(In this feature our friend Vizzah Harri shares his thoughts about two singles this year released by the Tennessee collective Vaelravyn.)
Wikipedia lists nearly 150 sun gods throughout human history, roughly 17%, or 26 of them, are Filipino in origin. Interesting fact number one, The Philippines have around 1000 deities listed on the page for Filipino mythological figures. Way more water gods than lords of light, wonder why? Must be wet there or something, perhaps they don’t even have a word for drought? They do, it’s ‘tagtuyot’. Absent father jokes aside, I lost count at around 981 seeing, as I refuse to use LLM’s, and Wikipedia lists both mortals and immortals in their mythological figures of The Philippines article, and quite a few of the gods like Diwati aka D’wata and Kabunyan aka Kabunian crossbred across islands and waterways putting Zeus to shame, so the actual number of gods is hard to count.
Fact number two, if your name is Alan, I have only known two in my life and they both left impressions on me of being pure souls that took life by the horns and lived it to the full, but if your first or last name is Alan, you might want to go read that Wikipedia article up there cos you might get some weird looks if you ever decide to visit the wonderful country of The Philippines. Of the two gods with that name I spotted, one was a shapeshifting corpse thief and the other one a cannibal; someone needed to do the honest work of scouring the internet to make a weirdly adjacent point after all.
I’ve been in Vietnam too long, and one complaint I’ve often heard from students when they bemoan one of their most hated subjects, literature, is that the authors always had this wild-goose-chase tactic in their storylines, going all around the forest to come back to the tree of import. Guess it rubbed off on me.
Fact three, Vaelravyn don’t endorse the use of LLM’s in art either. Not a big band by any measure, they only have 4 members and aren’t filling any stadiums just yet, but (yes you can see the telegraphed haymaker coming a nautical mile away) they are a band with big aspirations and they’re not the kind that just puts out content and writes music to get it out there before their sound is completely refined. This band that just migrated ‘villes in Tennessee, a move in itself is one of growth, bigger pool bigger fish, what better move to make than to go to Music City itself?
Relatively unknown band on underground news site, what’s new? I just got promoted to Rear Admiral Obvious (navy term and apt cos I bring up the rear and am always predictably and dependably late), so I’m here to tell ya. New members, move, direction, singles leading up to possible album. How does The Philippines connect with a band from Tennessee you may ask? Only rather remotely. A warship named the Nashville took part in the Philippines war of 1899 and the band’s etymology that just moved to that city has some of the same attributes as them shapeshifting Filipino gods.
Todd Harris, Lizzy Livingston, Jack Allen, Robert Livingston – Photo by Sam Mooradian (Fallujah)
Vaelravyn’s name could be sourced back to the macabre Danish folktale of a mythical raven shapeshifter that can only turn back into human form by the practice of vampirism (haematophagy is too much of a mouthful if you’d excuse the pun). ‘Ravyn’ is not a hard word to etymologize, ‘Vael’ on the other hand can mean quite a few things, like artifice, craft, deceit or even to turn or to bend depending on which proto-language tributary you choose to consult. The band is in the business of crafting authentic tunes no less, though no deceitful flights of fancy will be found here.
Having made the move to Nashville, Tennessee they had to make some lineup changes in recruiting Todd Harris on guitar (Oubliette, Mortal Thrall, Battle Path) and Jack Allen on drums (Hallucination). The two singles presented here today are the last two written and performed by their old lineup.
The Veil – September 4th
In a world so dominated by dystopian surrealism on the screens we carry with us every waking moment, it is nice to delve into actual fantastical worlds every once in a while. In a world filled with as much division and conflict, with headlines vying for placement as to what is supposedly more outrageous, we sometimes just want to switch off, experience solace, and whatever your taste may be in meditative sonic brew, it is hard to deny the charms of the new track by Vaelravyn.
We see a word often, it gets repeated, we tire of it, it loses meaning, substance, power, written like a true absolutist. Immediacy might not be such a word and hopefully it does not have some kneejerk reaction for the reader, but The Veil is not lifted slowly, not uncaringly, but abruptly. There is no overture.
This effect is achieved by nearly every instrument in their arsenal striking at the same instant of second zero, mostly because of the vox erupting from the outset. This is doomy sludge with an edge. Think Cult of Luna and White Ward but a bit less proggy, and the more I hear the song the more it reminds of those bands. The music is tastefully mixed with nothing seeming forced or out of place.
The sound they went for is expansive, every instrument is given space to breathe and plays off the strength of the others. The clean vocals are stellar with gravelly harsh vox that could have been post production-ed into demonic realms if they wanted to, but instead they give more air to the symphonic climax to unfold.
Some of the vocal melodies Livingston hits at the outset reminded me of another story, that of Gladiator and Lisa Gerrard’s stellar performance on the soundtrack. The color scheme gone for in the video, as well as the themes are loosely reminiscent of that flick also. Apologies if that comes across as a bit kitsch. Big props too for the creator of the video from stock footage; the closing image is strikingly poetic.
In their own words: “The Veil was initially inspired by House Lannister’s iron fist of power with the assistance of the Faith Militant in the Game of Thrones Universe. The track examines how belief can be weaponized for control. Of course, this is a theme that has grown even more relevant in today’s climate.”
“Vaelravyn does not use AI in our videos and visualizers, and never will. This video and others in this style we’ve released (‘Retribution’ and ‘Firekeeper’) use REAL cinematic stock footage. Our other photos, art, and media were made ourselves or by independent artists we love and admire. We feel it is important in this day and age to make this abundantly clear.”
Sun God got released on March 28th and it had much in the way of the same plan of attack, of the words taking effect nearly immediately. The words could be a lament for gods of old, or those that are put on pedestals of deification. The footage for the black and white video was shot by the vocalist in a cemetery in Knoxville and matches the tone of the music. From the band: “This video literally shines light upon death, and the reminder that energy never ceases to be — it simply changes forms.”
Initially, at least in volume levels a drum and vocally driven track, before the bridge of cymbals giving space to the lead and bass to shine through. The latter with a warped oily sound that’s super fuckin intriguing and a prelude to the harsh vox coming in, or for their intensity. The addition of the sax here is more prominent than on the latest effort, taking its own verse chorus. With another tone shift, albeit incrementally to fool the listener into thinking there was a respite.
Economical in their songwriting, not exactly acolytes of ‘less is more’, just using precisely what is necessary for the message to come across. A faked lull, with the cleans and uncleans melding to lay comfortably between the pace of a slow burner post-black metal track and a blockbusting building of tension before the crack of the gun catalyzing a blistering race. The tones and sound palettes used are of a melodic nature aspiring towards the epic, with some jagged edges and blazing heat looming in the periphery. I didn’t take my seasonal inoculation and got infected.
They’ve released 4 tracks so far, with some words on prior releases here, and if the band keeps tack on their current bearing they might not just meet tempests out in the open sea, they’re set to conjure ones of their own. If they can create an album with the tight songwriting on offer on their singles that also escalates in intensity as they have, then it seems to me that we’re going to see much more of this band.
Vaelravyn were:
Lizzy Livingston – Vocals
Robert Livingston – Guitar
Evan Norton – Bass
Tristan Howell – Guitar
Sydney Warren – Saxophone
New members:
Todd Harris – Guitar
Jack Allen – Drums
Production notes:
Guitars and vocal tracking and editing by Robert Livingston in Knoxville, TN
Drum tracking, mixing, mastering and assistant engineering by Mike Low in Nashville, TN
Drum editing by Erik Johnson
The Veil video by Paul Garcia
Sun God video by Lizzy Livingston
Links: