Vreid: Into the Mountains
The story of VREID goes back further than their 2004 formation would suggest. Born from the untimely death of Terje ‘Valfar‘ Bakken and the subsequent end of his genre-defining atmospheric black metal project WINDIR, VREID‘s story can be traced back at least to 2001 – the year Valfar expanded WINDIR from a solo project to a fully fledged band – if not back further in WINDIR‘s history. Since then, the Norwegians have built a career on a unique blend of black ‘n roll with ample room for vast progression and experimentation amid the more traditional riff-based assault. Never a band to stifle ambition, their newest project – Wild North West – is set to be their most ambitious to date.
For anyone with any real insight into the music industry, it should be common knowledge that creating an album involves a Herculean amount of work and organisation. With the mammoth workload of a new album already on their plate, the question begs itself, why would VREID then add on the equally – if not more so – labour intensive project of writing and filming a whole movie to go alongside the album?
“I’ve always loved music videos, even back in the 80s with Headbangers Ball – watching them filled my head with so many ideas when I watched TWISTED SISTER videos right up to METALLICA‘s video for One or SLAYER‘s Seasons in the Abyss. They all made a huge impression on me.” Comments VREID bassist and songwriter Jarle Kvåle. “I think the art of music videos has been kind of lost in the last 10 or 15 years, it’s all lyric videos or videos with no real storyline. We did the livestream show In the Mountains of Sognametal with Håvard Nesbø and we had such a good connection. I brought up the idea of Wild North West, doing a concept album with a music video for each song to build a full movie around the album and he loved it. He jumped right on board and we’ve never looked back.”
Logic would say, though, that even with an established working relationship with Nesbø and all the ambition in the world, creating a movie is a very different beast than creating an album. The challenges, pitfalls and stumbling blocks faced along the way are very different, but, as Kvåle explains, VREID weren’t the least bit daunted going in.
“It was both an advantage and a challenge having never done anything like this before. When you haven’t done something before you don’t know what obstacles you’re going to face and you can go in fearless, just dive in without thinking too much about it.” Kvåle begins. “We didn’t know what we’d started – the workload was crazy! Håvard spent weeks editing over and over with me always having new ideas and inputs. It was a very challenging thing to do, but that’s what made it so creative. The film had an impact on the music and the lyrics – we changed the songs during the creation of the movie so it all blended together. The whole process filled me with the feeling you have when you make your first demo or your first album; diving into the unknown and not knowing where it’s going to end up. I love that feeling.”
For those who know about the tragic death of Valfar, it’s impossible not to draw a connection to Wild North West‘s central character, E – particularly towards the end of the film. While walking to his family’s cabin in Fagereggi, Valfar was caught in a snowstorm and sadly died of hypothermia. E’s ultimate fate is different, but given Kvåle‘s closeness to Valfar and the ending scenes with E losing his way in the mountains leading to his death the connection is unmistakable.
“Terje‘s death is part of the experience – Wild North West is not built around his destiny, or anyone’s destiny really, but it absolutely had a big impact on the album.” Kvåle confirms, before explaining some of the other areas he drew on for lyrical inspiration. “I drew on personal experiences, but also more general stories. For example, the sea battles of the Second World War. Soldiers were drawn into sea battles and even though some of them survived the war, the trauma they had to live with and how they were treated with experimental psychological treatments is a dark part of modern history. Both these kind of ideas and my personal losses, including that of Terje, were a part of the whole movie.”
Ambition is an admirable quality in any band. But without the skill and drive to match the ambition, projects can often struggle to hit as hard as they should. Wild North West has no such issue. A masterful example of storytelling and narrative journey, where the movie and the album feel like two halves of one whole rather than two separate pieces of art, VREID have done a truly wonderful job with their ninth outing. Journey with Kvåle and co. into the mountains of the wild north west.
Wild North West is out now via Season of Mist.
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