Mordant Rhed – “…a feral diseased, mentally challenged creature that wants to fuck the planet”

There are those who crumble under the whip of disgust and the bile spilled forth from the disdain of humanity, for it rots the soul and seeps into the being rendering one emaciated, but in the same breath another may press their lips onto such secretion and drink forth from its malice transforming and contorting the mind but unifying the tongue to speak forth the hymns that plagues the race of man. Mordant Rhed is an entity which utters these sermons and spread it’s seed of hate amongst the masses to worship in its splendor, like the body that mediates upon a corpse merging the mind and the essence of death, so too does Mordant Rhed impregnates and defiles the doctrine of that which is holy. I recently had the opportunity to have a conversation with both Rhevok (RV) and Nocturnal Penetrator (NP) of Mordant Rhed,so to you who may read these words, may they resonate within you and compel you to receive their art as the weapon it is intended.

Hails to you sir! Thank you for taking the time to have this conversation! Can you introduce yourself and tell us the history and conception of Mordant Rhed?
RV: Thanks for the interview. I have been a longtime fan of VM Underground, so it is my pleasure. The band started in 2017, however all members have been around metal for decades. 

From the beginning, we knew this band was going to have some theatrical aspect. I would have worn corpse paint, but I do not have the patience to put that shit on. So, we decided on masks. This was inspired by The Mentors.

Besides the visual aesthetics, we wanted the band to have a complete FUCK EVERYONE attitude. In this current world, everything makes me fucking sick. Movies, television media, social media and some music are all filled with complete agenda filled bullshit. This is not a political statement, because I fucking hate politics, but I especially hate the current state this world is in.

People in general have become weak!

NP: I like that it seems we haven’t painted ourselves into a corner with a specific theme or anything. It can just be whatever we want the band to be.

What exactly was the origin point where you discovered Extreme Metal, but more specific Black Metal? Can you recall the sensation derived?
RV: I got into metal at an early age, specifically Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath. My Dad had the Paranoid 8-track and I could not get enough of it. This was the late 70s. Then in the early 80s he was listening to Motley Crue Shout at the Devil, Quiet Riot, Slade and many others. My Dad would get shit-face intoxicated, play metal on the stereo and punch holes in the wall. Our house was always all busted up.

As for your question about first discovering Black Metal, it definitely was hearing Bathory ‘Under the Sign of the Black Mark’. Some older guy that was half retarded gave me a dubbed cassette. The darkness and mood of the music was so good. At that point, I already had been listening to thrash, early death metal and punk. However, listening to Bathory was a whole new experience.  

The idiot who gave me the dubbed tape was a completely unhinged idiot. The perfect person to introduce me to Bathory. As a kid, I used to go to this arcade that always had lots of human garbage hanging around in there and the guy who gave me the tape was no exception. One time he fucked some drunk old grandma on a pool table while holding a pistol to his own head. This happened while me and a bunch of other kids watched. 

He was a real classy guy. So, to no surprise, a few years later he killed himself by blowing his brains out.

Regarding the artform of Black Metal, as an artist, how does it speak to you on an internal level? Would you say it is more than a genre? If so, in what ways?
RV: Yeah Black Metal is definitely more than a genre. I have seen many talk shit about Black Metal stating that it is dress up in a costume music. Well fuck those pussies. I am glad they think that way because the Black Metal scene does not need idiots like that.

Yea Black Metal is all about evil visuals, whether it be offensive lyrics or disgusting imagery, all these aspects are imperative.

NP: I think Black Metal definitely is more than just music. Aesthetic and raw hate and anger seem to shine through more than most metal sub genres. I like Black Metal that sounds like it was made by an unhinged maniac    

If you had to describe the spirit of Mordant Rhed, if it was a living, rabid beast? How would you put it into words? And what would be the message it wishes to spread through its bite?
RV: If Mordant Rhed was a beast it would be a feral diseased, mentally challenged creature that wants to fuck the planet. 

NP: a rotten ass raping goblin.

I want to shift to the members of Mordant Rhed, how exactly did your interests align? What spurred the intent to create such music?
RV: All members have known each other for many decades. All members are into fucked up, offensive shit so starting this band was a natural progression.

Keep me honest here, but were the individuals in Mordant Rhed included in past previous projects?
RV: Yes, we have all been in bands in the past.

I’d like to talk about the “Live at Z Bar recording”, from what I’ve heard it was a battle of the bands? Can you go into the details, and the actual live performance?

RV: Yeah, this crappy bar a friend of ours worked at told us about a battle of the bands show that was happening. So, we entered it as a pure joke, because we knew that the audience would be filled with complete idiots. All the other bands on the bill were bullshit.

From the first song, people were already appalled. They had no idea of what Black Metal was. Drunk idiots started heckling us and we obliged by yelling obscenities back at them. We found the whole thing hilarious. Since this was a “Battle of the Bands” contest, each band was allowed to play only 3 songs each. This was more than enough to get these retarded hillbillies pissed. 

During our set, I poured a beer over someone’s head and Nocturnal Penetrator kicked some motherfucker in the face. The crowd was filled with a bunch of inbred looking pieces of shit. A brief fight broke out in the venue, but the real violence was in the parking lot. While loading our gear up some of those retards continued talking shit. I slapped the shit out of one of them then everyone started swinging. Someone threw a cinderblock through our van windshield. When leaving, our friend Jimmy the Cannibal was driving, and he smashed our van into numerous cars in the parking lot.

This happened in 2018 and I am really surprised there is no video online about this. I really wish there was video….well actually maybe not. However, we were lucky to get the soundboard audio of the show. Our friend who worked there got it for us. 

Haha we were permanently banned from ever entering that shithole bar. However, this made for a cool demo release. Originally in 2018, we did a limited CD-R release of this. Last year we rereleased it again. The recording is hilarious.

NP: after we left that Z bar shit we went to our friend’s house to drink more and two of Xerezawa’s friends from the neighborhood were getting a blowjob from the bartender chick from Z bar, and she was the one that supposedly called the cops on us. She let me piss on her tits later that night.  

Now in terms of your timeline, you continued to put out material continuing from 2023, however this was your first in five(5) years if I’m not mistaken? What was the reason for the gap? And during this period, was the bad developing any new material?
RV: From the beginning we started writing songs. In 2017, we released our first demo simply called Demo. Then in 2018 we released Live at the Z Bar and the Decimation of the Begetter demo. At that time, we were playing live sporadically and recording. However, once that pandemic shit happened it fucked up all our momentum. During that shit, we continued rehearsing but had no options for shows. So, we just got into the mode of having weekly band practice and getting fucked up.

We probably got more fucked up than anything during this time. However, we finally decided to start recording again in 2022. This led to the release of the Hatred for Humanity demo. After the forced long break, we planned to never play shows again and just record music. 

However, we had some offers, so we decided to get back into the live circuit. In October we are doing a 3-day mini Texas tour which is centered around a fest in Fort Worth put on by Desastrious (an old US underground BM label). Basically, we are playing San Antonio 8/11, Fort Worth (Desastrious Fest) 8/12 and Houston 8/13. Then in November we plan to play shows in New York and New Jersey. Those dates and venues are currently being put together.

NP: Yeah we always go back and forth on wether we want to play shows or not. We’ve been to a ton of shows together, we get burned out sometimes and would rather just get drunk watching wrestlemania clips or act obnoxious in the local bars.

Mordant Rhed has a rather unapologetic demeanor, a “Fuck you” attitude if you may, how important is this to you and the band regarding both the spirit of the band and the music?
RV: Yes that is very accurate. We have a confrontational approach to the music, very much the early punk rock attitude of Fuck Everyone. Underground music has become soft.

NP: yeah too many crybabies, I will have a fuck you attitude until I die.   

It’s apparent that your lyrics are derived from a horror and nihilistic narrative, however, what else fuels your inspiration where lyrics are concerned? Be it from movies, music and literature?
RV: Lyrical inspiration comes from a variety of sources such as horror movies and literature. However, the biggest inspiration is humanity. Just turn on the TV or scroll through some social media bullshit. These outlets clearly show how narcissistic, gullible and idiotic they are. Our band is not political at all; however, we are sickened of how stupid people are in listening to politicians or believing news outlets.

Humans in general are inherently evil. Humans like to see other humans suffer. All this free loving shit is a complete joke. Motherfuckers act like they feel sorry for others but yet they get excited when hearing negative news about people. It is a complete joke.

The earlier sound of Mordant Rhed, referring to the material before “Touch The Skeleton” EP had a rather Finnish Black Metal undertone to the sound, so I’m curious to know for these materials how they were composed? And what was the mental state when creating these earlier tracks?
RV: As for our mental state, it is always fucked up. Yeah, some of the previous tracks did have an underlying Finnish sound. It was not done intentionally. We just write songs and let them take shape. We never approach a song with the idea of “lets write a song that sounds like this band.”

The “Fuck your Feeble World” EP does have some Finnish sounds, but that was not the intention. We just go into the practice space, get fucked up, talk a bunch of shit and write music.

For example, the song Touch the Skeleton, was not intended to be a slower song. Xerasawa, the guitarist, was playing around with a riff and then Nocturnal Penetrator added a bass line that sounded very much like the low end on the Halloween (Carpenter) them song. Then with slow brooding drums, the song came together sounding very much like something from a horror movie score.

NP: our songwriting process is chaotic as fuck. Sometimes we record songs and just delete them.  

You’ve released a couple of music videos, and they usually have a rather vintage feel to it that makes it authentic. How important is the visual side of Mordant Rhed when translating the music? Also, what was the decision to go the route using the balaclavas?
RV: We feel in Black Metal, the visual element is VERY important. Some idiots think Black Metal is “costume dress up” music. I say fuck those people. Both the moody music and the visual aesthetics go hand in hand when presenting the composition.

Also, some think music videos are “poser” shit. Well, they can stick that mentality up their ass sideways. When done right, music videos are an excellent visual extension of extreme music.

To answer the question about wearing masks, we chose those because we do not feel like putting on fucking corpse paint (as mentioned earlier). I do like corpse paint on other bands, however for us, masks are the way to go.

Some idiots claim the masks are not original. I say fuck them. We have always liked The Mentors and they are what motivated us to do so. Then threw some patches on the mask to do something a little different. 

NP: I just want to hide my ugly face. Also, I don’t want to talk about anything to anyone so I like to be anonymous.

Let’s talk about your newest EP, “Touch the Skeleton in The Forest”, it includes 2 new tracks, plus rehearsals and a new outro track. How long were these 2 new songs in the work?
RV: This EP has a different sound. The songs have a more mid-tempo moody feel to them. Ironically these two songs were recorded over a year ago. We did not include them on the “Fuck your Feeble World” EP because they did not fit the flow of the release. 

We wanted to do a physical release (fuck digital only releases) but wanted to have more than two songs on it. So, we added those rehearsal tracks that were taken from a drunken YouTube livestream. They turned out decent, so we added them as a bonus.

Forgive me here if I may be wrong, but on the title track the synth portion is more prominent giving the song a more atmospheric touch. Was this intentional and would Mordant Rhed explore more with this?
RV: Yes, this is true. We like using synth to add a more horror sound, but we will not be prominently using keyboards like symphonic bands such as Carach Angren and Cradle of Filth.

Synth, when done right, can really add a dark atmosphere to a song. However, the overbearing, orchestral keys can ruin a song.

Mordant Rhed has taken a very DIY approach regarding the ethos for the music? How important is this underground ethic for you? Also, regarding social media, you have been picking up traction, how do you feel regarding this?
RV: From the beginning, we have always wanted to do everything ourselves. Up to this point, we have produced all our releases. Everything is DIY, the recordings, paying for pressing the physical copies and producing music videos.

However, we were approached by Goat Throne records about doing a full length. So, we came to terms, and they will be releasing our debut full length.

Social media, on the surface, is complete shit. However, we use it to our advantage. It is a great outlet to talk shit to people and cover new bands.

Regarding live performances, would you ever bring this entity out to the open and in your own words, how would you describe the perfect Mordant Rhed performance, what chaos and debauchery would it include?
RV: Ahh yes, we plan to get back out this year for live shows later this year. A perfect show is filled with alcoholic degenerates yelling obscenities.

NP: I want to see vomit in the crowd and also some titty.

If I’m not mistaken, the full-length album is already finished, can you give any morsels of detail on what to expect?
RV: Yeah, as mentioned above, we are currently working on the full length for Goat Throne. It will be called “Eat Pussy for Satan.” First, it will be pressed on cassette and CD. Then possibly in the future we will do vinyl.

Ironically, we never planned on doing a full length. We were just going to release EPs. However, we are looking forward to working with Goat Throne.

Most of the recordings are complete. We just need to record some extra guitar tracks then mix a

The basic tracks were all recorded live. It is very important to have that organic feel to the sound. We are not interested in a crappy, sterile, overly triggered produced sound. I fucking hate that shit. As with all our releases, we want them to sound like a real band. No slick production. That kind of shit has no character.

NP: I want all the songs to sound like raw unintelligible shit but unfortunately, I have to compromise

How do you wish Mordant Rhed to be in the future, regarding its ideology and aggression, what would you want from it?
RV: For the future, we plan to continue releasing confrontational songs. Fuck people. There are very few people that I actually like being around.

NP: I daydream about running people over every day, so there will always be inspiration.

Ending with the interview, I want to express my gratitude for having this conversation… Thank you! I shall leave the last few words with you, what shall you like to depart onto the readers?
RV: Hey thanks for the interest in the band. Also, we want to thank all who have been ordering our releases. There are tons of people I could name who have been overly helpful to us. Also, check out our YouTube channel. Besides info about our band, there are tons of videos about a variety of metal content.