Danish pagan heavy rockers, Bersærk, recently released the first single ‘Balders bål’ (‘The Bonfire of Balder’ in Danish) from their forthcoming third album, set for a spring 2020 release. Today, the band premieres a brand new music video for the single.

The clip is a extensive independent production, where the band alongside director Thomas J. Mikkelsen (Carpark North, UFO Yepha a.o.) has created a wildly ambitious and grandiose video production.

Bersærk states on the video, the single and the forthcoming album: “To us, ‘Balders bål’ is a representation of some of the elements, we’re working with on the forthcoming album: Darkness, heaviness and greatness as well as beauty, dynamics and melancholy. The video is shot at the beautiful nature of Mols Bjerge, which in many ways contains all these hybrids, while it also here we are recording the new album. The idea for the video was developed in cooperation with director Thomas J. Mikkelsen, and we quickly realized, that we didn’t wanted to do a direct interpretation of the song’s lyrics, but still embrace the aforementioned hybrids. From that, the idea arose of the female character who visits us from the underworld and who like Hel from the Nordic mythology is both beautiful and terrifying.“

The main character in the video is brought to life by professional dancer Sarah Holm Hermansen, who impresses with her ecstatic, almost possesed dancing.

Director Thomas J. Mikkelsen adds: “The inspiration for the video is based on the band’s own idea, which I then worked on and shaped into something, that could be visually strong and create a feeling to submerge in, while one watches the video. We want to show how the raw sound and the nordic nature shares an epic force, but also contrasts. It is supposed to convey a feeling of “something larger than ourselves”. Sarah Holm’s style of dancing, which both contains the most delicate elegance and explosive ferocity supports exactly the contrast, which sound and vision creates together. This duality refers to the Nordic mythology, which is such a big part of Bersærk’s universe.”

(Photo - Marika Hyldmar)