Clouds are slowly drifting over the horizon and obscuring the life-sustaining sun. This can only mean one thing–Windhand have a new video out. The rulers of RVA doom metal like to keep it mysterious, so none of the band’s five members appear in the video at all.
Clouds are slowly drifting over the horizon and obscuring the life-sustaining sun. This can only mean one thing–Windhand have a new video out. The rulers of RVA doom metal like to keep it mysterious, so none of the band’s five members appear in the video at all. Instead, it combines several different layers of black-and-white or decaying color footage into a montage that doesn’t add up to anything concrete but instead contains several layers of frightening implication. Footage from the dawn of motion picture cinema which illustrates nefarious incidents of witchcraft and devilment with a German Expressionist feel alternates with shots of economically ravaged Appalachian coal-mining countryside and footage of a forest fire out of control. The end result feels like some strange merger of Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages, Harlan County USA, and Wisconsin Death Trip.
For all I know, this video actually features images from all three of these films, but it doesn’t matter–trainspotting’s not the point. The point is creating a dark, foreboding atmosphere that matches the sound of Windhand’s ominous, sludgy riffing and Dorthia Cottrell’s spooky, atmospheric, yet beautifully sung vocals. The video definitely lives up to that task, and “Orchard” stands as a visual and musical reminder that if you haven’t picked up Windhand’s latest album, Soma, released last September by Relapse, you should definitely do so ASAP. The vinyl’s been repressed a few times, and it looks like it’s still available in its third pressing, on white wax from Relapse. If CD or mp3 are more your speed, you can grab either of those from Windhand’s Bandcamp page. Of course, you could just go see Windhand at Strange Matter on Sunday, where they’ll be playing with Nashville’s All Them Witches and Rochester, NY’s King Buffalo. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 on the day of the show, and can be ordered here: https://windhand.eventbrite.com/ Doors open at 9 PM; for more info, click here.
