Black’n’doomy Aussie heavy metal band Wildeornes are set to release their 4th official full-length album “On the Earth, Under the Sky” on April 30th 2023. First single “Mouth of the River” is available now and comes with a music video which can be seen below.
Mixing blast beats, growling and melodic vocals, stomping mid pace classic metal riffs, and epic song structures, “On the Earth, Under the Sky” is a double concept album. Tracks 1-5 are new, and tracks 6-9 are reworked songs from the 2021 album “Gæð wyrd a swa hio scel...”.
The two albums form a conceptual whole that continues the band’s lyrical exploration of eastern and western existential philosophy, deep ecology, and Celtic, Anglo Saxon, and Norse mythologies.
The physical CD reflects this concept with two matching front covers and separate track listings. The streaming version will reflect the usual Side A and Side B format of a single album. August 2022 marked 10 years since the release of their first album and having missed that date, On the Earth, Under the Sky will be released to celebrate the 2023 southern hemisphere Samhain: this album is the harvest, with the coming winter a time for Wildeornes to work on the next batch of songs.
On the Earth, Under the Sky was written and recorded on the lands of the Waddawurrung and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation.
The band comments: “Although it’s taken longer than we anticipated, we are over the moon with the final product. We tracked this album and did a lot of the mixing ourselves, with Dav Byrne (YLVA, Agonhymn, Clagg, Terrorust, Iridium Audio and all-round top bloke), helping us bring the songs to life and adding his impeccable attention to detail to the overall production and mastering. Kieran Tyrell (Fallout, Demon Other) provided custom artwork to provide the visual aesthetic to match the concept.
It’s great to see songs from Gæð wyrd a swa hio scel...getting a new life after the pandemic. We didn’t have much chance to collaborate in 2021, so we’ve re-tracked some drums, vocals and leads to bring these songs up to speed with the new ones. Plus we did almost everything ourselves on that album, where this one has a professional mix and master. The results are an exponential increase in heaviness to already heavy tunes. Like all bands have been saying: the last few years have been tough, and this new album is deeply personal for us.”
Wildeornes (pronounced wilderness) formed in 2009 as a recording duo.
They explore the overlap of epic black metal, atmospheric doom, and epic traditional heavy metal. Rather than chase a genre, they chase a broad and dynamic sound that harks back to the classic albums from Sabbath and Priest, where an album will have slow, fast, loud, and quiet. Wildeornes play black’n’doomy heavy metal for fans of Bathory, Mastodon, Candlemass, and Enslaved.
Wildeornes duo Damien Vennell and Richard H. Hammond have been playing together in live bands since the 90s; first in Ballarat hardcore and grind bands Without A Reason (WAR) and Peanut, and later in seminal Aussie stoner doom outfit DownRiver. They both have a body of individual works that span from psychedelic ambient doom through to crying-in-your-beer honky tonk.
Wildeornes is a true collaboration where composition, song structure, and lyrics are shared between the two creators. Their album credits include the Wildeornes collective; the body of people that support and enhance the Wildeornes aesthetic, inc
