Funeral rites and its iconography have a long history of weepers, or weeping figures – sad, heavy characters mourning the deceased. “Weepers of the Land” is a nod to the expression 'keepers of the land,' most often used in an indigenous and/or environment-related context, while referencing a less glorious side of history. The title song and concept is about what stays behind after someone vanishes.
The song was co-written with Joshua Cayer (Longhouse – bass/vocals), who is also guest vocalist on the song.
Joshua comments: “When we were developing the concept of the track, I had just finished listening to a podcast hosted by Indigenous journalist, Connie Walker, called Missing and Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams. Aside from the obvious painful subject matter, what really struck me was the guilt expressed, and carried for all these years, by those closest to Alberta Williams - What if I answered my phone that night? What if I turned around sooner? What if. As a father of two little girls, I couldn’t begin to imagine the deep sorrow that is carried by survivors of our Indigenous women and girls that go missing, or are murdered. I tried to give voice to just a fraction of what those feelings of pain, guilt and failure might feel like to a father or a mother, with the hope of creating better awareness and empathy for the issue of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls in our country.”
“Weepers of the Land”'s dark and heavy atmosphere takes the shape of an epic, extreme doom metal song. Clocking in at 10min and 22secs, Weepers of the Land's monumental proportions and slow pace represented both a challenge and an opportunity to transfer onto the screen. Approaching it from the perspective of a short movie, Erik Labossiere of Wikked Twist Films was given artistic freedom to develop the concept behind the video.
Erik comments: “When creating the video concept for "Weepers" I wanted to create a narrative that could symbolize an array of current issues and motifs. With the core message of corruption and assimilation, I wanted to tell a story that could identify with any situation of oppression and abuse. I also wanted to create characters that each themselves expressed a reaction to these issues. Some see the plight of our world and react with indifference, with silence, with reinforcement, and some push to create hope. In my opinion, there is only one monster in this video, and everyone else exists within the grey, and its is up to the viewer to reflect on this and question which role they play.”
Credits:
This video was directed by Erik Labossiere and Kristin Wagner, costuming by Beki Stilborn, was shot at the Creative City Centre in Regina, SK (organized by Catherine Abenstein) and featured Ivy West and Violet Rayes (of The Pink Champagne Girls), Donny Pinay and Nate Cradock (of Altars of a Grief), Beki Stilborn (Archaical), Josh DeCorby, Gabrielle Kyrylchuk, and Kaden Phillips. Masks created by Merimask.
Music by Norilsk. Lyrics by Nic Miquelon and Joshua Cayer.
On October 12, Norilsk’s new opus Weepers of the Land was officially released on Hypnotic Dirge Records. Over the last few weeks, we presented advance material including a music video for “The Way”, paying tribute to one of the earliest occult movies filmed on Canadian soil, and “No Sacred Ground”, featuring Damian Smith of Altars of Grief on guest vocals.
Now that the album has been released for a few days and you have had a chance to listen to it in its entirety, we want to offer ...
Norilsk’s new mini-album “Weepers of the Land” is now officially released! The album is available in digipack format with a bonus track exclusive to the CD version of the album. You can also pick up a Trails of Doom pack which includes three CD's, a shirt, a patch, and a sticker.
The main bulk of the album is streaming in full on Bandcamp and available as a “Name-Your-Price” download.
"Coming off the heels of their latest full-length album, this fall the Canadian Death-Doom act Nori...
We are now accepting pre-orders for the new Norilsk's mini-album, entitled “Weepers of the Land”, which will be released worldwide by Hypnotic Dirge Records on October 12, 2018.
Norilsk’s new opus should be viewed as a companion to last fall’s “Le passage des glaciers” as the material was written and recorded during the same time period, but with that being said there is a different feeling - seemingly of a more abrasive and desperate nature - conjured on this album’s material.
On October 12, doom-death entity Norilsk is set to release a brand new offering; an omen that autumn will be tuned down to doom and the bitter cold. Weepers of the Land is the follow up mini-album to last year's full length Le passage des glaciers, presenting a more abrasive and visceral Norilsk weaving stories of heritage, loss, and displacement through dynamic and atmospheric blackened death-doom metal. Weepers of the Land will be Norilsk’s third installment on Hypnotic Dirge Records.
Coming off the heels of their latest full-length album “Le passage des glaciers”, this fall the Canadian Death-Doom act Norilsk returns with a collection of new material linked in concept with its previous full-length while also showcasing Norilsk’s more collaborative and multi-faceted nature. It retains the band's signature sound developed on its two full-length albums, and brings forward further openness to an array of doom-related influences.
French-Canadian doom act Norilsk unveils a new music video from their latest album Le passage des glaciers, released through Hypnotic Dirge Records. La voie des morts (The Way of the Dead) is a winter dirge, a black premonition accompanying the dead season. Without a doubt the fastest track on the album, it starts as a cold funeral march, before turning into a blackened procession.
Scholomance Webzine is premiering the music video at this link.
Norilsk Interview with 'A Different Shade' of Black Zine Published: November 20, 2017 Original Link
1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Le passage des glaciers is being released on November 24, which means we are currently preparing all the pre-orders, including a new shirt designed by Misanthropic-Art.com. We also have a new lyric video for the song ''Noirceur intérieure'', to be premiered the same week. The band ...
Today is the official release of Norilsk's second full-length album "Le passage des glaciers" - an album about mourning and departure and a perfect soundtrack to the cold winter ahead...
Tracklist:
1. Midnight Sun
2. Le puits de l'oubli
3. Namolennye
4. La voie des morts
5. Ghosts of Loss (Passage part I)
6. Noirceur intérieure
7. L'érosion (Passage part II)
8. Ellesmere You can now stream the album in full on Bandcamp.
If you enjoy it, the album is also available for donation-based download. (name-...
French-Canadian band Norilsk is back with a captivating new album, as thick and heavy as permafrost. Le passage des glaciers follows in the footsteps of 2015's album The Idea of North, but expands the sound considerably. From a sludgy slab of doom-death, the band has carved further into the icy influences of dark metal, to emerge with a blackened doom-death album tainted with frozen melodies, misty atmospheres, and reflective lyrical passages.
The Sludgelord is premiering Norilsk's video for t...
