Today we renew our admiration for the Swiss duo Ernte, whose music we’ve previously described as “black metal that’s atmospheric and immersive, creating nightside experiences of mysticism and old magic”, but also simultaneously delivering “visceral punch and mind-scarring intensity”. Ernte’s music, we’ve written, “can be disorienting, depressive, unsettling, and even deranged, but it’s still very easy to fall prey to the music’s unearthly sorcery”.
What we’ve fallen prey to this time is a song named “The Witch (Was Born In Flames)” from Ernte‘s forthcoming third album Weltenzerstörer (“world destroyer”), which will be released by the esteemed Vendetta Records on June 7th.
Before providing the premiere of this song stream, we should put it in the context of the album as a whole, which Ernte describe as follows:
Weltenzerstörer is not a concept album, yet it can generally be said that the album’s lyrics embody a misanthropic attitude. It is about consciously chosen loneliness and the search for a higher meaning. But it is also an invocation of ancient forces and spirits in order to create new ones with the destruction of today’s sick world(s) and to give nature more space again.
The cover was created by a graphic designer we came across on social media. His image immediately appealed to us and, in our eyes, fits the album title perfectly: Next to the sea monster, the ‘world destroyer’, the few humans seem tiny and almost disappear. This world destroyer is also conjured up in a satanic ritual in the form of Leviathan in our first single/video “Ruler of Chaos, bringer of storm“, for example.
But Weltenzerstörer (“world destroyer”) doesn’t just mean the destruction of our earth – the plural “worlds” is a deliberate choice. The world of sick thoughts. The world of false feelings. The world of consumption, or the world of manipulation. The world of religions, which we all deeply despise.
That first single, “Ruler of Chaos, bringer of storm“, does sound like a ritual at first, an invocation of a dreadful power expressed through steady beats, dissonant and dismal chords, and fanatical screams. And then the dense, harsh riffing seethes and roils, wails and becomes tormented, and the shrieks seem even more excruciating — the terrible power seems to be rising.
Leviathan answers the call, with drums blasting, guitars burning but still haunting, as if simultaneously expressing both the violence of the destroyer and the misery that follows its ravages. The beats then stalk and the music ominously (and poisonously) looms in chilling grandeur, and casts a desolate, frightening, and seasick spell.
The video that Ernte made for the song proves to be just as gripping as the music:
And that brings us to the song we’re premiering today, which Ernte describe this way:
“The Witch (was born in flames)” is an anti-witch-burning song. A woman is born from the flames and draws her wild power from them – the opposite of witch-burning, where fire leads to death. On another level, the song shows that basically it’s all about the way you use energy – it’s neither positive nor negative in itself.
In its music, the song immediately sends chills down the spine with an eerie, abrasively rendered melody and another dose of those cauterizing screams. The beats move even slower than in the first single, a grim, staggering march matched with a heavy growling bass.
As the guitar rings like a phalanx of fractured bells, the music is doomed and despairing in its mood – and becomes even more desperate and disturbing, but also more vast and unearthly. Shocking in their intensity, the vocals seem to move from wretchedness to fury as the bass and drums thunder and canter and the riffage burns.
The song has been building, and reaches its zenith with blazing waves of sound, battering percussion, and frantically flickering leads that seem to channel delirium and ecstasy. But the song changes again, slowing and shimmering, becoming mysterious and magical, reprising its opening movements — including the emotional atmosphere of agony and gloom.
Once again, the video is as mysterious and captivating as the music.
Like Ernte‘s previous creations, Weltenzerstörer is the work of Häxär (guitars, bass, drums) and Askahex (vocals, bass, violin), who is also frontwoman and multi-instrumentalist in the black/doom metal band Ashtar. The album was recorded and mixed by Häxär at Inferno Studio, Switzerland, and it was mastered by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studio, UK.
There won‘t be a pre-order for the album, but you can learn more via the links below. Vendetta will make it available on Vinyl, CD, cassette tape, and digital formats.
VENDETTA:
https://www.vendetta-records.com
https://vendetta-records.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/vendettacult
ERNTE:
https://linktr.ee/ernteblackmetal
https://www.facebook.com/ernteblackmetal
https://www.instagram.com/ernte_blackmetal/
https://ernteblackmetal.bandcamp.com