Polish melodic death metal pirates Vane are set to launch their first full-length album Black Vengeance - a follow-up to their 2017 promo release titled The Prologue - on November 30th. A music video for the song “Rise to Power” is available for streaming below.

Guitarist Mateusz Gajdzik commented, “This song was voted out from the album at some point, but I decided to work on it some more, because I really loved the intro melody and how all the instruments suddenly jump out of the imaginary water. Like in case of most songs on the album, I've created around 20 versions with different arrangements to end up with my favourite songs on the album. From the beginning I was thinking about creating a song about drowning, thus underwater sound effects here and there. I am glad that we were able to create a lyrical concept for this and shoot a music video containing drowning scenes, along with us floundering in the actual sea, that is 600km from our city of origin. This was very hard work in spartan conditions, as nights at Polish seaside are not too hot.“

“Rise To Power” is an account of one of the crew mates. It's a depiction of hesitation after having a conversation with the main character about starting a mutiny to overthrow Blackbeard. The crewman imagines the drowning of the infamous captain and through the song you can see the change in his mind, from thinking that the idea is crazy to admitting that this is the right thing to do. The video itself is very loosely tied to the lyrics. To emphasize the drowning sound FX and the lyrics, the band has shot this clip at the beach, in water and in rain, with added underwater scenes just to enhance the mood.

Guitarist Robert Zembrzycki said, “The video itself was a challenging, and sometimes extreme experience, it made us cover huge distances and shoot for 12 hours in harsh conditions. We have soldiered on through cold winds, artificial rain, power generator failures, battery drainage, hypothermia and various other minor discomforts. But we still had fun doing it, and we'd do it all again, so we hope you will enjoy ‘Rise to Power’ as much as we enjoyed creating it. And stay tuned, because this is not our last word!”

“We’ve always enjoyed the mythos of a pirate and the stories from the Golden Age,” the band commented about what inspired the upcoming release. “Naturally, when forming a project together, we wanted to pay homage to this fascinating historical era. Black Vengeance was inspired by the biography of one of the strangest pirates from this time. We used the history as a base to create an interesting story full of plot twists and grand events, one of which is betrayal and lust for vengeance afterwards. And all of that is served with melodic and groovy metal sauce.”

They went on to say, “Our goal was to give people music that plays in our heads along with great story (and hopefully entertain them with it). We hope that fans will have great time listening to it and discovering the minute details and tasty bits that are hidden in the recording. The title - Black Vengeance - refers to a key point in the story that we’re telling over the course of those ten songs.”

The album art for Black Vengeance, designed by Michał “XAAY” Loranc (Nile, Behemoth, Kamelot, Decapitated), resembles an old book cover inspired by labels and signs from days long gone by, yet with a modern twist to it and huge attention to detail.

“The visual part is of huge importance to us, thus we want to give our listeners a complete experience where the graphics, video content and music intertwine into one whole story,” the band states.

Vane spent over a year writing and polishing the music on Black Vengeance, with some changes being made even during the recording process, “all in service of composition and listening pleasure.” The process was mainly built around writing songs and recording them at home, sending them to other band members, reviewing, adapting. “Some songs had over 30 versions and generally speaking it was a really intensive period,” they agree.

After the release of Black Vengeance in November, Vane plan to promote live by touring in its support.  “We hope to release some new singles while doing it. We plan to be extremely busy,” they conclude.

Black Vengeance tracklisting:

"Born Again"
"Edge Of The Cutlass"
"I Am Your Pain"
"Randy Dandy-O"
"Death’s Season"
"Spilling Guts"
"Mutiny"
"Rise To Power"
"Black Vengeance"
"Davy’s Grip"
"Hangman"

Lineup:

Marcin Parandyk - vocals (Killsorrow, Thy Disease)
Mateusz Gajdzik - guitars (ex-Witchking, ex-Saratan, ex-Crystal Viper)
Robert Zembrzycki - guitars (ex-Acid Drinkers, ex-Corruption, ex-Saratan)
Marcin Zdeb - drums
Łukasz Łukasik - bass (ex-Netherfell)

(Photo - Paweł Kowalski, Bandphoto.pl)