Ethereal melodies, pursued by a hauntingly deep voice and beautiful psychedelic chants with intertwining vocals, whisper the beginning of the magic that is “Braiding the Stories” – the new album by Norwegians Gaahls Wyrd. Dreamlike in tone and guided by an enchanting, fluid tempo, the album evokes a journey from dream to another dream, transforming the ether into sonic combinations that transcend traditional musical boundaries.
With its heartfelt and immersive opening tracks, the album gently weaves you into a web of dreamcraft – tender and introspective. But as the third track, the instrumental “Voices in My Head”, begins, the atmosphere grows denser. Layers of despair and fury emerge, still rooted in the psychedelic spirit, but carrying a newfound emotional weight. From heavier metal passages to dark folk and post-metal instrumentals, “Braiding the Stories” is diverse and full of breathtaking moments – sometimes epic, sublime. It doesn’t rush, nor does it falter, but unfolds like a lucid vision.
At the heart of the album lies Gaahl’s ever-shifting voice— a spectral instrument through which Kristian Espedal conjures an astonishing range of emotion: wistful longing, aching melancholy, quiet strength, sacred fury, funereal sorrow, and the shadowy contours of madness. His voice transforms, inhabits, haunts. Each inflection feels less like performance and more like personal invocation, drawing from something deep and ineffable. The result is a visionary work of rare beauty — one that dares you to disappear into its creative maelstrom.
Espedal himself remarks: “This time around, I feel I visited the White Lodge, not the Black Lodge.” Yet in truth, while the White Lodge may dominate, the album draws from both realms. Even if actual harsh black metal vocals and traditional black metal instruments are rather absent or moved back in the mix, tracks like “And the Now” resonate with a brooding intensity, “Visions and Time” pulses with the energy of a battle hymn, and the monumental “Root the Will” delivers Espedal’s growls, leading us forward with Floyd Rose bends and rapid-fire riffs toward transcendence. And then, like a final embrace before the veil lifts, “Flowing Starlight” gathers you into your last ethereal form, guiding you through the closing dream — a twilight passage awash in yearning waves that carry you gently home, as if unknown forces were whispering you back into waking.
Certainly, “Braiding the Stories” defies the confines of black metal — or any other label, for that matter — yet in this case, such categorization feels entirely irrelevant. Art is meant to make you feel – and “Braiding the Stories” does exactly that. It carries you deep into the magic of Gaahls Wyrd, into melancholic dreams with a hallucinogenic edge. It plays effortlessly from beginning to end, leaving a lingering aftertaste in the soul, revealing before you a hypnotic dreamscape that pulls you in like a spell cast in the language of shadows and light. A language carved into the quiet architecture of your soul, waiting to unfurl.
Dive into the latest unveiled track from the album below:
Album: “Braiding the Stories”
Band: Gaahls Wyrd
Country: Norway
Release Date: June 6, 2025
Label: Season of Mist
Link: https://orcd.co/gaahlswyrdbraidinggthestories
Mother of THE VOID.
Underground music is the ultimate weapon against mediocrity.
