Solbrud is back with their third album ‘Vemod’ (Danish for sadness). A work
where the band’s unique black metal accompanied by pessimistic premonitions of
the imminent fall of mankind forges a grandiose, poetic and deeply personal
expression. On ‘Vemod’, Solbrud opens up an all encompassing dimension of
sound and words, in which the listener encounters the tale of what we are, what
we were and what the world one day will be without us.
From the birth of Solbrud (Danish for sun breach) in 2009, the aim has been to forge
melodic and evocative compositions in a raw, storm-like expression; a sound generally
achieved by coupling unrelenting drumming with chord and harmony based guitar riffs
through an array of effects, creating an intense and atmospheric soundscape - or in
fewer words: Black metal. The debut ‘Solbrud’ was released in 2012, and in 2014
‘Jærtegn’ followed. Both albums and the quartet’s emotional and intense live
performances have since then consolidated Solbrud as a band with a special, artistic
vision unfolding in non-compromising and boundary pushing black metal.
Solbrud’s new album ‘Vemod’ draws from the longing, melodic approach, that signifies
the debut album, along with the infernal drive and complexity of the sequel. On ‘Vemod’,
Solbrud has cultivated their unique approach to songwriting even further and added
new elements in both composition and instrumentation. The focus on melody is
emphasized and the listener encounters a band which through working with complex
arrangements simultaneously challenges and pays respect to the proud traditions of the
genre. As the previous album ‘Jærtegn’, ‘Vemod’ is recorded with producer Lasse Ballade
(Slægt, Orm, Halshug) in his Ballade Studios in Copenhagen, this time during a freezing
January 2017. In addition, the legendary Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica, Morbid Angel,
Rainbow) has overseen the mastering in Sweet Silence North, where the album received
an old school tape mastering, which only enhances the band’s analogue and organic
sound.
‘Vemod’ unfolds a pessimistic view on man, its nature and its role in this world. Due to
its folly and greediness, mankind is on the verge of destroying itself, and the few who
have realised this must necessarily turn their backs to the world, as it has become, and
wander their own path - into the great wide open, into themselves, to return to their
origins and once again become one with nature and its forces. The few see what lies
ahead, they sense the fall and the eternal goodbye. From this ‘vemod’, a sadness emerges
due to our destiny, due to the loss, due to the world soon to be dead to mankind. This is
not a Fall in the Christian sense, but instead it is the ultimate fall: Man, who betrays
himself and his origin, nature and the good that might after all exist within us. The
rejection of the world, as it has become, emerges from love of nature that we are derived
from, and which we are in the process of destroying. But first, we will destroy ourselves
and when mankind has perished, nature and the universe will live on as had we never
been here.
As the bond with nature is a primary force in the lyrics, so it is in the music of Solbrud. In
similarity with nature, its facets are manifold displaying black metal’s broad potential of
expression by being both grand, organic, melodic and dissonant, of vivid narration as
well as direct and raw. Like an oak takes hundred years to become fully grown, Solbrud
takes the time to unfold their tales and in the process, the band creates a transcendental
musical condition capable of dissolving the experience of the now. As the few are driven
to turn their backs on mass culture in order to gaze inwards, the listener also has to
forsake the superficial and the obvious and instead devote herself to a now, that
demands complete presence. And when doing so, one is equally rewarded tenfold.
Landscapes arise, the horizon stretches and the mind expands, as one is submerged into
the music and encompassed by the realisation, which is usually forgotten, chased away
and betrayed in haste and mindless pursuit: A knowledge of the forthcoming destruction
as well as an reminder bidding us to live in accordance with the forces in and around
us….now, while we are still here.
