Today, “new” old Norwegian black metallers Vathr premiere the new video “March of the Dead” at the Black Metal Promotion YouTube channel. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated debut mini-album, Dead & United, set for international release on September 16th via Edged Circle Productions. See & hear Vathr‘s “March of the Dead” video in its entirety exclusively HERE.
Vathr is a new band, but also an old one. True, it is a new formation hailing from Bergen, Norway, but the members behind the band hold a fiery past forged in the ancient days of the notorious early ’90s scene. But rather than namedrop and create perhaps-unrealistic expectations – much less rely on past laurels, for that matter – the members of Vathr instead want to burn down the past and build a better, more monolithic future.
Indeed, they accomplish exactly that with the short & sweet mini-album Dead & United. At three songs across 20 minutes, Vathr map out a soundworld parallel to Bathory’s immortal Blood Fire Death, but teasingly reveal provocative new paths splintering off it. With a stellar mix & mastering courtesy of C. Korsvold at Cloud City Studios, Bergen, Dead & United swirls and stomps with a seductive atmosphere, stoic and heroic at every turn but never rushed nor never belabored. It moves the way it moves, how it wants to, enveloping the listener in an invigorating iciness truly steeped in the tundra of ancient Norway. Vathr may sound familiar, but only because their black metal authentically hails from the darkest past.
To restate the obvious, Vathr awaken the ancient spirit with this first step into the fire. For fans of Blood Fire Death-era Bathory and early Nordic black metal – and this is but a foretaste of the band’s even-grander debut album forthcoming from Edged Circle!
In the meantime, see & hear the brand-new video for “March of the Dead” exclusively HERE, courtesy of the Black Metal Promotion YouTube channel. Also hear the previously revealed track “Crimson Cold Curse” HERE at Edged Circle‘s Bandcamp, where the mini-album can also be preordered. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Vathr’s Dead & United
1. March of the Dead [6:09]
2. Messiah (Heaven Nor Hell) [5:27]
3. Crimson Cold Curse [8:19]