Qntal is a German "electro-medieval" band founded in 1991 by Michael Popp and Ernst Horn. They later added vocalist Syrah (Sigrid Hausen) to complete the band. It has roots in Estampie, a band of similar genre but different style; Michael Popp and Syrah are the principal members. Horn left the group in 1999, to concentrate on his other band, Deine Lakaien. He later formed Helium Vola in 2001. Philipp Groth (a.k.a. Fil) then joined Qntal. In 2008 singer and violinist Sarah M. Newman (Mariko) left the New York based band Unto Ashes to work with Qntal and Estampie in Germany.
The band's lyrics are primarily drawn from historical sources. Throughout their first three albums, lyrics were primarily in Latin, medieval German, Galician-Portuguese and a few other European tongues. On Qntal IV, the band added a few songs in English to their body of work. Two tracks from this album, Cupido and Flamma, reached the 2005 DAC, peaking at #1 and #8 respectively.
Qntal has headlined at significant goth and industrial music festivals such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen and M'era Luna. Qntal's debut U.S. concert took place in September 2004 at Dracula's Ball in Philadelphia. In 2007, 2008, and 2011 the band was featured in the Bad Faerie Ball at the Baltimore FaerieCon.
"Qntal" is a made-up word that appeared in one of Syrah's dreams. Its pronunciation varies among sources. However, Syrah herself, during live performances, pronounces it kn̩tal.
