Doomed Confessionary: Hakuka, Ryu, Ame & Bato (Sun Moon Holy Cult)
Sun Moon Holy Cult is a psychedelic stoner/doom metal band from Tokyo, Japan. Formed in 2022, they are deeply influenced by Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General, Acid King, and Belzebong.
Their self-titled debut EP was just released on May 4th, 2024 via Captured Records (Japanese version) and SloomWeep Productions (Chinese version).
Sun Moon Holy Cult are Hakuka on vocals, Ryu on guitar, Ame on bass and Bato on drums.
Can you say a few words about your band?
Hi, We Are Sun Moon Holy Cult. We’re a stoner doom/FFOBR band formed in 2022 in Tokyo, Japan, but actually all band members are Chinese. Since the four of us are all Doomania who are so into Electric Wizard/Acid King/Sleep, the same music taste and mercyful fate led us to meet in Tokyo.
We just released our new self-titled EP »Sun Moon Holy Cult« on May 4th. Hope you guys enjoy it.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
At the beginning, we were not professional players and just tried to start messing up together in this band. So, we decided to start with zero and return to the roots. By nailing a lot of dooming riffs like Sabbath/Acid King/Sleep and improvising as much as we could to find our own genre. We gave a lot of shots. But you know, basing on classic innovations is not an easy way. The process was torturous as hell because we couldn’t find the perfect direction that the four of us wanted to express together and now, we are still processing.
Another challenge is to blend our own cult culture into occidental doom sense, to combine the Oriental cult culture. Now we pull Hong Kong’s 80s~90s cult films, Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, Sky Burial and so on into our pots, and let us see what happens.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Our pride is tame. We’re proud that we’ve enjoyed every moment of band life, stoner doom life, listening to slow heavy music, enjoying our lives, then creating, deranging, and having fun all the way through.
In the sounds of our album, we are proud of the sabbath roots for giving us Prometheus’ fire of stoner doom and you can hear a lot of sabbath worship in our new release. Track Savooerdoom is a nice shot at our own oriental roots and one of our prides, we hope you can enjoy it.
What was your biggest regret?
We try to all make time to focus on the band while trying to handle our personal doomed life, and hopefully have more time to focus on jamming, composing or at least chilling.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
It’s a regret too. We just started about this two years ago and we’re still exploring and growing. Because we’re a new band as well as not having a lot of gigging opportunities. If we could get the chance in the future, hoping to be able to give you guys all the answers in every show.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
We based on east Asian country and we are so influenced by those great bands:
Eternal Elysium, Sabbath meet Japanese zen doom rock; Floaters, which are Southern American sludge vibes from inside to out; Nepenthes, full of doom n roll star adrenaline; King Of Lazy, a Chinese true stoner band from the land of mushrooms in Yunnan and the dark twisted sludge punk Sithter. Also, we can’t forget Church Of Misery, the legend of Japanese doom.
These bands always blew us away and had a big hit on us. They are all doing their great jobs and expressing their own cultures and feelings.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Electric Wizard and Acid King.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
We’re just fans and not musicians, just follow your heart and value the sound you hear from your deepest heart.
What are your guilty pleasures?
We’re “civilized” but playing barbarian music we will never understand. As Electric Wizard lyrics said.
Can you say something more about the music scene in Tokyo?
Tokyo’s underground music scene is brilliant and you can hear a lot of different cool bands of all genres and the Live House, they are all professional.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Unfortunately we need more gigs but we don’t have good opportunities to go out and play live, and right now we’re mainly playing live around Kōenji, Tokyo. We hope that the organizers will invite us more.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Keep making a new full album and find the sound that belongs to us. Meanwhile, we will keep searching for opportunities for the live shows so that more people can hear our sound and may want to go to more countries to see stoner doom festivals or play shows to experience the doom life around the world.
How can people best support your band?
We would be grateful if you could buy our music track and merch on Bandcamp, and we would be very appreciative if live organizers could give us some opportunity to make more gigs happen!
Do you have any message for your listeners?
࿊ Be Bongwater, My Friend ࿊
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well