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Vattnet Viskar Prepare You For Tragedy With “Settler”

Early last month post-black metal outfit Vattnet Viskar announced their sophomore album, Settler, with few details attached. Since then we’ve received new information in drips and drabs. The artwork

9 years ago

Vattnet Viskar - Settler

Early last month post-black metal outfit Vattnet Viskar announced their sophomore album, Settler, with few details attached. Since then we’ve received new information in drips and drabs. The artwork you see above is the cover art, and if it looks a bit cheesy and strange and other words not normally associated with good (particularly for a band as heavy as VV), well, there’s at least a pretty good reason for that. Settler is purportedly about Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from Vattnet guitarist Chris Alfieri’s hometown of Concord, NH. McAuliffe was selected by NASA to ride up in the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986 — yes, that Challenger. The cover art is based off of an old photograph of McAuliffe prior to the launch. So it’s got that going for it.

More importantly, Vattnet have released the first single to the new album, which is the title track “Settler.” Listen to it after the jump!

This track comes to us courtesy of the fine folks over at Stereogum, where they provide a bit more background into the cover art and concept for the album if you wish to read up on that. In terms of the music at hand though, “Settler” is a pretty killer and hugely dynamic track. Stereogum’s Michael Nelson argues that this falls pretty squarely in the realm of post-metal rather than the post-black metal movement Vattnet became associated with in their debut Sky Swallower, and I have to agree. It’s a huge track and still very concerned with atmosphere and vastness, but it falls more in line with releases we’ve seen from Minsk and Sannhet this year than with the likes of Deafheaven and the other bands that have been lumped into this amorphous sub-genre the past few years. Regardless, this is a very encouraging sign for Settler and hopefully just a little taste of what’s to come.

Settler is out via Century Media June 16. You can pre-order it here. Upcoming tour dates with Early Graves are below.

May 16th, 2015 – Milly’s Tavern – Manchester, NH
May 17th, 2015 – Parlour – Providence, RI
May 18th, 2015 – Great Scott – Allston, MA
May 20th, 2015 – Ortliebs – Philadelphia, PA
May 21st, 2015 – Saint Vitus – Brooklyn, NY
May 22nd, 2015 – Rams Head Live – Baltimore, MD (Maryland Deathfest)

-NC

Nick Cusworth

Published 9 years ago