Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Heilung released their third studio album, Drif, on 19 August 2022 through Season of Mist. [11] The album peaked at No. 9 and No. 25 in the German and Austrian album charts respectively. [12] Style [ edit ] Elaborately designed costumes are worn by the band members on stage. These are partly based on the "spiritual traditions of the Eurasian circumpolar peoples", or are historically correct reproductions of Nordic Bronze Age clothing. We’ll leave the scientific battle to the scientists,” says instrumentalist and producer Christopher Juul. “You’ll find five different versions of that song from five different people. How we write music is never with the point of view of: ‘We have the answer; this is exactly how it is.’ What we want to do is create an atmosphere where you can feel how it was [in ancient times].” By 2019, HEILUNG launched their second full-length record, ‘Futha,’ which contrasted the masculine and battle-heavy themes of their debut with a feminine counterpart that celebrated fertility and female energy. Upon the first week of the record’s release, it graced the Billboard charts with coveted numbers, debuting at #3 on the Heatseekers Charts and #4 on the Billboard World Music Chart, placing on a total of seven Billboard charts while meeting critical-acclaim from the press on a global scale.

That predilection towards ancient sounds makes perfect sense when co-lead singer Franz reveals that Juul was the son of a goði: a priest of Norse paganism. “In Scandinavia, it’s still an accepted religion to work within the old beliefs,” Juul says. “My father married people and baptised children. We did the blót” – a Norse pagan ritual to mark the start of the summer and winter half-years – “twice a year. It was completely normal.”The references to the early ages of European Civilization are also made by using texts from historical artefacts or historical poems. The languages used are varied, with German, English, Gothic, Old High German, Icelandic, Latin, Old English, Proto-Norse, Proto-Germanic, and Viking age Old Norse being used. Given the geographical shift the band have experienced through the creation of Drif, there is a new warmth to their music reflective of the more southerly parts of Europe and North Africa that the band have been inspired by. With clever post-production the band have revealed a new perspective on the sounds that their ancient and archaic instrument can create, building up ornately layered and intricate atmospheres. The elements that lead each song are the vocals and the percussion, whether it be dramatic and fierce or subtle and ethereal, the album has a beating heart that intensely feels the emotions of the music. In what seems like a moment of synchronicity between ancient and modern, the listener feels intrinsically bonded with Drif in that very moment, ebbing and flowing with the album’s various movements and narratives. HEILUNG’s innate ability to call upon things that were seemingly forgotten and frame them into a modern perspective connecting old and new in a finely turned process is truly remarkable, and Drif is the strongest representation of the band that we have to date. The band's first performances in 2017 were at Castlefest and at the Midgardsblot Metalfestival. The Castlefest performance was recorded and released with the title Lifa on YouTube and as a live album. [6] Their 2017 performance at Midgardsblot was listed by Metal Hammer [7] as one of the ten best performances of 2017. Later that year, the band signed a contract with the label Season of Mist.

The band has said that Drif ‘is unlike previous offerings that centered around prehistoric northern Europe, and will explore other great rudimentary civilizations outside of Europe’. ‘All the songs on ‘Drif’ have their own stories,’ says Heilung throat singer, Kai Uwe Faust. ‘Each has its place and sense of belonging, with inspiration not only from Northern Europe, but from the ancient great civilizations’.There are many words that can be used to describe the music that Heilung have to showcase on Drif. Words like ‘primitive’, ‘haunting’, ‘dangerous’, ‘poignant’ and even ‘epic’, yet none can truly do justice to the unique sound that grows and grows throughout Drif’s near-hour runtime. Such is the enigmatic style of the collective, Drif is as unpredictable as it is captivating and it is very, very captivating.

On 20 April 2018, the two previously self-released albums Ofnir and Lifa were reissued on vinyl and CD. [8] [3] Music that connects us to a primal past is something that has become more popular in the modern age, as we seek to reconnect with the Mother Earth that lives beneath our feet. None create this music better than mysterious and ethereal HEILUNG (meaning ‘healing’ in German). The trio hailing from Denmark, Norway, and Germany have undergone a meteoric rise since their inception in 2015. The band’s celestial and esoteric spirituality, coupled with their deeply conceptional and highly atmospheric music has built a bridge between the ancient world and the modern that all of us can cross. Unlike the band’s previous offerings that were centred around prehistoric northern Europe, Drif sees them explore the ancient civilisations and peoples outside northern Europe. Utilising ancient inscriptions, Roman military poems, Celtic battles and rune spells for lyrical inspiration, Drif shows HEILUNG in a form that you have never seen them before. As instruments, items are used that may have been already available to humans in the Iron Age, such as drums, bones or spears. According to an August 2018 interview, the instruments they use consist of: [13]The tour will commence in Greensboro, NC, on October 17. HEILUNG will then travel along the Southeast coast before heading west and performing the final night of their spellbinding ritual on November 5 in Denver, Colorado. For millennia, the history of music was sustained solely through word of mouth. Generations have always passed songs down to the next generation, be it spoken, written or recorded. So, is there a through line – are there echoes of Hymn to Nikkal in modern popular music? Franz laughs. “No. The rhythm in that text is just so weird; it’s so alien. I’ve never heard anything like it.” Musically spectacular, the tension generated by the songs is electric. The combinations provide such aural stimulation that it is almost indescribable. The acoustics utilised in the ancient way on ‘Nesso’ echo and resonate, allowing Maria Franz to sing directly into a resonating copper string tuned to the same note providing a haunting result. Footsteps on gravel and hay, with a male vocal underneath Maria’s voice imitates the exorcism of a worm from a horse’s leg via a traditional spell. This contrasts with the curse which is generated on ‘Buslas Bann,’ inspired by Icelandic runes of the 13th century. Both incredible, as is the finale of the 50 names of ‘Marduk’ which closes the album in creative and thrilling fashion. Reeder (30 June 2020). "HEILUNG Music Used in Popular 'Vikings' Series". metaladdicts.com . Retrieved 30 January 2022.

drums, including one with horse skin painted with human blood, two drums with deerskin and a drum with goatskinAsja is easily my favorite of the singles, and that is due to the throat singing of Kai Uwe Faust. The deep tones and rhythmic cadence of his vocals resonate within my chest, creating waves of primal feelings, feelings that were buried by the societal standards that have all but eradicated our connection to our own being, and to the beauty around us. a b Thorley, Andy (4 December 2017). "Featured Band: Heilung". Maximum Volume Music . Retrieved 13 December 2018. Anoana is beauty that reaches the highest of levels, heavily relying on the vocal stylings of Maria Franz, whose voice is as beautiful as any that I’ve ever heard. I’m transfixed by her vocal tones as she sings, ‘Aelwao ano ana tuwa tuwa. Tau liu ano ana tuwa tuwa’. The music is mellow, stripped down to only the most necessary instruments needed to create an ambient atmosphere that will fill your soul with its elegance. With the preface that I still haven't heard this band's debut album, only their last ( Futha), this album seems to indicate a bit of a change for Heilung.