SCALD - Ancient Doom Metal CD HRR 947CD, slipcase, 16 pages booklet FELIPE PLAZA KUTZBACH - vocals HARALD - guitars KARRY - guitars VELINGOR - bass OTTAR - drums & percussions 01 Ancient Doom Metal 02 Young God Resurrected 03 Master of the Lake 04 Far Northern Corner 05 ALU (My Protection) 06 The Liberating Spells of Fire 07 The Enemy Among Us (bonus track) AVAILABLE

Scald from Yarsoslavl in Russia were formed in the second half of 1993. A year later their first proper demo tape »North Winds« was recorded. However, it was their cassette album under the original title of »Will Of Gods Is A Great Power«, released in October 1997 on MetalAgen (one of the biggest labels in Russia at the time), that made them an underground cult name in international doom circles. At this point in time their charismatic singer Agyl was already dead (he was tragically killed in a train accident on September 6th 1997), and the band as such didn’t exist anymore. 24 years later, in 2021, High Roller Records issued the ultimate edition of the album under the new title of »Will Of The Gods Is Great Power«. As a result, Scald were gaining battalions of new fans and went on to achieve a whole new level of popularity. After a one-off live appearance at the Hammer Of Doom festival in 2019, Scald are back for good with a brand new studio album aptly christened »Ancient Doom Metal«. It was recorded by Velingor (bass), Harald (guitars), Karry (guitars), Ottar (drums and percussion) plus Felipe Plaza Kutzbach (known for his work with Procession and Capilla Ardiente) on vocals. The initial relationship of Velingor and Felipe goes back a long time, as the bassist explains: “It was 2014 or 2015 and I was a little bored. I lived abroad and there were few acquaintances around ... And somehow I decided to search the internet for cover versions of Scald’s songs from the only album at that time – »Will Of The Gods Is Great Power«. And almost immediately I ‘stumbled’ upon the epic doom metal band Procession and their cover of perhaps the most famous and popular Scald song – ‘Night Sky’ (from their EP »Death And Judgment«). I was amazed at how well their vocalist correctly captured the mood of the deceased Scald vocalist, Agyl. And the timbre of the Procession vocalist was surprisingly similar to Agyl! (I didn’t like all the other Scald covers that I found – those who recorded them did not capture the general atmosphere of Scald at all. They only tried to reproduce Scald songs as accurately as possible). I immediately found the name of this brilliant singer – Felipe Plaza Kutzbach. I wrote to him in order to express my delight and amazement – and that’s how we met. It turned out that Felipe has long been a big fan of Scald and Agyl's vocals. Moreover, it was this vocalist who had a huge influence on Felipe. We first met in person in Moscow at the beginning of 2019. Felipe played a show there as a bass player with the band Destroyer 666. By that time we had already been invited to perform at the German Hammer Of Doom festival, and Felipe was recommended to us as the best choice as a singer. We could not agree more! At this very first meeting we discussed the steps we should take in order to get ready for the festival. It was a task of some magnitude, since we had to recall the songs from 22 years ago and learn to play them anew. This meeting was truly historical, since it was then that our guitarist Harald proposed we don’t stop at playing the old songs but also woke on a new album together. Felipe enthusiastically agreed.” So how did it feel getting back on stage at Hammer Of Doom in 2019 after all these years? Velingor beams: “When we started playing the first song – ‘Night Sky – the whole audience (more than a thousand people from all over the world) sang along: “Will of the Gods is Great Power!” Immediately it felt like we've split into two. Here we stood on stage in the Posthalle, Würzburg, and at the same time there we were back on stage in Russia of the distant 1990s, when we were all young and Scald were a mere underground band. Those almost forgotten sensations, intensified many times over, returned to us. We haven’t felt this way for more than 20 years! And we started to realize what we managed to achieve together – Scald was finally internationally famous. It is a shame that Agyl didn’t live to see this day, since it was always him who believed that Scald was destined for greatness. And of course it was Felipe who helped us prove that! The audience sang the entire text of ‘Night Sky’ along with him, and when the final chords of the song died away, the hall exploded with delight. Felipe hailed Maxim ‘Agyl’ and the audience solemnly joined him, repeating the hail a few times. And we continued to play every single song from »Will Of The Gods Is Great Power«, feeling completely happy and elated. The final song of the set was supposed to be a surprise – it was a new track composed in 2019 in time to be performed at the Hammer Of Doom. This was our way of letting people know that the story of Scald doesn’t end here! Not everybody realized what happened, but the response was fantastic and we were asked to play an encore (unfortunately, we didn’t because our time on stage, like everyone else’s, was limited).” Felipe adds: “Oliver of Keep It True had mentioned it a couple of times when we had met, specially after a great Procession show at Hammer Of Doom in 2017 … he said something ‘here, next year, Scald!’ … I just replied ‘yeah, right’ with a grin ha, ha … well it took him two years and a bit of pushing instead to make it happen and man, what a show it was. Both personally as a Scald fan, the instant connection with the crowd, but most importantly to see the rest of Scald performing their first show abroad to such a reception.” For Velingor this legendary Hammer Of Doom performance of Scald was not the catalyst for the re-union: “ Actually, the idea of a re-union was born earlier. It was the end of 2018 when all four original Scald members got together again, to see if they wanted to try and start the band anew. To let our fans know that something was finally happening we posted online a picture taken at that meeting. And almost immediately we were contacted by Oliver Weinsheimer with an offer to play Hammer Of Doom 2019. And the success of our performance there cemented our belief that the reunion was in fact a great idea.” Felipe says: “Ain’t like I need more projects/bands to be involved with …but the faces, genuine passion and excitement of Velingor, Ottar, Karry and Harald that Hammer Of Doom night … under the old spell of Agyl who I’m sure was strongly with us during the whole trip. This exact moment was when I decided to continue and to make the »Ancient Doom Metal« album with them: is my retribution, my humble offering to their legacy.” On a personal level Velingor and Felipe are getting along great. “More than great!” exclaims the bassist. “I think the main reason is that we both are big fans of classic heavy, speed, thrash, doom (especially!) metal of the 80s. Felipe and I turned out to be close in spirit. And it was decided unanimously that the new musical material of Scald would be created in the same vein as the first cult album »Will Of The Gods Is Great Power«, that it will be the same atmospheric epic doom metal, influenced by Candlemass and Bathory of the ‘Asatru’ period. So we don’t have any disagreements musically. As for personal relationships, over all the past years each of us has been to hell and back, and acquired life wisdom. And that’s probably why we don’t have any personal problems.” “I am getting along great not just with Velingor but everybody in Scald,” specifies Felipe. “I just wish the situation was different and we could have more vodka and Manowar singalong nights together, ha! And on a musical level, their pagan seal is totally intact, believe me, so I just have to contribute with what I got and my perspective as fan. It’s just perfect.” “I first heard Scald in 2004,” continues the singer, “when John Perez (Solitude Aeturnus) recommended them to me, then I became a quite obsessive Scald fanatic and I remember a year later or so I started doing trades with the Wroth Emitter (Russia) label and I was distributing Scald CDs in Chile, with a strong sense of ‘this is too good, I gotta show my friends’ … but I also gotta confess I used to be a bit elitist about it (with doom music in general … I even went through a period in the late 90's where i would buy every spare copy of »Epicus Doomicus Metallicus« so no one else could have it … ha!) and sort of ‘chose’ who I'll talk to about Scald or was worth selling a CD to ha, ha … this was and still is too important for me and I couldn’́t just let it be taken by anybody, a young but pretty driving and enthusiastic mindset, if you ask me. Then no one had done it, so it just felt right to pay tribute to Scald with Procession in 2012. What we didn’t know then is what this recording would bring … and yet here we are. For many years of solitude and search, one of my ‘whispering’ comrades was Agyl: now I'm just proud to call myself a comrade of Scald. And I would consider myself a traitor to not heed their call when they felt like going out and giving it one more chance, for Agyl, for themselves and for the times we live in. So you can easily say what I bring to the sacrifice is my respect, my honour and blood. Hail Agyl, hail Scald!” The first sign of life by Scald after their long sleep was a 7” single called »There Flies Our Wail!« issued on High Roller Records in 2021. “The reaction was great!,” smirks Velingor. “’There Flies Our Wail!’ was so to say our ‘test of the pen’ after the re-union; our first song with Felipe on vocals and first new release of Scald after almost 24 years. I don’t remember exactly who proposed the idea of an EP but I guess it was Felipe who did it. We needed something to work as a teaser before we can release a full-length album. And it worked! We were bombarded with interviews, and the reviews and comments about this EP were rave.” “A test indeed!,” adds Felipe. “But I already saw a path if things would go well and thought getting Steffen (High Roller Records) on board would cement great things for the future … And since I run a small label called Burn Records, I knew I could take care of the proper distribution to doom metal freaks I had established contact since I started Procession. So basically getting everybody both in the doom underground/mainstream to know that Scald was ‘up to something’ again!” The new album is called called »Ancient Doom Metal«, which perfectly describes the kind of music Scald are playing. “Absolutely,” agrees Velingor, “and by the way, the name ‘Ancient Doom Metal’ was originally invented by the now deceased first singer of Scald – Agyl. He suggested that’s how we should call the kind of music Scald played. So when the idea of a new album was born, I proposed we call it »Ancient Doom Metal« – in the memory of Agyl. Obviously there were no objections.” The bassist sees a direct spiritual connection between Scalds original debut album »Will Of The Gods Is Great Power« and their brand new offering: “Despite the fact that the first Scald album was composed and recorded back in the 90s, and »Ancient Doom Metal« was created during last three years, they are worked in the same style. Both albums are filled with the same atmosphere – that of the north, of ancient Scandinavia and Russia. In both cases the music and lyrics are based on mythology and mysticism of these regions. Of course, now we have become much more experienced musically than in the 90s, but we tried to keep the epic vibe of northern cold vastness, the very same we managed to create back then. And it is very important that Felipe feels and expresses it as well as we do.” He adds: “»Ancient Doom Metal« was written and recorded during difficult times – both for us and the whole of humanity. I believe this fact affected the overall atmosphere of the album – it turned out even darker than we originally intended. We worked on it during almost three years, and in all that time we never had an opportunity to get together with Felipe in person. So, under the circumstances our only option was communicating online, sending the work in progress back and forth. The main songwriters for the new Scald album are our guitarists, Harald and Karry, and their style is quite different. Harald still gravitates towards melodic slow riffs and solos, and Karry prefers his riffs to be faster and his solos more technical. Over all these past years, each of them has incorporated something new into their playing style, so the new musical material is perhaps more diverse than that on the first album. As for the lyrics, it was me who was responsible for the basic ideas. I found inspiration in ancient Scandinavian, Slavic and Finno-Ugric legends (after all, our entire Yaroslavl homeland in ancient times was a crossroads of all these cultures), and used some scientific articles on the subject. Some ideas were suggested by our manager Tatiana, who also worked on translating the original lyrics into English properly. At this stage it was up to Felipe, who created the final version of the lyrics, modifying them in his own unique style and creating killer vocal parts. The visual part of the album was also crucial – to work on it we invited Andrey Andreev, a highly talented artist who already created some designs for us (for example, the cover of »There Flies Our Wail!« EP). This time we wanted each song to be mirrored in art piece which would convey the meaning and atmosphere of the song. And of course the album’s artwork is also Andrey’s creation. The final mix and mastering was done by Ilya Morok in ‘Bog-Morok studio’ in Rybinsk (not far from our native Yaroslavl). Ilya Morok is known for his work with cult black metal band Bethlehem and folk funeral doom metal band Vo Skorbyah. The sound he creates is ideal for Scald so we entrusted him to do the final technical work on the album. It took us a while, and when the album was finally finished we hardly believed it. As Karry said, the most important thing is that we love the result ourselves. And we sure do! All seven songs for »Ancient Doom Metal« were composed between 2020 and 2023. No early ideas, no re-recorded songs. It was our mutual decision to create a new album entirely from scratch. As to the early unrealized ideas, we decided to hold them back for now and maybe use in the future. But we have no immediate plans regarding them.” As Velingor explains, songs like “The Master Of The Lake” are quite heavily influenced not only by classic epic doom metal but also folk music: “Yes, you are right in general. But sometimes we use elements of not only Slavic, but folk music of the North in general. But it's worth noting that Scald is not a folk metal band. Therefore, these elements do not prevail in our creativity. As for ‘The Master Of The Lake’ – this song is filled to the brim, both in music and in lyrics, with the dark, cold mysticism of the North. I think that the main refrain – Harald's guitar part – is really inspired by Slavic folk music, although he himself cannot now remember under the influence of what exactly this part was born in his head (by the way, this song was the first one composed for the new album). The lyrics of ‘The Master Of The Lake’ are based on an ancient pagan legend associated with Lake Nero (Yaroslavl region) and tell a tale about the spirit/master of the lake who lives on one of the islands and guards his domain. In winter, one must not approach this island – or else one would fall into a thawed area and freeze to death, becoming part of the lake.” “ALU (My Protection)” is probably the one song on the album which shows the biggest Bathory »Hammerheart«-period inspiration. At least that’s the way I perceived it. As well as Velingor: “It does, and this song was meant to be like this – exactly in the spirit of Bathory’s »Hammerheart« period and the first Scald album »Will Of The Gods is Great Power«. It's a slow, dense epic wall of sound like waddling heavy waves on the open sea! When I listen to this song (and especially Felipe's vocal part), it's as if I'm taken back in time – to the 1990s, back to original Scald. I’m sure Felipe will have something to say about this song, too – especially about how the magnificent vocal parts were created.” “I remember approaching this lyrics with the perspective of the shaman/wizard,” adds vocalist Felipe, “since it starts so powerful and pounding you really had to build up the scenario and elements from the beginning to reach the decided effect when it peaks at the chorus. So I remember taking time and as letting the music develop and show itself, let elements of the story develop simultaneously. And I think this is something one gets naturally by listening for so many years to the great ones of epic metal, Manowar, asatru-Bathory, Solstice (UK) … and Scald! There’s a certain calm nostalgia to it … that warns you something ‘Old’ is about to happen … by magic! And that’s the spell of ‘ALU’, which indeed is one of my favorites in the album as well.” With the singer having been brought up in Chile (although he is now living in Sweden), doesn’t it feel odd for him to sing a song like “Far Northern Corner”, originally coming from a much warmer region of the earth? “Well, there's two answers to this question,” he reflects “First and foremost, I moved to Sweden 16 years ago and these days I live in a very far northern corner, so far away from the city noise … so specifically this song resonated extremely strong during the process of both writing and recording. I was singing it to the ’present’ somehow. Mind you, I chose Silence Studios (established in 1970) for the vocal sessions, which is a legendary Swedish studio … and there I was driving completely alone in the middle of the night through dark woods and trying not to crash into elks, foxes and deers. At the same time it was just me and the icon who is sound engineer Anders Liden behind the board in this ‘ancient’ northern sound goldmine. So when I had to interpret and communicate lyrics that, as you say, maybe (and just ‘maybe’) don't belong to where I come from, this was the perfect northern corner of the world. Then and about north and south, while growing up one end up in all sorts of different situations, places and scenarios (including where I am now) where all I had was metal music to use as a shield and weapon, and particularly the music of Scald and the voice of Agyl had always a strong impact during uncountable trips to the extreme south of Chile, with its majestic sights and darkest depths, helping me dig deeper and connect and understand things you just can't put into words and are only understandable through the experience. Not only the south, but also as Chileans (up to my generation and before the ’soul rape’ of the modern world, for what I know) we always had a strong connection to nature, old tradition, respect for the word of the elder, the true belief that there are old pagan energies ruling the currents of action and reaction of nature. Some of our most popular tales, jokes and slang words have either a connection with our aborigines or to what one could consider old witchcraft. Be it in the south, north, east or west and with the right combination of elements you could always go, let's say camping, hiking or just drinking and get that ‘ancient enlightening insignificance’ feeling back for a moment: just me and this powerful giant called ‘nature’ and a whole lot of secrets untold. And that's just how I grew up. With time and traveling I learned as well that most of the countries that are far distant (closer to the poles), or also islands for that matter, had a similar connection to their roots and a constant, pumping nostalgia for the pagan spirit. I think every day we spend in the new world, the more people are realizing there's something we gave away and can't get back. (This is why an album like »Ancient Doom Metal« is more than important to be released these days.) And if you add to that that Chile has also a story of abuse and pillaging in the past; punishing dictatorships in the more recent times, you'll see that our story and the way our blood boils ain't that different from other ‘distant’ comrades of the world. Music is a way to understand the past and write a past for the future, so there ́s a lot to receive if one listens properly, as well as a lot to write if one is keen to perpetuate the tradition. And if you do it with pride, because there is nothing wrong with pride when turned into will, you might as well inspire others to do so. So when I sing ‘to the north’ I'm also singing for the south. I've personally written about this ‘connection’ before and you find it in the lyrics for Procession's »To Reap Heavens Apart« album.” Although Scald have a cult following all over the world now, they are based in Russia. How big is the band’s fan base in their home country? Velingor explains: “Well, Scald has had loyal fans in Russia since the 90s – and many of them are still with us. This really keeps us going! These old school fans were very enthusiastic about the news of the upcoming album. There is also a younger generation of fans who learned about Scald later and never saw us play live. But in general, there are certainly more Scald fans outside Russia – it’s only logical, since unfortunately heavy metal was never as popular in our country as it is in the West. And it so happened that Scald, after all, has been much more famous abroad - ever since the first re-releases of the first album »Will Of The Gods Is Great Power«” in Europe at the beginning of the 2000s. And we really hope that once »Ancient Doom Metal« is released, new fans will join our ranks! Hail ancient doom metal!” MATTHIAS MADER