Crescendium have released a video for Chandra, from DRAC, which arrives on 11 November. Six tracks, and a single story across them.
The woman at the centre of it has a connection to nature and abilities the society around her will not tolerate. She is stigmatised, then burned alive, and the fire is not the end: she comes back as something demonic, outside society and finally free. Chandra is the transformation itself, filmed in the forests of Finland as a dark fairy tale that starts in innocence and does not stay there. Elena Cor Tauri, who sings and writes the music, put the idea in one line: do not run away from your shadows, embrace them with open arms.
The band build the record out of black and death metal with orchestral arrangements and choirs behind it, and the lyrics move between English, German and Latin. The concept draws the line from the historical witch hunts to the forms of exclusion still working now. Their debut, Within, took mental illness one song at a time; this one is continuous.