XANTOTOL

Formed in July 1991 in Kutno, featuring guitarist/lead vocalist Ma?a and drummer Jacek "Venom" Szczepa?ski. Szczepa?ski suggested the band name, which according to Nightmare's vocalist Tomasz Lema?ski, it meant to be a nickname of a magus. Editor of Euronymous Zine, Amon Magazine, Vox Mortis Magazine and Novum Vox Mortis Magazine Micha? Kraszewski designed the logo. They experienced some problems in the early days to find a place to rehearse – they eventually played at the local Dom Kultury, once a week, from the beginning embracing a black metal sound.

In April 1992, Xantotol recorded a demo entitled Glory for Centuries, released through Devilish Sounds Production. Janusz W?odarczyk from Dawn of Satans Millenium zine, designed the new band logo. The title-track appeared on The Blackest, one of the first black metal compilations in Poland. The same year, bassist Igor from Mastomah was invited to join the band but eventually refused. In the meantime Szczepa?ski was offered to join Necrochrist and collaborate on the The Lord of Damnation project from the group Signum Salomonis, but the idea was shelved. During this period, Szczepa?ski also formed the Fullmoon collective, which teamed up with leading satanic organizations, such as Order of Nine Angel from England, Luciferian Light Group from USA and Order of the Left-Hand from New Zealand, distributing in Poland didactic satanic cult material and literature. Subsequently, the band would severe itself from the organization, creating The Temple of Fullmoon.

Ma?a’s primary school mate Siwy joined the band in 1993, without taking part in the song-writing. On September 17th, Xantotol recorded at the KDK Studio, with the collaboration of Waldemar Osiecki from Alastor and Krzysztof Szejki, the new demo Cult of the Black Pentagram. Pagan Records was the band's first choice to release the new material but decided to sign with Witching Hour Productions instead by suggestion of their subgenre friends. Szczepa?ski started playing avant-garde music with Siwy’s band Bicz in the meantime.

In 1995, the band entered the KDK Studio again with Krzysztof Szejki to record the EP Thus Spake Zarathustra in one 12-hour session. The new songs were released through Witching Hour Productions. The record label's owner Bart?omiej Krysiuk proposed US label Wild Rags Records releasing the EP and Cult of the Black Pentagram on CD, but there was eventually no agreement due to financial problems – Cult of the Black Pentagram cassettes sent to Wild Rags Records also got lost. Siwy was then given his walking papers. Piotr Nastarowicz from Sauron was invited to join the band as second-guitarist, though the proposal didn't come to fruition. Despite going through line-up changes, they managed to record new material for CD and vinyl.

In August 1996 the band was working on new material for a record entitled The Devil, which was nearly finished – though Witching Hour Productions suspended funding for the recording, without explanation. Xantotol planned to record again some of the new songs in the spring 1997 at their own expense but they eventually broke-up. Following the band’s disintegration, Ma?a joined Kayzen. In 2004, Kampf Records re-released all the band’s recordings on CD – Witching Hour Productions remastered Thus Spake Zarathustra at the Hertz Studio in September 2009.