I like projects that are unique, and this project is one I’ve been following with fervour since discovering them during Covid. If you have not heard their music before, you’re in for a sincerely unique offering of which I cannot find a good descriptor to describe what exactly you’ll be experiencing.
Were you looking for instrumental, doom-inspired, avant-garde post-black metal project with a saxophone? Well, look no further.
Didn’t think your doom or black metal music needed a saxophone or jazz influences? Again, look no further to see why that misconception needs eliminated from your thoughts.
Emerging from the depths of London’s experimental underground, Five The Hierophant have carved out a sonic world that defies any simplistic categorisation. Fusing elements of doom, metal, jazz, ambient, and drone, the band conjures dense, ritualistic soundscapes that feel both cosmic and primal. Their music unfolds like a trance, a wordless invocation built on texture, rhythm, and atmosphere rather than traditional melody. In a musical landscape obsessed with genre boundaries, Five The Hierophant are genuinely a unique experience, both visually and sonically.
You can definitely try to describe them as a kind of doom-y, atmospheric-y black metal jazz band, but in reality they defy all genres tropes and expectations. It simply has to be experienced to be understood.
Because their sound doesn’t fit neatly into any specific genre, you’ll find Five The Hierophant performing everywhere from Desertfest to Brutal Assault. Their music only sounds like itself, therefore I’d argue FTH aren’t just unique to metal – they’re unique to music as a whole.
To understand more about the project’s origins, deeper meanings, and what the future holds for one of the most unique forces in the UK today, I’m speaking with Kali to get some answers from the source.
Five The Hierophant Interview – With Kali, by D.
Appreciate your time today, Kali. I always like to start by asking, in your own words, what is Five The Hierophant and how did the project all begin? What gave you the idea to mix all these styles from dark ambient, doom, jazz, and beyond, to create this colourful concoction of chaos?
Hello. Five the Hierophant is a space we have found, or we have created maybe, in which we can experiment, exchange ideas, develop our own language. It was largely a tabula rasa with no preconceptions or rigid rules at first. But once we started bringing more and more ideas to the perimeter, a clear direction was revealed, and after one step we took another and another.
And as it turns out we have a pretty well defined concept by now, which defeats the whole initial purpose, but its out of our hands now. It lives a life of its own and we are mere vessels, messengers of a thing greater than us. I think the beginning of the bad was in 2014, I had to look it us cause I could not remember. I personally didnt really want to start another band, and certainly not another serious band, as I already had so many projects on my plate. All I wanted was to jam, no commitment. And yet, here we are. I remember there was one singular moment that inspired me in that time. I went to see Swans play live and by chance saw Zu play before them that night. Something must have happened there and then, planets aligned or someone dropped acid in my drink, because I had an epiphany.
I always struggle to define your sound or influences when telling people to check out your work, so I feel a great place to go next would be to ask were there any musical influences that helped shape the creation of this project in the beginning? Have these influences changed over time? And how would you best describe the project yourself?
That is a correct reaction, because I struggle to define our sound or influences too. Talking about music is a bit like dancing to architecture. Makes zero sense because music cannot be described accurately with words. All you can do is describe your perception, and that is very subjective by definition. So all I can say really broadly speaking, I take inspiration from old school black metal band, like old Samael, Necromantia, Varathron, Mystifier, Then its a lot of experimental music, Coil, In slaughter natives, deutsch nepal, some post punk like Siekiera (Nowa Aleksandria) or Klaus Mittfoch. On top of that comes all the influences that arrive with the other guys, of which I cannot speak. But you see, if I tell you these names of bands that inspired me you dont get anywhere in describing the our music, because we dont sound like any of them at all. Therein lies the trouble of trying to describe music with words.
What does the composition process look like for you guys? Is there a main songwriter, or is it a more collaborative offering from the go? Are there any differences in how you work with Five The Hierophant compared to how you work with Witchmaster?
Composition process varies slightly from one song to another. But for the clarity of illustration lets say, I bring an idea, a riff or a progression that we jam ad nauseam with the drums, add sax and bass lines, improvised or otherwise, and voila! I provide the initial block of marble and then we sculpt it around, so its a very much collaborative effort. In a way its silmilar to creative process of my other projets and bands, where I come up with the riffs and Inferno comes ups with drums and more riffs. So yeah, there are similarities. This is the composition starge. After which is the recording stage and that by friend is a different animal alltogether. There’s a lot of space for improvisation and freedom and a lot of unplanned things can happen. You cannot control everything. I tried that and it was a disaster.
As a project with more obscure-for-metal instruments (zither, tabla, guirros, etc) than average, how did you find the recording process at Cro’s Nest for Apeiron? Same question for Satanic Audio for the mastering, how was your experience with both? Were there any challenges combining all these more unique sounds with the harsher tones of distorted metal music?
Cros nest is a small local studio quite literally 5 minutes from my house, so it was very convenient to record there. We could go pretty much whenever, for a few hours, and record some new bits and layers. We brought a ton of instruments and objects that make noise, Tibetan horns that we use live but also one which is 3m long rag-dung, that I bought in Nepal, skulls filled with dry penne pasta for shakers, two out of tune violins, a whole bunch of bells, rotor toms, djembe, zither, some old fucking analog synths, and quite frankly my memory fails me in regard to what else. So it was rather handy that we did the recordings there, we were not constricted by time or travel arrangements, can you imagine if we had to travel to another city or country? The schedule was quite loose. and I must say the comfort of it all also had negative effect because rather than fitting your efforts into tight schedule and getting the job done in timely manner, we were fumbling for too long as result. Satanic Audio in Warsaw only did the mastering, none of us was present there so someone else did all the hard work for us.
On that, as a project that uses more obscure instruments than I can name, let’s talk about them. Is there any logic behind the selection of the zithers, tablas, guirros, shakers, and djembes, etc, or is it just free-flowing creation with whatever is at hand? Also, is there a place you recommend as a place to get these more obscure instruments in the UK?
The logic behind such strategy is not very logical. Look, these days you could potentially do all the work on a computer or keyboard, download some plugins and samples and get it done in an easy and efficient way. But that would be very sterile. And we are not after a sterile ambience. We are after organic, noisy, tribal ambience. A lot of the instruments could be replaced or even eliminated. But the more you add, the richer it becomes. Theres more organic sound to it. It also becomes richer in another sense. Like that time I went to Alistair Crowleys dilapidated ruin house in Cefalu, sat there and recorded some ambience and bells and shit like that, or to Dakashinkali temple with all the sacrifice blood rituals so record some ambience there and dump it into the recordings. If we are rational, that makes no sense whatsoever, but its important on a symbolic lever and definitely contributes to the unholy aura. So with all the other instruments that we mentioned its the weird frequencies and archaic feel in the music itself, but also symbolism of it all that goes beyond the frequencies. Its like the bored high society people in 19 century doing seance and trying to capture spirits with photography. of course it isnt reasonable, quite naive i’d say. But these photographs capture and reflect something, not the spirits but rather exaltation with the otherworldly and the power it has over some people.
Sticking with Apeiron, which roughly translates to something like boundless, unlimited, or infinite. I find it quite fitting, as to me there seems to be no limitations placed upon your music. But I wanted to ask you directly, was there any deeper meaning behind selecting this word for the album title?
Apeiron is a concept in ancient greek philosophy. The word means boundless. There isnt any narrative or deeper meaning connected to the track or the album, this would be besides the point in case of an all instrumental album, but it gives you something to think about when you listen to it and read about what ancient greeks thought of how the world is constructed.
Also, who made that excellent logo of yours? It is definitely one of my favourites going around right now. It’s creative, trippy, but still sleek and stylish. It’s very nicely done, who created that?
Well that would be me. Thank you very much. My pleasure.
Alright, let’s get esoteric. Five. The Hierophant. Now, I’ll admit my knowledge on tarot is limited at best, but to me the card represents the search for truth, guidance, illumination, and the like. But, I wanted to know what does this card mean to you and why did you pick it specifically for this project?
Ok lets get esoteric. I am a rational person, and as such dont know too much about tarot and such things. Maybe itll surprise you but I dont concern myself with the occult other than anthropological perspective. Its like a type of folk superstition that is fascinating but only from a perspective of reason. Some people unable to bear the burden of uncertainty, look for hidden meanings and signs, and when they do, they will surely find someone clever who will give them what they seek. I dont seek hidden truths, because the only approximation of truth can be revealed through scientific method. Also I dont have any answers to give. I only use the mystic symbolism of it all as a tool for my artistic expression.
Sticking on the theme of esotericism, we’re big fans of the ancient, occult, esoteric, and arcane, over here at Mithraic Magazine. With that in mind, is there any literature you can recommend? Either for your fans to get to know the deeper meanings behind the project, or just generally for our readers – what does Kali and FTH recommend?
Im pretty sure you guys are familiar with Mircea Eliade. If not, I strongly recommend it, especially liked his works on shamanism, and also the myth of eternal return, dealing with the theme of us living within the symbolic space of the myths and archetypes that we consciously and unconsciously recreate in daily life. Absolute must. I should recommend Herman Hesse – Siddhartha to anyone interested in an introspective journey of self discovery. Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hanna Arendt, really cool if youre into the final solution. Ants At Work, a really interesting book about the life of ants. Histories by Herodotus, ancient Greeks and Persians in the eyes of the first historian, ever. I also like Vonnegut and Houllebecq. Not necessarily esoteric but just good reads.
Outside of the arcane and esoteric above, is there anything else you or FTH recommends?
I recommend films by Derek Jarman, Jodorowsky – master of transcendental surrealism. Brutal works of Michael Haneke. My favourites are Lars von Trier and David Lynch of course. Some say even FTH is like a Lynchian soundtrack.
I always like to know who are some of the more obscure or underground artists that you believe should get more recognition for their contributions to the craft? And, following from that, who are some of the more non-metal artists you appreciate?
Out of metal I’ll say I can recommend Blood Incantation, Oranssi Pazuzu, Aluk Todolo, Hauntologist. Terrestrial Hospice. Furia. New Rotting Christ is phenomenal. From the non metal realm, I’ll say the Wędrowcy Tułacze Zbiegi first and 2nd album are masterpieces. Also Błoto, polish jazz group, absolutely mesmerizing. Comet is Coming. Heilung is my new favorite. Im also heavily into Rome, and ofc other neofolk like Death in June, but seriously, Rome is just so good.
[Editor’s note: We’re also big fans of Furia, check them out!]
Ok, as we’re drawing to a close, it would be a good time to ask what does the rest of this year and 2026 have in store for Five The Hierophant? What’s in the plans?
Our new album is pretty much there, ready, composed, written, just perfecting the last bits. Soon we’ll start recordings, hopefully still this year. in 2026 we have 3 tours, first eu, then small uk tour with hemelbestormer and in october I think eu with baltic states. Theres a number of festivals booked too. We’ll be very busy.
Finally, before we finish for today, is there anything you’d like to add before we end?
I want to thank you for the support and want to extend my gratitude to all [the] guys in Romania, youre always great to us and we’ll be happy to visit you again soon I hope.
Appreciate your time, Kali!
HTBLOF.
And there we go, direct from the source itself.
Five The Hierophant stand as a rare alchemical force in modern music, a band that dissolves boundaries between metal, jazz, drone, and ritualistic soundscapes. Their work is less a collection of songs and more an immersive journey through shadow and transcendence, where ambience outweighs melody and atmosphere becomes revelation.
If you’ve not already, you should definitely check out some of Five The Hierophant’s work. Through Aureate Void was one of my favourite albums in 2021, and the same can be said for Apeiron in 2024 which only improved what has come before it, and in my opinion, is their best work to date.
With each release, FTH continues to summon a sound that feels both ancient and futuristic all at once. They are the proof that true heaviness doesn’t just crush – it transforms!
Remember, if you like it – and can afford to do so – you should buy it.
Mithraic Magazine 
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