Danish post-metal/post-hardcore/blackgaze outfit VÆGTLØS will be releasing their debut 7″ containing 16 minutes of music “KAKOFONI” on the 3rd of November 2022 via 17 different record labels around the world, and today we’re thrilled to give you a little insight into its lyrical content, its dialogue of death, and how to handle it, as well as the band’s local independent music scene in Aalborg.
The album is a culmination of several years of work that was hindered in growing by a pandemic and the constant setbacks of life. “Kakofoni” is a melodic and vast sound that is forged to enclose the personal Danish lyrics about people close to the band who died or suffered deadly diseases. The inspiration to do so has been found in watching and expericering the unadulterated beauty of life and death.
Originally each song was named after the person that band sang about, but that was changed to more fitting titles, as the protagonist of the song (singer Troels’ sister in law) suddenly died. The song was intended to be a “let’s beat this cancer together” rally call, but ended in a more tragic manner.
The record was written and recorded in 2021 in their own lockdown studio, and mixed and mastered by producer Jacob Bredahl, who understood the direction the band wanted to go.
The record will be available on four different colors of vinyl, tapes and digital download and there loads of amazing labels involved in this project, many of which should be well known to IDIOTEQ readers: Aktiver Ausstand in Plastik, Angry Music Records, Bad Moon Rising 惡月上昇, Dingleberry Records, DIY Kolo Records, Entes Anomicos, Fresh Outbreak, Geenger Records, Make That A Take Records, Nasty Cut Records, Nothing To Harvest Records, Punkebjartes Punkeplader, Rip Roaring Shit Storm Records, TNSrecords, Virkelighedsfjern, Voice of the Unheard, 5FeetUnder Records, and Mevzu Records (tape edition).
“Our songs are about death.” – comments the band. “Not in the classic metal way where it is used as a cartoonish element or in a metaphoric way. Death is real in our songs. All our songs are about people I know that died or suffered deadly diseases.”
Continues vocalist Troels H. Sørensen: “Originally the songs were named after the people that the songs were about. I changed that in the process when my sister in law died and left behind my 3 year old niece. I hope that the songs will give refuge or solace to people that experienced some of the same things that I did. Or maybe at least open up a genuine dialogue about death and its consequences. I hope this openness and my obvious vulnerability, that I think is lacking in the music scene, and in society in general, can give some people the strength to carry on.”
“What do you do when one of your best friends gets diagnosed with cancer? In our culture we are not taught how to deal with death. We learn from an early age that you do not talk about feelings and do not talk about death. Our society is afraid of death, and if we do not talk about it, then it is not there. But it is everywhere. I learned that the hard way when my father died when I was 17 years old. That was the first time in my life I understood what a person dying meant. Really meant. In the marrow of my bones. And the consequences of that tragic loss lead me to think differently about my own life and mortality. Before that I was unable to die.”
“When we started the band my sister in law and one of my best friends got diagnosed with cancer. That happened almost at the same time and just prior to that one of my old students committed suicide, and my father’s sister died as well. I wanted to tell their stories, because death was all around me, and it had different shapes and forms. It meant different things to me. I wanted to communicate how I felt. Life was fleeting and vulnerable for me at that time. It still is. It will always be. I wanted to express the monumental emotional dread underlying the fact that all beauty in life will eventually die. You need to realize that, so you can move forward and witness the beauty of life, while you got it. Life is beautiful. Every individual is beautiful. These songs are love songs to people I know.”
“It might sound cliche, but live every day as it was your last. Live so hard that your spirit lives on long after you are gone. Make marks in your life, love your friends a bit more, squeeze your kids’ hands more, take time to reflect and make every moment count. Be the opposite of kakofoni. Be pure, be honest, be kind.”
Vaegtlos by Holmsgaard Photography
All band members grew up in Aalborg close connected to the scene around the legendary venue 1000Fryd.
Comments the band: “We are honored to be a part of something larger than just us. We learned how to play shows there, how to organize shows, and how to interaction with music and the people surrounding it. We are forever grateful that our small city had this place. We are still in awe that still place still exists and makes room for smaller bands. Over the years a ton of bands grew out of Fryd and we consider them friends.”
“If we look outside of our own city the scene for alternative music is doing really well. Maybe it has never been better. So many great bands are popping up everywhere, and making more and more people excited about the genres that we associate with; like post-metal, extreme metal, post-rock, black metal, punk, hardcore, grindcore and everything in between.”
Adds Troels H. Sørensen: “I’m also running the booking agency, Lasher Agency, where I try to gather some like minded bands that are all nice and lovely people being an alternative to some of the self-righteous assholes you encounter in the music scene – luckily not that often. I think you should check out Barque, Bogwife, Czar, Demersal, Drukner, Foreshadower, Hiraki, Mill, Nexø, Nordsind, Omsorg, Oxx, Puke Wolf, Syl, Telos, tvivler, and Kōya, if you want to get to know what the scene looks like in Denmark right now.”
