Ghost Cult’s Tilburg, NL correspondent Susanne A. Maathuis attended a listening part for Gaahl’s Wyrd’s debut album Gastir, due out on Season of Mist on May 31st. Check out her report and the new video for ‘From The Spear’!
The new album goes beyond black metal, being in a way much colder and larger than blackmetal in another much smaller and more stripped back, depending on which way you approach it. The remarkable thing is the entire album has a very deep, sincere spiritual feeling, while only peppering in the metal elements, yet it feels darker than most things out there. Clean vocals dominate.
When asked about the cover art Gaahl said “It is the Norse forest spirit, but taken out of the forest, the horned stag. The photo was taken by me under the tutelage of Raina Vlaskovska, the Bulgarian wet plate photographer. I decided on the image but she knows exactly how the technique of this wetplate photography works.” He seemed to also hint this collaboration between the two is not over yet and the graphic element will stay important to this project. Gaahl mentions he prefers to use several different artistic mediums, inspiration for which is strongest at different times of the day, in order to be able to express all the feelings and muses he has.
The writing of the music was quite a collaborative effort between Gaahl and guitarist Ole Walaunet. On recording the vocals Gaahl mentions that he has to be in a particular mood to record the vocals, as he invites the spirits to sing along in a way. He has to be able to hear the vocals in his head before he records them, and once he can do that he can sing whatever comes to his head. This he says is also why he rarely listens to music at home. “I like silence, then I can hear the music in my head.”
On the name Gaahl mentioned the word Gastir means visitor, but both spirit(geist) as well as guest, again underlining the esoteric and spiritual component to the album. All throughout the influence of Gaahls personal faiths and spiritual connections leave clear marks on this singular piece of work. When asked what other spirits were invited or to be heard on the record, apart from the aforementioned forest spirit, Gaahl ponders, searching for the correct terms “It isn’t quite clear, as if the nature of the spirits in general, they are quite nebulous. Nature’s forces feature heavily on this record, which is probably why there is a lot of change and many different moods and archetypes, different energies more than entities.”
These different tempos, moods, and energies can clearly be heard on the record, where clean vocals and almost tranquil, rapt spiritual hymns give way suddenly to blastbeats and rapid guitars, and their related screamed vocals. At the end of the record is a remarkably gentle quiet song of which Gaahl mentions “it was my way of circling back to the beginning, it is in a sense the creation. It makes the head bite the tail by working backwards.”
Being a live band, known to only decide what songs will make up the setlist 5 minutes before the show, the band eagerly say they will keep hitting the road. Deciding the setlist this late keeps them on their toes, but also keeps every gig feeling unique and prevent complacency of routine forming. Sets will not just consist of Gaahl’s Wyrd music, but also feature the music of God Seed and Gorgoroth, among others. “We will be in the world.”
Gaahls Wyrd’s Gastir – Ghosts Invited will be released May 31st through Season of Mist, presale is live now at this link here.