Exclusive Track Premiere: Völur’s “Breaker of Skulls”

Canada’s Völur may very well represent the future of doom metal. Featuring members of Blood Ceremony and Do Make Say Think, the band is certainly one of the most original doom acts to arrive in some time. After knocking our socks off at last year’s Prophecy Fest, we praised them for “mixing doom in equal measures with elements of music from far outside the typical metal spectrum.” This strength is readily apparent on the band’s new song, “Breaker of Skulls,” which fueled not only by the creeping, crushing drums and bass you’d expect from a doom band (courtesy of James Payment and Lucas Gadke), but by Laura C. Bates’ violin work, which is by turns trippy and unsettling and gorgeous and aching. Völur’s music is eclectic and multidimensional and forward-thinking and everything you want the music of a great modern doom band to be.

Needless to say, we jumped at the chance to debut the song right here on MetalSucks.

Says the band of the track:

“‘Breaker of Skulls’ is a dark, sludgy slab of doom inspired by the ancient Icelandic warrior poet Egil Skallagrímsson, A man who fought terrible battles across the North Sea. He was at once barbarous and poetic. A man who would commit a brutal act of violence and then recite a beautiful poem immediately after. The song was inspired by his epic poem, ‘The Loss of My Sons,’ It moves from a combative, gnarly sludge riff to a bittersweet and almost beautiful conclusion, all the while filled with yearning chromatic movement. The piece finds the band at its most aggressive, and almost its most experiment with disjointed improvised passages paired against bleak heavy doom.”

Check out “Breaker of Skulls” below! It will appear on Völur’s new album, Ancestors, which comes out June 2 on Prophecy Productions. Pre-order it here!!!