Five years ago, something caught me off-guard during the winter of 2019. It was December 12th of that year, and I was watching The Game Awards right before the Christmas holiday. When they announced a follow-up sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice which came out in August of 2017, they premiered the trailer (Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II) for the sequel as the main character Senua was going through this mental singing that resembles the vibrations of fellow Zeuhl maestros, MAGMA.
It took me by surprise to find out what the hell was that. It was a band called Heilung. The band have been around for ten years from its origins in Germany, Denmark, and Norway. Their music brings to mind the genres of ethnic music, industrial rock, folk, neo-folk, the Iron Age, and Viking Age. They’ve described it as amplified history from early medieval northern Europe.
Now onto the story, when the band premiered at The Game Awards last year performing ‘Seidh’ which appeared in the game, they completely stole the show. I wish The Game Awards would have something like this, rather than the massive celebrities and muppetry, bullshit nonsense and understand there’s more than just the big names and bring out the big guns that is needed.
That and this incredible live recording the band did at Red Rocks in October of 2021 in Denver, Colorado entitle Lifa lotungard, which is their second live album released this year and follow-up to the first live Lifa album which was recorded at the Castlefest in the Netherlands. They take audiences back in time to where the power and intensity come in full swing by giving the Amphitheater, an evening they’ll never forget.
There’s no denying that Heilung are the band worth seeing. Listening to the Red Rocks performance, you can just close your eyes and imagine yourself being at the venue, showing your support, being a part of the ritual, doing their call-and-response to the chants which adds more intensity to the flaming fires they build up to pay tribute towards the Mongolian throat singing atmosphere in the republic of Tuva.
Here and now, Heilung hypnotises the percussive vibrations which howls off into the Colorado sky, knowing they’ve completed their mission. If you’re very new to the world of Heilung’s music, then this is a complete start to see what you’re missing. Because once this is over, you want to go back and listen to it again and again to find pieces of the puzzle and the clues they left behind.
