(Today we present Comrade Aleks’ very interesting discussion with the Swiss band Vígljós, whose latest album was released last September by Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions.)
These days, it’s incredibly difficult for bands of any genre to surprise listeners. Of course, not everyone is interested in the thrill of jazz syncopation in extreme metal or groundbreaking special effects performed by artificial intelligence, but you’ll agree that, despite our reverent attachment to certain genre staples, sometimes we crave something new.
The Swiss black metal band Vígljós found an original solution by basing their first album, Tome I: Apidæ, last year on etudes about the life of bees, or something similar. This year, the band of beekeepers invited a new member with his own instrument, the mellotron, and recorded a concept album about ergotism epidemics in Medieval Europe. Vígljós cleverly played with the famous imagery of Bruegel’s creepy beekeepers on the new cover, retelling the story of mass insanity and death in the universal language of music.
The unadulterated aggression of blast beats and the supreme inhuman screams set the tone of the album, but they are softened by a morbid melancholy, bitter as the noxious poison of metaphysical ergot. In short, the atypicality and originality of Tome II extends beyond the band’s visual image, and that’s truly remarkable. Of course, we couldn’t pass by a band with an imagination of such a scale, so here’s the interview with Vígljós’ collective mind.
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