(written by Islander)
Last year the multi-national (but largely Spanish in origin) symphonic blackened death metal band Gjallarhorn’s Wrath released their debut album The Silver Key through Non Serviam Records. We published an enlightening interview with bassist Lord Ashler and had the pleasure of making video premieres for two songs off the album in advance of its release. Today, with equal pleasure, we’re premiering a third video from the band, this one for the song “The Abysswalker“.
The video, directed by bandmember Javi Iron, is quite a spectacle, interweaving fast-cutting and eventually rain-drenched footage of these raging heathens throwing themselves headlong into the song’s performance, along with striking imagery of an armored figure, presumably the Abysswalker of the song’s title.
The music is quite a spectacle too.
Thunder rumbles, rain falls, and a voice ominously speaks — a brief prelude before the music itself begins to rumble and slash, like the lurching progression of a dark, towering entity. Shrill synths create a supernatural overlay, and vocalist Alex screams just as the band accelerate the pace and launch a vicious instrumental assault.
The guitars sizzle and scream; the rhythm section punch like a battering ram; the vocals howl and roar; and the pace slows to a staggering gait. The atmosphere of the music grows more hopeless, and the keys begin to eerily and fluidly wail over the top, but the song remains as towering and as muscular as ever. A guitar solo flashes like lightening and heightens the song’s distressing intensity.
As the band work their way through the song’s back half they continue repeatedly changing the pace, manifesting both abyssal darkness and raging violence, and they also bring out the battering rams again, brutishly slugging with neck-bending force. The keys rise up again, swirling and pinging, and the vocals continue spanning a harrowing range of torment and ferocity.
And to repeat, the video does a great job of capturing and augmenting the visceral power and frightening intensity of the song.
(The band note that no AI was used in the making of this video.)
LINE-UP:
Alex – Vocals
Lord Ashler – Bass
Javi Iron – Drums, Keys, Composition
Arash – Lead & Rhythm Guitars
The Silver Key is available on digipak CD, vinyl, and digital formats, and it’s recommended for fans of Mgła, Gaerea, SepticFlesh, and Dimmu Borgir.
CD: https://www.non-serviam-records.com/products/gjallarhorns-wrath-the-silver-key-digipak
VINYL: https://www.non-serviam-records.com/products/gjallarhorns-wrath-the-silver-key-vinyl
DIGITAL: https://non-serviam-records.bandcamp.com/album/the-silver-key
GJALLARHORN’S WRATH:
https://www.facebook.com/Gjallarhorns.Wrath/
https://www.instagram.com/gjallarhornwrathband/
