HEXVESSEL Streaming “Son Of The Sky” Video

January 18, 2019, 5 years ago

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HEXVESSEL Streaming “Son Of The Sky” Video

Finland's Hexvessel will release their new album, All Tree, on February 22nd via their own imprint Secret Trees, in an exclusive partnership with Century Media and Prophecy Productions for North America. The record will be available as Digipak CD and Gatefold LP with an exclusive bonus track. New video, "Son Of The Sky", is streaming below.

The video is a family home-video collage of pagan ritual, which perfectly reflects the mystical atmosphere and very personal nature of the song. It was filmed by Mat and Marja from Hexvessel in Avebury, West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, England during their ritual for the Winter Solstice 2018. Additional footage was filmed in Hämeenkyrö, Finland at an ancient sacrificial fir, Timin Mänty that has been used to hang bear skulls in the past. Even more footage comes from the woodland of a ruined manor in Hertfordshire, the haunted ruins of Minsden Chapel in the fields above the hamlet of Chapelfoot in England & at the Teufelsstein in Bad Dürkheim in Germany.

Singer Mat McNerney comments on the video for "Son Of The Sky":

“This video for our new song ‘Son Of The Sky’ is a collection of family home movies that we made when we were celebrating Winter Solstice at Avebury, offering a sacrifice at an ancient pine tree called Timin Mänty here in Finland and when visiting various pagan sites in England and Germany. As with Hexvessel’s music, it is a story of our personal spiritual journey. Son of the Sky is a song about a traditional Finnish Karhunpeijaiset ritual celebration where the spirit of the bear was venerated after a hunt. It’s a song about tradition, community and family. Rituals are enactments of mythology, and stories that have been passed down from our ancestors. When we become part of this great tradition, we become aware of our origins and the meaning of life. Family, culture and kin are so important. It’s our community that connects us to the earth that gives us a sense of purpose, understanding and place in the world. It is through that wisdom of mythology that we will become better able to survive and prosper.”

Founded in the magical forests of Finland, via the green and pleasant lands of England and Ireland, Hexvessel are wyrd folk. Formed in 2009 by Mat "Kvohst" McNerney, who having already made a name for himself in extreme metal bands in the UK where he was born and raised, and again in the Norwegian black metal scene, finally found his home in the land of the midnight sun. Settling in a country where mythology, tradition and pre-Christian heritage is still alive, McNerney, (who also fronts 1980s-excess-tinged gothic pop band Grave Pleasures), found solace in the constant reflection of Finland's pagan past, awakening secret knowledge that led to the formation of Hexvessel.

Since acclaimed debut album Dawnbearer (2011), Hexvessel have released two further albums of forest folk and bewitching psychedelia. They have played sold out headline tours in their homeland, been nominated for two Finnish Grammy awards, toured Europe together with bands like Sabbath Assembly and Alcest, graced the main stage at Roadburn in Holland and performed at SXSW in Texas, seeing their music on the charts and on many critics lists. They embellished their sonic rituals with mushroom-induced psychedelia on third and most recent best-selling album When We Are Death to widespread critical acclaim and continue to develop their sound.

Their new album All Tree sees the band expand upon McNerney's personal spiritual journey. Reunited with his co-songwriter from Dawnbearer, Andrew McIvor, they unfurl their primordial storytelling with a contemporary command of song-craft. During the writing of All Tree, as he sat by the fire in his summerhouse in the Finnish wilderness, McNerney recalled the summers of his youth, spent listening to Celtic ghost stories on his father’s family farm in Galway, Ireland. He began to write music that grew out of that connection between myth and nature and wanted the album to symbolize a pathway toward a spiritual revival of the old fables. From a youth spent in pastoral England to the boggy marsh woods of Ireland, to his homeland forests of Finland, McNerney’s Hexvessel reveals nature’s universal tales of hidden spirits.

The pagan wilds are portals to reality. You go through them and you enter the universe. Hexvessel write songs in the oral tradition of the old balladeers. They weave everyman stories that create a bond between the teller and the audience, bringing alive a sense of shared purpose and spiritual history. With wife and collaborator Marja Konttinen, like-minded troubadour and co-writer Kimmo Helén, guitarist Jesse Heikkinen, the primal rhythms of Jukka Rämänen (Dark Buddha Rising), and the occult found-sounds of Antti Haapapuro (Aural Hypnox/Arktau Eos), Hexvessel has truly become a melting cauldron or “vessel,” a potent “hex” of spellwork.

By drawing on older folk acts like Shirley Collins, Vashti Bunyan, later folk rock bands such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and King Crimson, to more recent artists such as Nick Cave and Coil, imbued with Karelian and Nordic folklore rhythms, Hexvessel have created a sound that is both ancient and modern. All Tree is about connection and roots, bringing the spirits of the past that we all share to a more mystical and fulfilling vision of the future.

Tracklisting:

"Blessing"
"Son Of The Sky"
"Old Tree"
"Changeling"
"Ancient Astronaut"
"Visions Of A.O.S."
"A Sylvan Sign"
"Wilderness Spirit"
"Otherworld Envoy"
"Birthmark"
"Journey To Carnac"
"Liminal Night"
"Closing Circles"
"Summer Fires" (bonus track)

"Son Of The Sky" video:

“Old Tree”:

“Closing Circles” live:



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