Gearing up to release their fifth studio album, Apotheosis, this Friday, November 5, Hungarian black/pagan metal outfit BORNHOLM showcase a powerful asset in the void between pagan and black metal with new single “Black Shining Cloaks”, featuring a virtuosic solo from King Diamond/Mercyful Fate guitarist Mike Wead. Dark, almost doomy influences merge with background vocals in their trademark vocal spectrum of somber growls and ear-splitting screams and heavy, irascible guitar lines.
BORNHOLM on “Black Shining Cloaks”:
“”Black Shining Cloaks” is one of the earliest songs from this album. It is from the time when our previous album was released. We felt from the very beginning that this song is perfect for a music video. We decided that as the song was born, but this is quite different from the other songs on the album. The tempo, the structure is simpler, but the atmosphere is very strong.
The solo at the end of the song was originally written and played by Mike Wead from King Diamond/Mercyful Fate. I felt that this song needed something unique at the end part, and I asked him what he thinks about it, and he recorded this really outstanding solo part that is the highlight of the song. We are so thankful for it because he is one of my most honoured guitarists. This is a huge honour for us. We worked with Johan Baath again at the beautiful Van der Nootska Palace in Stockholm. The milieu of the building was perfectly suited to our imaginations.
The lyrics of the song take us behind the thick curtains of the world of secret societies. A small group of enlightened people, who since the birth of mankind, have controlled and formed the human world; creating ages, cultures, and history from the beginning. They drive humanity through the ages to the very end, the deification of man. As the light splits into colours by the prism, they split knowledge into a thousand pieces, creating ideologies, cults and religions all around the world. You cannot find the original divine light among those colours, nor the truth among the religions or philosophies… you have to unify them to see it. There is only one light and the infinite darkness, the origin of everything, which allows for this light to shine.”
Watch the new music video for “Black Shining Cloaks”
HERE: