The Plague, Revisited

Well, We're finally here.

First single from my upcoming EP is up.

Incidentally enough, this is also one of the first songs I wrote as Khaos.

As a young Black Metaller, I was fascinated by Theodor Kittelsen's illustrations of The Black Plague. I imagine many of us may have felt this, when grabbing a copy of "Hvis Lysett Tar Oss" for the very first time in our lives.

I was captivated by the vivid emotions that emanated from these paintings – some of them depicting different personifications of the plague. the raw expression of fear in an elderly woman's eyes, the heaviness of sorrow as it bears down on the shoulders of a farm worker, as she casts a desperate gaze toward the snowy mountains, the empty lifelessness in the face of a dead hunter… Even the colors, yes, the colors themselves spoke of oppressive fear and sorrow.

I was also drawn to the detached, yet somewhat naïve manner in which these intense scenes were depicted. The pictures spoke in a tone somewhat impersonal, as one would adopt when passing on a folktale. There were sick people, dying ones and mourners alongside decomposing corpses, carrion fowl, roaches and rats - And It all happened against an almost impossibly idyllic backdrop of a farm in the mountains. And yet, no attempts to beautify the tragedy, nor lachrymose depictions of events were to be found.

When I first started writing for Khaos, I wanted to reproduce this very same tone, but through music. And so, I wrote a simple song with a folk-inspired acoustic intro, to words which, like a folk song, will recount the events with rhythm and rhyme. For the videoclip of the song, I chose to make my very own personification of the plague and have it run around, wreaking havoc from forest to town. And yes, the odd touch of levity is definitely intentional.

This is my attempt to reimagine Kittelsen's Svartedauen as a Black Metal track: