Gearing up to the release of their upcoming third studio album on Suicide Records, Swedish post metal / doom band V recorded a live music video high up on a mountain far in the Swedish forests. This has now resulted in 4 individual music videos that we will release one for each Advent, as a “Black Advent”, and today we are honored to give you the second installment called “Hostage of Souls”.
Following the recording of V’s 2nd album Led Into Exile there was a feeling of doing something more to cement the concept of the album. The album deals with lonlieness and leaving everything behind for a solitary existence in the forest.
The lore and sirensong of emptiness and inner (and outer) demons of the forest finally consumes the main character of the story and he completely disappears to never be found.
The story that Andreas wrote for the album is pretty extensive and it might turn into a book later on in the future. But in the near future, the band felt that something a statement needed to be done to underpin the feeling of the album and where V was gravitating towards.
”We discussed doing something out of the ordinary, perhaps a live show in the middle of the forest on a mountain and filming it all.” – comments the band.
“This is back in 2019 and livestreams and recorded liveshows were not as common as now during the pandemic, at least not going out of ones way to make something like this with practically no budget. We live in a pretty desolate part of Sweden where one can easily get lost in the wilderness of the mountains, rivers lakes and forests of the taigabelt. This is a huge inspiration for us, probably even more than we like to admit. So driving up a mountain in the old finngrounds of western dalecarlia with an old german van filled with: five generators, full backline, PA, lights, a mobile bar with craftbeer on draft, a military tent with a stove and a few good friends and a small camera team takes some balls considering how much that can actually go wrong with the typical scandinavian weather and so forth.”
“We managed to record an entire set in one take, except for a few hickups while starting a few of the songs but we started right back up again. The weather forecast was threatening us with rain and so of course we felt that the pressure was on. We had a huge tarp to cover all the gear in case of that and we actually built a little shed on site for the mixing and lighting desks. It turned out to be a very magical night and we lit a huge bonfire when the rain finally came after the show.”
So what happened to the material, one might ask? Since it was recorded in the beginning of May 2019 and now coming out December 2021 in segments, why did it take so long? “Well since it was a full-on DIY happening, funds for editors and postproduction was at the mercy of benefactors and they withdrew in the final stages, enter the pandemic it seemed like a hopeless task to fulfill.” – comments the band. “So it seemed that Led Into the Wild – Live at Svansberget (swanmountain) just wasn’t to be. But with the help of Henrik from Suicide Records and some cutting by Andreas (vocals, guitar – V) it finally came to it’s right and is now available to be seen by the world.”
