Iskald have released "The Other Realm", the first full song from Curse of the Mind, their sixth studio album, which Dusktone puts out on 25 September. It follows a teaser that stitched together fragments of "The Other Realm", "Manifestation of Madness", "A Burden of Hope", "The Sacrifice" and the ritual that opens the album.
In a statement quoted by Metal Hammer Italia, frontman Aage Krekling describes the record as a concept in four connected chapters joined by ritual invocations, which is why the band held back whole songs until now. The story is set in a stark vision of Helheim drawn from Norse mythology, but he calls it psychological at heart: Helheim as the shape inner darkness takes, with the mind as the real battlefield.
"The Other Realm" is Chapter I, The Descent, the moment of realising you are already in Helheim. Krekling calls it fast and brutal but also melancholic, and the first music written by the band's current five-piece line-up.
The chapters that follow move through The Prison, a story of doubt and collapse, then a fragile light of hope, and end with a sacrifice before the throne of Hela.
Iskald come from Vesterålen in the north of Norway.
Source: Metal Hammer Italia