Neo-folk/black metal artists Amalie Bruun (who records under the name of Myrkur) and Chelsea Wolfe performed a version of their new collaboration “Funeral” in a Las Vegas hotel room during the Psycho Las Vegas Festival. Both were featured artists during the festival, and they took some time out of their busy schedules to film the video.
The video was posted onto Relapse Records YouTube page, and it features a single camera shot in black and white. The shot is then doubled and superimposed on the other to give the video a disorienting and queasy visual style, which compliments the music quite well. The camera it’s remains focused on the two as they perform the duet with little emotion shown on either one’s face. The song itself is a haunting piece of ambient guitar from Wolfe and a nyckelharpa from Myrkur, which creates an ambient and ethereal tone. The track is from Myrkur’s upcoming album Mareridt which is set to be released this Friday.
The song fits thematically with the previous singles Myrkur has released this year, such as the haunting ambient folk of “De Tre Piker” and the rampaging metal of “Måneblôt” which combines searing black metal screams with angelic vocal harmonies. What makes Myrkur stand out in the crowded underground black metal scene is her willingness to combine non-metal sounds into her compositions, creating a unique sound that differentiates herself from the hoards of bands with razor sharp guitar tones and corpse paint.
The singer has been building quite a buzz in the underground metal community lately, with her version of the King Diamond classic “Welcome Home” bringing her much praise and acclaim for rearranging the track into a piano driven piece that features no hints of distortion.
Wolfe has also been prepping for a new record release this year, with Hiss Spun coming out on Sargent House Records on September 22nd. The album promises to continue Wolfe’s blend of grinding metallic guitars with spacey and ambient soundscapes as suggested by the singles that she has released over the past few months, such as the pummeling doom metal of “Vex” which features Isis’s Aaron Turner, and the noisy and chaotic “The Culling.” The album was produced by the legendary Kurt Ballou, known for his work as the guitarist of Converge and his production work on classic metal releases such as Abandon All Life by Nails and Code Orange’s Forever.
You can watch the video in the YouTube player below.
Photo credit Raymond Flotat
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