Cryptic Wintermoon was founded 1993 out of former members of the band Black Prophecies. This first formation consisted of the following members:Bernd Seeberger (vocals/keyboards), Larsen Beattie (guitars), Christian Reichel (bass guitar) and Marek Karakasevic (drums).
With this formation Cryptic Wintermoon played a few local concerts. At the end of 1994 Bernd Seeberger decided to leave the band because of personal reasons. Ronny Dörfler, the vocalist of a local Thrash band called Terrible Somnium took the place behind the Cryptic Wintermoon microphone.
Later drummer Marek had been replaced with the former Terrible Somnium guitar player Alexander Pöhlmann. With this line-up the band recorded the demo-tape "Voyage Dans La Lune" in August 1995, which was mainly sold in the underground.
As Ronny decided to concentrate on his part as singer, Andrea Walter came into the band to play the keys.Musicial and personal differences between Christian Reichel and the rest of the band almost lead to the end of Cryptic Wintermoon.
So the split in summer of 1996 was unavoidable. Christian Ender took upon the part of the bass and background vocals. A second guitar player, Jochen Kressin, completed the line-up.In March 1997, the MCD "Cryptic Wintermoon" was recorded in the Frost studios in half a year later in October the MCD was published without a label.
In the same month, Jochen decided to study and was no longer possible for him to play with Cryptic Wintermoon. He was replaced by Michael Schürger. In this formation the band played a lot of concerts in Germany with bands like Desaster, Night In Gales, Purgatory, Agathodaimon, Ancient Rites, Impending Doom… And managed to make a name in the underground as a Black/Death/Thrash Metal band.
In autumn 1998, Cryptic Wintermoon released a split EP with the band Lord Astaroth, containing “Shadowland” (re-recorded) and “Beyond The Night”. The split EP was distributed by Perverted Taste Records.
Because of still no label deal, a promo-tape with four songs was recorded. After that tape, Ars Metalli offered a contract in December 1998. And so the recordings for the long player "The Age Of Cataclysm" started in May 1999 in the famous Frost studios, which had developed into a professional studio.
In November the album was released. It contained eleven songs with 60 minutes playing time. “The Age Of Cataclysm” got best results Metal magazines like Rock Hard (9 of 10 pts), Heavy Or What (10 of 12 pts).
After the recordings Christian Ender decided to give up active music and Alexander Pöhlmann had to give up because of his eardrum. Both were replaced by Jens "Jason" Löhner (bass) and Andreas "Goatie" Schmidt (drums) known from the Death Metal band Violation.
Cryptic Wintermoon finally quit the record deal with Ars Metalli cause the label didn’t pay anything and also didn’t do shit for the band.Again without deal a new 5 track promo CD was recorded and later on the complete "A Coming Storm" album; the band managed to sign a deal with Massacre Records.
After the recordings of the album, the bass player Jason lost interest in the band and the music, and was replaced by Gary Kietz. “A Coming Storm” was released in May 2003 and got again very good reviews: 8,5/10 RockHard, 10/12 Heavy Oder Was, 89/100 Metalreviews.
com…After the release of "A coming Storm" the new guy on the Bassguitar had to drop out of the band because he wasnt able to play Bassguitar anymore cause of a serious injury. A new Bassplayer was found in the 18 year old Nicolaj Rüster woh also plays guitar in the Band "Angelus Mortis".
Discography Voyage Dans La Lune Demo, 1995 Cryptic Wintermoon EP, 1997 Franconian Frost Split, 1998 The Age of Cataclysm Full-length, 1999 A Coming Storm Full-length, 2003 of Shadows…And the Dark Things You Fear Full-length, 2005
