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These days music gets pigeon-holed into ever shifting and newly created genres that have no underlying meaning.  Every band is tagged post and hyphens abound. What was once just metal, became black metal, then blackened something. Are they atmospheric too (a fancy way of saying has keyboards). Oh yes, let’s also create US and “true” European factions. Corpse paint or not? Defining a metal band’s genre has now become more difficult than buying a car.

I’m going to skip all that nonsense for Velnias. The band has its roots firmly planted in black metal, but have evolved into something far greater. Their demo “Pacing The Cyclic” was pretty straight forward an uneventful; A satisfying listen that presented nothing new. The full length debut “Sovereign Nocturnal,” on God is myth records, is a different beast all together.

The album contains three tracks, and runs over 40 minutes.  Even though they are only a three piece, there are long brooding passages, evoking a sense of a moonlit forest, and the spirits within. The easiest comparisons would be Wolves in the Throne Room and Agalloch. Its certainly a challenging listen, but very rewarding. The album clearly invokes the underlying message of the band; that we are temporary. Everything we have built will eventually crumble, and we will be returned to the soil. In this track based society, not many bands spend the effort to craft an album. This is not the case here, and those who spend the time with the album will certainly reap the rewards.  When asked what the phrase “Sovereign Nocturnal” meant to him, singer/guitarist P.J.V. replied:

“Aside from an homage to the majesty of the all consuming nocturnal hours it is an outlook on the state of things. It is a personal feeling that the falling of night– the coming of dark times is inevitable and absolute. Our lives entrusted to this fragile way of being shall soon fall cold as things collapse. If it is not by physical destruction on some scale then it shall come through our fixation on this industrialized and globalized way of life. We lose sight of the things that matter, forget the struggles of our past, and spit in the face of the natural world for misguided goals and beliefs. We are left stabbing each other in the back, climbing over brother and sister, with complete disregard for true strength, honor, or virtue. The incestuous orgy of greed and corruption breeds corporate titans of calculated efficiency racing, full force towards inevitable death in the material wasteland we have created for ourselves.”

Amen. I had the privilege of catching the band live at the Hemlock Tavern with about 20 other people, and I was well impressed. Their set lasted around an hour, without pause or break. Much like the album the songs all intertwined and created something much greater. I am told the band will soon be moving from Chicago to Colorado, to be closer to nature. May they continue to draw strength from the forest and build off of this release.

P.S. In Slavic mythology, Velnias is the God of evil, and the brother of the creator God Dievas…

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