VELVET THUNDER

Enigmatic world music outfit HEILUNG are now announcing their collaboration to the ‘Operation Amazonia’ project, which was recently launched by GOJIRA whose mission is to fight for the struggle of the local indigenous people of the Amazon. HEILUNG are now offering  selected items for auction, to help raise money for the project. The band comments:

“Drum for Trees

Dear Brothers and Sisters.
We’ve all known this for some time: The rainforest is about to end. 
So, when our colleagues in Gojira asked us to take part in their Operation Amazonia, an online auction by bands and artists to collect money for the people trying to protect what’s left, it was an easy YES. Of course. We love trees, they eat carbon and shit air, what’s not to like..?

We are therefore auctioning two items that are very dear and personal to us:

1 The frame drum: 
We will build and decorate a custom shamanic frame drum similar to the ones we use during our rituals on stage and at home. The drum will be built from the ground up with uttermost care, love, and respect for this and the other side, exactly as our own drums.

2 The broken skin of the drum that started it all: 
After our ritual on Wacken we were heartbroken to witness the death of our most beloved frame drum when a random stage technician accidentally stepped on it in the dark backstage. It has been hanging wounded on the wall at Kai´s home ever since, waiting to do its last magic and its final voyage. It feels natural to us that this once beating heart of ours now maybe can help protect a tiny corner of the breathing lungs of this earth.

The auction ends in 9 days. If your wealth allows it, go spend it here.

Remember, that we all are brothers
All people, beasts, trees and stone and wind
We all descend from the one great being
That was always there
Before people lived and named it
Before the first seed sprouted

Love Heilung “

More info about Operation Amazonia is explained by GOJIRA front-man Joe Duplantier HERE. Link to the auction can be found HERE

HEILUNG have previously updated their re-scheduled and updated tour dates for 2021 & 2022. A full list of confirmed shows can be found below. Ticket sales have already kicked off and are expected to run low very fast. We therefore recommend purchasing them on time.

HEILUNG will be touring in support of their latest album Futha, which was released on June 28, 2019. The cover artwork and album details can be viewed below.

Ofnir was a very masculine album. To create it, HEILUNG took a big part of the lyrics from preserved rune inscriptions on weapons and armour. Futha is the counterpart, the balance point, the feminine side. Here, the lyrics originate from old Icelandic poetry, in which the holy women chant magic spells and offer their blessings. Hence, female voices are more prominent on Futha.

HEILUNG means “healing” in the German language and this also describes the core of the band’s sound. The listener is supposed to be left at ease and in a relaxed state after a magical musical journey that is at times turbulent.

HEILUNG reach far back in time to the Northern European iron age and Viking period to create their sound experience. The band utilises many means in their songs: from running water via human bones, reconstructed swords and shields up to ancient frame drums as well as bronze rings.

When HEILUNG self-released Ofnir in 2015, the Danish band could hardly have anticipated the breakthrough success of their debut album. Spectacular live shows, strong critical acclaim, and a massive underground buzz added to the constantly high demand for this full-length are the reason why their new label Season of Mist did not hesitate to re-issue Ofnir in several collector’s edition formats. HEILUNG‘s live album, LIFA (2017) was released in parallel.

The word “Futha” is taken from an artefact, that is still controversially discussed. Big names in runology like Düwel and Heizmann can agree neither on the deciphering nor the meaning of the description….The word is engraved in a gold bracteate from Skåne (SE), which was produced around 500-530 AD. It was discovered in 1831 and these medals or coins were divided into different categories by the Swedish archaeologist Oscar Montelius. The bracteate in question is a so-called C-bracteate named Schonen II-C (Schonen is the German Name of Skåne) with a horse and a face. The rune inscription is between the hind-legs of the horse. Interesting to mention here is the fact that the majority of full rune set inscriptions start with “futh“, which also is the first three letters in all runic alphabets. It is considered that our forefathers saw magic potential in engraving the full rune line, but there is also great significance in the beginnings. Science has no key for the meaning of only engraving the first couple of letters yet, but there is a surplus of theories. This brings us to a runic staff found in Bergen, which was given the rather unpoetic archaeological classification B011. It carries the inscription: “felleg er fuþ sin bylli Fuþorglbasm“, which means: “Lovely is the cunt, may the cock fill it up“. Also interesting is that the Högstena amulet, which we use in the song “Galgaldr“, has an alternative deciphering of the word “futh“, which in this context means “cunt“. All this leaves us with two hints: magic potential and the female genitalia. The great healing power of the female wild strength is evoked in “Futha“. Those who have been present at a birth or seen a lioness hunting, know the spirit. The spirit of the “wilde Weiber” (German), the wild wise women. “Futha” endeavours to connect to a time before the female was degraded to a birth-machine and carrier of eternal inherited guilt. 

Futha was three years in the making and was finished for production and print at midwinter, the very darkest day of the solar year, the 21st in the 12th month at 21:00.

Any attempt to link the band with or bring their music into a modern political or religious context is pointless, since HEILUNG try to connect their listeners with a time before the coming of Christianity and modern political ideologies.

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Line-up
Kai Uwe Faust 
Christopher Juul
Maria Franz

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