AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VÖLVA — “DESIRES PROFANE”

In mid-October we premiered a riveting video for a song called “The Tower” by Sweden’s “avenging witches of black metal,” Völva. It was from Völva‘s debut album Desires Profane, which is set for co-release on November 28th by Fiadh Productions (for LP) and Grind to Death Records (for CD).

The album is described as “ten hymns to the lost souls of their persecuted sisters, incinerated upon the murderous bonfires of Christianity,” as “a scalding assault of vehement rage,” and as a pursuit of “themes of Satanic feminism both in a spiritual cosmic sense as well as using your free will, body and lust as vessels to sin for a higher purpose”.

And if that’s not clear enough, Völva reinforce their message and what fuels their music with these words:

Völva are intolerant to any behavior implying someone else taking any right to claim that their color of skin, heritage or geographical belonging entitles them to be superior to someone else. Needless to say, but as satanic feminists living in a society like ours, there’s no end of the hatred we feel against the male white supremacy.

Photo by Åsa Hagström

As fuel for creative fires, honest hatred goes a long way in extreme metal. One might even say that un-feigned rage is one of the hallmarks of the genre as a whole, because few other musical categories provide such a powerful and unadulterated means of expressing fury.

As represented on their new album, Völva have clearly poured their rage into the music — in the vitriolic intensity and cutting harshness of the vocals, in the raw and sometimes berserk hostility of the riffing, in the bare-knuckled punch of the rhythms.

But even truly pissed-off listeners usually want something more from angry music besides anger. Otherwise, no matter how cathartic it might be, it might also be a “one and done” experience, quickly cast off. Fortunately, Völva write songs in ways that should draw you back to them. That song “The Tower” that we premiered through a live video is a good example of this (the recorded version is the album opener).

For one thing, the song is dynamic. It’s primitive, eerily sinister, and menacing, but it’s also bleak, blazing, and blistering. For another thing, it incorporates grooves with head-moving hooks but it also unleashes hammering percussive fusillades. And as mentioned, the shrieked vocals are both malignant and brimming with acid.

The album’s other songs strongly reinforce the favorable songwriting impressions of “The Tower“.

They include abrasive and savage riffs which sometimes slash and sometimes feverishly buzz like hornet swarms or strike like battering rams. They bring forward whirring melodic guitar-leads that pierce like needles, sear like acetylene, or ring like chimes, channeling different dark moods. And sometimes those guitar-leads wail like dismal sirens or trill like bright balalaikas (“Expulsion of the Flesh” being a very good example of that).

Meanwhile, the bass lines provide clanging, lead-weighted heft. And while the drumming isn’t “fancy”, it routinely embeds big hooks — or bursts open in adrenaline-fueled blasts.

The variation in those dark moods is also notable. No surprise, the music surges in explosions of violent rage, but it also channels cold cruelty, hateful disgust, splintering agony, intense yearning, and even episodes of brazen glory and occult witchiness (see “Asmodeus“, for example). Often, many of these moods come through in the same song.

“Never Forgive“, as an example of the album’s variations, is a mid-paced stomp that’s grim and oppressive, but the guitars also soar, becoming channels of mind-broiling pain and blazing like defiant horns. It features an expressive bass and choruses of extraordinarily intense lycanthropic howls and shattering screams. Indeed, the song as a whole is one of the album’s most intense songs, even though it’s not viciously charging hell-for-leather.

“Salvation” is another strong example of the album’s dynamic pacing and dynamism of mood. In its relatively slower movements, it’s bleak and distressing. At higher speed, it provides a different kind of emotional turmoil, and it also imperiously stomps as the lead guitar writhes and spirals like an emanation of of dark sorcery.

As rough, raw, and rampaging as the music often is (it has a kind of DIY punk authenticity and a kick-ass spirit), it’s those strong, mood-altering melodies, expressed with a contrasting clarity of tone, that might leave the most lasting impression of Völva‘s talents — along with the gut-busting grooves and incinerating vocals.

Truth to tell, there aren’t any weak tracks on Desires Profane, from “The Tower” straight through to the furious ecstasies of the relatively brief closer, “Vagabond“. Pick any one, and you’ll see. But better yet, take the whole trip:

 

 

VÖLVA are now:
Skuld – Drums
Hedonistica – Bass & lead vocals
Ruin – Guitar
Vittra – Guitar & backing vocals

We’ll add that the word völva is a derivation of the Old Norse word vǫlr, which often is interpreted as “staff-bearer”. In pre-Christian times, the völva was a highly respected woman, and is considered a powerful spiritual fortune teller in Norse mythology.

To repeat, Desires Profane will be co-released by Fiadh Productions (for LP) and Grind to Death Records (for CD), as well as digitally. For more info, check out the links below.

FIADH:
https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/

GRIND TO DEATH:
https://www.grindtodeathrecords.com/
https://grindtodeathrecords.bandcamp.com/

VÖLVA:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6EX7Wo4BfUbRtP75nPkUeR
https://volva-bm.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.instagram.com/volva.bm/