MENTAL CRUELTY Goes to Valhalla With “Ride of the Valkyries”
MENTAL CRUELTY has released “Ride of the Valkyries,” the epic closing track from its upcoming album, Echoes of a Forlorn Land, accompanied by the cinematic intro “Dämmerbruch” and the band's most ambitious music video to date.
Watch the video here:
Echoes of a Forlorn Land arrives Oct. 23 through Century Media.
Built around Norse mythology and the journey of fallen warriors to Valhalla, “Ride of the Valkyries” combines MENTAL CRUELTY’s extreme-metal foundation with orchestration, melodic passages and a pronounced symphonic death-metal influence.
Vocalist Lukas Nicolai said the album's final two tracks were designed as its grand finale.
“‘Ride of the Valkyries’ is the grand finale ahead of the release of our new LP Echoes of a Forlorn Land,” Nicolai said. “It closes the album alongside intro ‘Dämmerbruch’ with heroic atmosphere, bombastic orchestration and uplifting melodies to tell the tale of Norse mythology’s angelic deliverers of the dead.”
Nicolai cited CHILDREN OF BODOM, WINTERSUN and ENSIFERUM among the musical reference points colliding with the band's black-metal and deathcore influences on the track.
MENTAL CRUELTY went considerably further with the accompanying visual. The band teamed with Polish production company Grupa13, whose previous work includes BEHEMOTH and AMON AMARTH, to create a video spanning both “Dämmerbruch” and “Ride of the Valkyries.”
The production uses a historically based Norse village and period-focused reenactors to turn the two-song finale into what Nicolai describes as the band's “own little Viking movie.”
“We matched that with the biggest, most expensive and over-the-top production we’ve ever done, both musically and visually,” Nicolai said.
Echoes of a Forlorn Land was produced, mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren, whose credits include DIMMU BORGIR, BEHEMOTH, KREATOR, AMON AMARTH and OPETH. The 11-track album follows MENTAL CRUELTY’s Zwielicht and continues the band's combination of extreme metal, orchestration and darker atmospheric elements.
MENTAL CRUELTY will support the album with a European headline tour beginning in November with OV SULFUR and EXTERMINATION DISMEMBERMENT.
Echoes of a Forlorn Land Track List
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“Weltennacht”
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“Fenrir”
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“Blood For Blood”
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“The Serpent Of Midgard”
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“Helheim”
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“Draugar”
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“Raise The Raven Banner”
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“Cry Of Batariel”
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“Frost”
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“Dämmerbruch”
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“Ride Of The Valkyries”