International Doom merchants Norna have announced their self-titled sophomore album, which will be released on August 30th, 2024 via Pelagic Records. The band published the official visualizer for the first single “Ghost,” watch it through the YouTube player below:
“International doom merchants Norna herald the coming of self-titled sophomore album; lead single “Ghost” is a stomach churning mass of overdrive and life-affirming rage!”
Heavyweight power trio Norna have announced their second album, a self-titled full-length set for release on 30th August, 2024 through Berlin’s Pelagic Records.
Hailing in parts from the icy Swedish northlands and the glacial expanse of the Swiss Alps, named after the three Norse goddesses of fate who wove the very tapestry of fate underneath the mythical World Tree, Norna aren’t messing around. Their debut album, 2021’s “Star Is Way Way Is Eye” was saturated filth; uncompromising, unrelenting ugliness. This though, their eponymous sophomore offering, digs its claws deeper into the dirt. Sharpened, hungry and desperate, born of the moment and yet years in the making; “Norna” liberates an old rage that has been suppressed for far too long.
Despite only forming in 2020, the three pillars of Norna bring decades of heaviness with them. Consisting of Swedish Post-Hardcore pioneer Tomas Liljedahl (Breach, The Old Wind) and Swiss stalwarts Christophe Macquat and Marc Theurillat (both of instrumental juggernaut Ølten), Norna came together as a perfect storm of abrasive influences, harnessed by friend and producer Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna), to create something new, limitless and terrifying.
Sculpted the same way as their debut album, with ideas and hooks hewn from a mass of noise held quite literally in the clouds (Dropbox being the band’s platform of choice), Norna this time entered the process with a vision; a final, horrific form in mind. As such, the eponymous record pushes their boundaries even further beyond the extreme, with even the briefest moments of calm quickly curdled by the band’s use of insidious ambient synthesisers, manipulated samples and even more distortion.
There’s a similar nefarious theme to the lyrics on “Norna” too, with Tomas delving into the world of light and dark to explore ideas of duplicity, morality and expose all of the actions and feelings that humanity prefers to keep in the shadows. Lead single “Ghost” sees the stalwarts refine their seething abrasion into something uglier still; a crawling, hypnotic dirge takes on a life of its own atop apocalyptic drums as Liljedahl’s vocals speak to something truly primal.
There are clues within “Ghost” and indeed the album as a whole that suggest a distinct evolution of Norna’s inimitable sound. Agonising tempos tentatively rise before collapsing under breakdown after breakdown whilst the devices approaching melodic hooks are promptly obliterated by rattling, ripped-speaker overdrive and a dusting of eerie found sounds and insidious ambient synth beds.
It’s here in this dichotic balance of joyous creation and total destruction, between the beginning and the end of all things, that Norna have positioned themselves with their latest offering. Unlike so many of us, the band have come to terms with the ugly truth that you can’t have one without the other, which makes perfect sense because, as broken, discordant and disgusting as “Norna” is, it’s impossible to stay away.
Norna on “Ghost“: “Ghost is a sonic ride leaving something behind but still in mind. Inviting the shadow self to become one. Overwhelming but still with beauty.”
Pre-Prder and Stream here: https://orcd.co/norna
Tracklist:
01. Samsara
02. For Fear Of Coming
03. Ghost
04. Shine By Its Own Light
05. Shadow Works
06. The Sleep
Lineup:
Tomas Liljedahl / Vocals & Guitars
Christophe Macquat / Guitars, Bass & Moog
Marc Theurillat / Drums & Samples
