Alkhemia have put out a video for Nonsense, from Häxen, and the location does the work that a narrative usually would. It was shot on a terril in northern France, one of the black hills a century of mining left behind, where almost nothing grows.
"We did not want to illustrate the lyrics. We wanted to film the earth they end up in," the band said. That is a clearer statement of intent than most videos come with.
The song is about what a society does with the people it no longer needs. The band describe lives treated as merchandise and actions as currency, then a move out of that arithmetic into refusal, and from refusal into something physical: earth, ashes, rot, and after that something colder and further off.
They also point out that the band name is not decoration. Alchemy is the transformation of matter, and a spoil heap is matter after everything useful has been taken out of it and burnt, which is why the hill and the song are the same idea.
The Lille band formed in 2020 and have two albums, Abraxas from 2024 and this one, which Non Serviam Records released in March.