AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: VORNA — “YKSIN”

You’re about to hear and see something that I think you will find beautiful, moving, dark, and heavy — the kind of audiovisual experience that’s capable of carrying you away from wherever your head happens to be before you press “play”, even though the experience lasts less than seven minutes.

The music is a song called “Yksin” by a six-man band from Tampere, Finland, named Vorna. It will appear on the band’s second album Ei valo minus seuraa (No Light Follows Me), which will be released on December 4 by Inverse Records — and we are privileged to premiere the song and the striking video that accompanies it for North American audiences.

The song is a great example of the kind of contrasts that extreme metal is capable of creating in a way that no other musical genre does as well. On the one hand, the powerful, somber melodies in the music are gorgeous — and made even more emotionally penetrating by the addition of bowed strings.

On the other hand, the meditativeness of the experience in the opening seconds is broken soon enough by Vesa Salovaara’s flesh-rending, caustic vocals (in Finnish), and as the song progresses, its weight and intensity increases to the point of wrenching poignancy. It’s a sublime and memorable piece of music.

The quality of the music is matched by the video, which heightens the emotional impact of the music, and is a feast for the eyes in its own right. It seems to this viewer to be a great visual interpretation of the sound. The director-guitarist Arttu Järvisalo has commented on the video as follows:

“I think a few years we mulled it over and over — should we do it or not? Even before the song material of the new album was finished, it was quite clear for me that we would do the video for “Yksin”, if any video at all. Right from the very early version of the song its atmosphere and the structure painted me strong mental images that eventually concurred with the thoughts of our vocalist Vesa – the main writer of the song. Having a direct influence from the song’s lyrics, video is basically a story about inner healing – how deep into the water can your mind drag you before you can get back to the surface?”

Ei valo minua seuraa was mixed at the Electric Fox Studios by Tuomas Kokko (Swallow the Sun, Ghost Brigade, etc.) and mastered by Jaakko Viitalähde (Ghost Brigade, Alghazanth, Black Crucifixion, etc.). The cover artwork was designed by Jarno Lahti from Kaamos Illustration & Design (Hypocrisy, Pain, Before the Dawn, Diablo, etc.).

The album can be pre-ordered from the Inverse Store HERE.

http://www.vorna.fi
http://www.facebook.com/VornaOfficial