(written by Islander)
The Danish band Helge describe their amalgam of black and death metal as “spiritual metal”. Of course, many other metal bands also invoke spiritual concepts, but more often that not they’re talking about such things as diabolical spirits of vengeance, malign alien gods that venture forth from the void, or getting fueled up by ethanol spirits and running wild. That is not what Helge mean.
Instead, they delve into themes that include the presence of common bonds among people, the need to make a less violent world more nurturing of nature (and each other), and other ideas that point toward spiritual uplift rather than downfall. Their most recent album, Gidinawendimin (released on November 1st of last year) is (as they explained) “an ancient word from the Ojibwe people that means ‘we are all related.'”
Last year we premiered an exhilarating video for the album’s closing song “Keep the Fire Burning,” a song that lyrically exhorts listeners to “stand aside from ego,” to forsake anger and poison, to “return to the core of the spirit,” and thus to become reborn, and to rise.
And now we have another video premiere for yet another emotionally powerful song from that same album. This one is “Zoongide`e“.
Here are some words from Helge about the song: “The song is about being strong in this crazy world and inspired by the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Be strong and have the courage to shine on. Shine on….”
On this song Helge‘s two vocalists are joined by a third one, the folk singer Nanna Barslev, and you’ll see and hear her in the video by DantheNocta, much of which was filmed during a live performance by the band.
If you’re a newcomer to Helge, you might assume from the band’s spiritual inspirations as we’ve described them that what you’re about to hear is gentle or rustic, but you would be wrong. The music is heavy, dark, and ultimately fierce. It begins in a way that is slow, bleak, and grim before it begins building toward zeniths of heart-pounding power.
Nanna Barslev‘s solemn, haunting voice and glimmering tones add to the sorrowful darkness of the song’s overture but also create a mystical aura. The drumming becomes more animated, scalding screams join in, and the music flows in daunting and distressing waves. Barslev‘s singing changes as well, delivering soaring wails of striking intensity.
As foretold above, the song becomes ferocious and determined (though still dark), through an amalgam of blasting drums, gargantuan snarls and growls, and dense, heavily drilling riffage. The music is relentlessly dramatic and emotionally moving; the trade-offs and combinations among the differing vocal styles, and the sheens of shimmering brilliance in the music’s upper reaches, have a lot to do with that.
It’s a vigorously head-moving and body-heaving song too, but there remains something forlorn about its atmosphere as the music segues again from passages of charging fire into a closing period of mysticism and mourning, indeed a spiritual experience, elevated once more by Nanna Barslev‘s beautiful but heart-breaking voice.
In addition to Nanna Barslev, Gidinawendimin includes a guest vocal appearance by Sonja Rosenlund Ahl (Panzerchrist) and cello performances by Inger Juhl (Kellermensch). The album was mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen (Invocator, Volbeat, Amaranthe). To stream and acquire the album, visit the locations linked below.
BANDCAMP:
https://helgeofficialband.bandcamp.com/
SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/38ZcUJWxVQZWS8kkFlN74z
FOLLOW HELGE:
https://www.facebook.com/helgeofficialband
https://www.instagram.com/helgeofficialband