister publication Kingdom Extreme Magazine. He is an accomplished writer, photographer and graphic designer. He is always conjuring up new ideas and has a amazing passion for the music industry and all the things that surround it.

See author's posts