Can you give short Cryptic Tales biography? When was Cryptic Tales started? What have you released, the line-up and such.
Cryptic Tales began in 1989. In 90’s Poland we were the band who along with Vader made a Death Metal scene in harsh socialist conditions. We played gigs in Poland, Germany, Slovakia. At that time our three albums and one demo have been released.

‘The Sign of the Southern Cross” (demo 1
991) “Anathema” MC (Carnage Records 1993)
“Valley of the Dolls” MC (Gamma Records 1994)
“The Tales” MC (Croon Records 1997), CD (Awaken Prod. 1998) Germany.

The band Split-up in 1998. We came back in 2008 with the “VII Dogmata of Mercy” CD released in Poland by Empire Records. In 2009 “VII Dogmata of Mercy” was re-issued by American label Crash Music. In 2009 our older CDs “Valley of the Dolls” and “Anathema” were re-issued by Polish labels Psycho Records and Redrum 666 respectively.

The current Line-up:

Peter (guitars, vocals)
Jaro (drums)
Matejko (bass)
Bazyl (keys)
Drizzt (guitars)

Why did you choose the name Cryptic Tales? Does it hold any specific meaning?
This name doesn’t have any particular meaning. When we began we were 17, someone used that name and we like the way it sounded. Soon after that Christopher Szpajdel (who did logos for Emperor, Arcturus and many others) created a logo for us and it lasted until today.

In 2008 you came back after 7 years of silence, why did you choose to return? Why did it take 7 years?
We came back because we felt a big hunger to play music. When we were inactive there was a strong will to come back in our heads. When we rehearsed before recording “VII Dogmata of Mercy” it was really good. Everybody worked hard composing high quality stuff. We felt that we “take the bull by the horns”. Yes, we were inactive for a long, long time. I don’t know why it was so long. Probably we did not believe that after so many years we could do it again successfully.

Why did you end the band? Or was it just a very long break?
Cryptic Tales split up in 1998. We were fed up with constant struggle to build our career in unhelpful conditions. In a moment we simply gave up. We knew that we created good music but to come out we would have to write “Left Hand Path” Entombed but only 10 times better. It was all that we were from Poland and everything was amateur in this country. There were no media or organizations to promote Cryptic Tales abroad. Besides I think that it was much harder for a polish band to sign a decent deal with a label than it was for a western European band, only for the reason that it was from Poland. It goes like this today and it used to be like that in the 90’s. That was the reason why we split up. Nowadays we think in a different way because we treat the band as a hobby and we play music without all those big dreams and goals.

With the return came a new sound. Was this something that was planned, or did this new sound grow out of the rehearsals?
A new vision of Cryptic Tales’s music grew directly on rehearsals. Since we met we wanted to go back to the roots and we decided to play aggressive music. We play different stuff that we used to in the 90’s because we changed a lot. Our current line-up is made out of musicians who are “extreme-Metal oriented” and the result can be heard on our latest recording. We found what we wanted and we don’t imagine coming back to music we used to play in the early 90’s.

How has the feedback been on the new sound?
Cryptic Tales stopped to exist for almost 10 years. Almost everybody forgot about us so “VII Dogmata of Mercy” is seen by many fans as our debut. When we released “VII Dogmata of Mercy” it got big promotion from Empire Records. It reached thousands of fans who accepted ourselves as most of them did not remember us from earlier periods.

Any plans on returning to your original Death/Doom Metal sound?
To be honest in our new album we used Doom and Death Metal motifs, but they do not play major role. We did not resign from them, rather “minimized” them. We currently feel ok in our style and we do not plan to change it. “VII Dogmata of Mercy” was the beginning of our new route and this style is going to be improved.

I have only heard your first album and your latest. How would you describe your other albums?
“Valley of the Dolls”; this album has got a specific, sad and grim atmosphere. When we wrote the songs we wanted to experiment. To make it more original and attractive we put some flute parts into the songs. “Valley of the Dolls” is a sort of Metal experiment you know. “The Tales” is our slowest album. We turned the pace down but we made the guitars sound in a very heavy, Death Metal way. We also included some clean vocals.

Talk about your latest album "VII Dogmata of Mercy", are you satisfied with it? How would you describe it? The sound, the music, the concept etcetera.
Of course I’m happy with this album. “VII Dogmata of Mercy” is the most sophisticated of all our albums. The sound is good. What I like the most, though, is the fact that it is not an “easy-going” piece of music and you have to “masticate” it a few more times before you grasp it completely. Generally I don’t like albums which I enjoy since the first listening. Such CD most often goes straight to the shelf and “VII Dogmata of Mercy” requires some effort from listener.

Why did you name it "VII Dogmata of Mercy", it is not your seventh album? Or has it anything to do with the seven deadly sins?
The title does not have any particular concept. The last song has the similar meaning and we liked that title. As there are 7 songs on the album we included that number in the title.

How has the response to the album been? Both from the press and the public?
Press will always be press. You know what I mean. For some “VII Dogmata of Mercy” is an excellent album and it gets 10/10, and for other reviewers it is worthless stuff. Generally we are compared to Dimmu Borgir because we use symphonic arrangements in a similar way. I’m ok with that, but every time I read or hear that we are compared to Dimmu Borgir I want to laugh out loud because I’m not particularly acquainted with their music. I don’t have any CD and I don’t listen to them. We also get various feedback from fans, because some of them praise our music and some of them write that if we don’t come back to our previous style we’ll regret it.

How important are the lyrics for you? Could you describe your lyrical content and why they are based on such topics?
Lyrics is a pain in the ass for me, but when I write them I make sure that they are on a good level and reflect what happens on the album. I don’t want to put any ideology into words, so our lyrics are just epic tales without a particular meaning. I treat them same as scripts for horror movies.

Both "Anathema" and "Valley of the Dolls" have been re-released, any plans on re-realising "The Tales"? Or the demo "The Sign of the Southern Cross"?
Yes, we decided to re-issue “Valley of the Dolls” and “Anathema” because we were frequently asked about them. Many people said they would like to have our older albums on CD, so we had them re-issued. People asked about those two so we didn’t plan to re-issue our other stuff.

How has Cryptic Tales evolved over the years? How would you describe your music?
Basically, Cryptic Tales entered new dimensions of guitar harmony. I think it is the most important element of our development as a band. Today guitars in Cryptic Tales work in a more harmonic way that they used to in the past. We also frequently use changes of pace in one song. Today’s Cryptic Tales is a mixture of melody and aggression. We keep it in a good balance.

I saw that you have played live a couple of times. What do you think about playing live?
It is natural for us that if you’ve got a band you play concerts. Nothing compares to face to face contact with an audience and unique atmosphere of a metal gig. Concerts are natural thing for us.

When playing live do you play the older material, or only the new?
We play songs from “VII Dogmata of Mercy” only. We don’t come back to our older stuff. As I said before our last album is better known to fans so we avoid “torturing” them with our old songs.

What are the future plans of Cryptic Tales?
We want to record a new album. In a moment we will concentrate only on this goal. During working on a new album we are going to play concerts. We want to avoid being forgotten again.

Thanks for the interview, end in any way you like.
I also appreciate that I could speak on the pages of your magazine and I greet All who manager to the end of this interview.