Qntal is a German "electro-medieval" band founded in 1991 by Michael Popp and Ernst Horn. They later added vocalist Syrah to complete the band.
The band has roots in Estampie, an acoustic band based on "authentic" Early music, whereas Qntal is a dark electronic "crossover" project. 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 then joined Qntal. In 2008, singer and violist Sarah M. Newman 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" is an unknown word that appeared in one of Syrah's dreams. Pronounced by her as [kɑn-tʌl].