Content warning: This article discusses depression and suicidal thoughts, and includes references to self-harm themes in lyrics and song titles. If you’re struggling or feeling unsafe, consider reaching out to someone you trust or a local support service in your country. If you’re in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.
Gravemoon’s purest identity shines in three uncomplicated elements: minimal additives, classic black metal, and a DSBM label that mirrors the lyrical mindset.
Before Happiness Destitution arrived, the duo shared the lyrics. Likely the first outsiders to see them. They matched the album’s tone perfectly: blunt, icy, relentless by design. “Heavy is the air.” “A suffocating sadness.” “Solitary confinement for the soul.” No flowery embellishment. Just honesty, page after page, as if penned just to endure the dark.
Maryland’s Gravemoon consists of two: Glass handles instrumentation and mixing while A. Lone delivers vocals and words. Their latest, Happiness Destitution, dropped 22 October 2025. Unrefined black metal with gripping melodies, intentionally untouched in production. Even the vocals, raw and single-take, straight from the kitchen.
“We’re not really in the market of releasing singles.”
The title Happiness Destitution feels like two ideas pulling against each other. What does it mean to you, and why did it have to be the album title?
A. Lone: Happiness Destitution was a title I came up with as a way to convey being utterly spent with the joys of life. To hit rock bottom and be destitute – out of happiness. It’s meant to grab attention with a punch.
Where did this record start, as a feeling or a moment, and when did you realise it was turning into a full album?
Glass: A. Lone mentioned wanting to start a new Gravemoon record, and I began recording tracks soon after. Every project we make together comes together naturally and on a whim. There’s never too much pre-planning or stress over it, but that’s not to say we don’t put our all into the music.
A. Lone: When working with Glass, we always aim for full-length EPs, demos, or albums. We’re not really in the market of releasing singles. Being in the underground doesn’t foster much attention, so there’d be little point in only putting out single five-minute tracks here and there. Instead, we’ve always wanted to make longer releases that we ourselves would be proud of making and listening to.
“I’m really only able to write my Gravemoon lyrics in moments of deep loneliness.”
Your lyrics live close to heavy subjects. What line do you draw between honesty and turning pain into an aesthetic?
A. Lone: I’m really only able to write my Gravemoon lyrics in moments of deep loneliness. It coincides with any feelings of depression I might have. I think the Happiness Destitution release was pivotal in my emotional release at the time. Expressions of great solitude in a world such as ours seemed natural to me, and it had to come out eventually. As for the suicidal touches in the lyrics: I’ve always thought I could have done it, so I go into that subject matter in an honest way. I don’t see it as an aesthetic pull.
When you write, what tells you a song is finished, especially when the mood you’re dealing with is never really “finished”?
Glass: On the instrumental side, it’s as simple as feeling satisfied with whatever riffs I come up with. I go strictly off feel when it comes to deciding whether an instrumental is finished or not. For Gravemoon, I do feel simple and catchy riffs are key, and I know a track is a good one when the riffs are stuck in my head even after I shut my computer off for the day.
What does “intensity” mean to you on this album?
A. Lone: Intensity is a good choice of words. I started off as a black metal vocalist, coming up on two years now, and I always had the Satanic Warmaster vision. For Gravemoon, I take that intensity toward the finales of select tracks as an ultimate release of suffering. And I believe it’s better for it.
How do you approach vocals on this material so they sound lived-in?
A. Lone: They’re raw, recorded one-take vocals in a dude’s kitchen.
What do you keep private when you write, and what do you deliberately put in the open because it needs air?
A. Lone: I don’t feel like I hold anything back or keep anything private. I put my pains out there, and I’ve always been honest and true to myself.
What was the most difficult part of making this record, in a practical sense, and what was the most difficult part in a personal sense?
Glass: Nothing about the process is ever very difficult. I guess mixing the tracks would be the most difficult part, but that’s more because it’s tedious.
A. Lone: Practically, nothing was particularly difficult for me. Personally, I’d say it was conveying my emotional distress onto paper. The lyrics themselves tend to flow naturally, but I always want to know it’ll translate, not only for myself, but for listeners as well.
“I despise sterile-sounding music.”
What decisions did you make during recording and mixing to protect the album’s atmosphere?
Glass: To keep it as unprocessed and raw as possible while still keeping each individual element audible and distinct. It’s basic leveling, plus some saturation, reverb, and delay. I use very little compression because I despise sterile-sounding music.
A. Lone: For Gravemoon, I always want to keep the raw black metal sound quality of the vocals. The dingy, echoey wail of torment is what I feel is best suited for this band.
How do you think about pacing across the tracklist, and what do you want the listener to feel by the time it ends?
A. Lone: With Happiness Destitution, I think the overall flow and pace is quite good. The beginning is made with repetitive riffs that draw you into a trance-like state, complete with wretched vocals of misery. That’s why it’s called “Fugue Familiarity” – exactly what I wanted the beginning to feel like. A fugue state that we all know and shun. Toward the end, we up the ante. “Garden of Death” is brimming with feeling and a headbanging groove. Then the finale of unbridled suffering I had to get out on “Suicide Is Bad For Your Health.” Lastly, I wanted reprieve from all of it, and wrote “Victim of Happiness.”
“There is always good art to be enjoyed, and other similar pleasures. Live only for yourself and not for society.”
If someone comes to this album because they’ve been through similar headspaces, what do you hope they take from it after a full listen?
Glass: Know that your outlook on life is probably correct. It is mostly objectively terrible. However, you can always make the best of it and see the silver linings in things. There is always good art to be enjoyed, and other similar pleasures. Live only for yourself and not for society.
A. Lone: I want others to feel a sense of catharsis. Not as a means to their own ending, but as a way to enjoy what other individuals – feeling just as alone or depressed – might have to offer in artistic form. I don’t wish to use my depressions as a means of exploiting others, or wishing others to commit suicide. Gravemoon is a look into our personal lives, and ultimately it’s for Glass and me to enjoy creating. I’m thrilled others enjoy it with us.
“A full-length is definitely next.”
What’s next for Gravemoon, and what do you already know you want to change in the way you write or record the next release?
Glass: A full-length is definitely next. I plan to be more meticulous with the arrangement of the instrumentals – multi-tracking the guitars and adding bass guitar this time. Before, everything was single-tracked and had no bass.
A. Lone: The next Gravemoon album will be titled Grandeur World of Suffering. It’ll take on a more atmospheric black metal approach, but it will still feature the same vocal performance I’ve always done: vicious and spiteful. I hope it still connects with us as we continue, and with fans of the previous releases. We won’t stray too far into the mountain-landscape side of atmospheric black metal, but we do want a frigid and lonesome feeling.
You can hear Happiness Destitution and follow what Gravemoon do next on their Bandcamp.
