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Hello there. Here's a cover of the wonderful track Aphelion Void from Dødheimsgard's album in 2015, A UMBRA OMEGA. As I've stated previously, I'm doing this in my quest to fill the YouTube wormhole with proper guitar references to music I like. Give DHG a good ol' slap on the like button if you liked the video, they deserve it. I have some thoughts on this track and album. It's a long song, with a lot of riffs and different time signatures. I have mainly learned it by ear, but I think I got mostly everything right. One small mistake at 11:52, slipped on the string. The chord is 0-7-6-7-8-0. D-standard tuning. I used Neural DSP, and automated the guitar sounds pre-recording, but live you'd have to think about pedal shifts as well. I think it's interesting to talk about this song and this album in particular, as it kind of encapsulates and consolidates the band's experimental side. Whereas the other albums seem to touch somewhat base closer to a lot of the classic black metal tropes, like minor chords in chromatic orders, this album does some really creative and modernistic turns, both harmonically and rhythmically. My impression is that the tracks on A UMBRA OMEGA try to capture the sound of something that is really meant to be seen and experienced live. There are strong elements of longing and despair in their music, portrayed as madness on the outside. We can talk about Aphelion Void in particular here, as that's afaik, one of the few, if not only tracks from this album they have played live. This is music in its long form and requires a modest amount of concentration from the listener - much in the same sense as classical and contemporary classical music does. There are bigger images at play on the tracks from this album, much like in a theater play, where you don't necessarily understand the beginning until the end arrives. They want you to step into a listening zone. They want you to wonder what is happening, for a long time. Until the end, there is a sense of relief and an abstract understanding of what they want to convey. I think lyrically, the song is simply touching on the all too familiar existential grind, your personal groundhog day, the notion of “you can't escape until you know how to live“. As stated by the following: Smothered by spiral repetition Trapped to endure another day Over and over until collision And doubt offers new beginnings I linger inside my death (and re-birth) This text, to which their solution or acceptance of the fact lies in this text from the end of the track. (LATER) There is a place called reality Hidden to all men You can reach it through insanity But never to return again So if acceptance and understanding are to be found, it is in the madness of humanity, which is a one-way street, so to speak. You can read the lyrics here: I'm just super fond of this album, it ages like wine, and I'm grateful that we've got this gem available to us. Please subscribe. And check out my own band if interested. Messier 16:
