Empyrium
Encyclopedia
Empyrium is a German
symphonic folk
/doom metal
and (later) neofolk
/dark folk band.
Ulf Theodor Schwadorf) and Andreas Bach, but later many other participated.
The band draws inspiration from nature
as some of the album titles reveal. Consequently, Empyrium are often referred to as a dark folk or apocalyptic folk band, expressing in their music (most conspicuously in the last two albums) sentiments akin to those expressed by some other 'legislators' of the genre, as Forseti
, Orplid
, and Ulver
(Kveldssanger
). Connoisseurs of dark folk will mention that many of Empyrium's compositions are true representatives of the genre, as, for instance, Dying Brokenhearted, The Shepherd and the Maiden Ghost ("Where At Night..."), Heimwärts, Waldpoesie, Die Schwäne im Schilf ("Weiland"). Intricately woven and always impregnated with an exquisite wistfulness or profound, remorseful sadness (Dying Brokenhearted), these compositions may be regarded as a manifesto of the dark-folkloristic gloomy and pantheistic Weltanschauung. The lyrics are mostly in English
, though in Weiland only German
is performed. Like the Norwegian
black metal band Burzum
, Empyrium also used Theodor Kittelsen
's drawing on one of their album covers (Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays
).
(or, as some will argue, folk metal
) with folk
and symphonic
influences. They combine harsh
and opera
tic male vocals, with deep slow guitar
parts and atmospheric sounds.
and Weiland
are acoustic, display a constantly heavier neofolk
influence. Instead of keyboards, the band switched to acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitar
s, violin
s, cello
s and the flute
. Operatic male vocals are still used, and in Weiland the band uses choir vocals and the piano. Though the music still remains dark and melancholic, Empyrium's music has largely moved away from heavy metal
. Many people consider these two albums to be the apex of Empyrium's skill and some accomplishment of the band's - or rather Schwadorf's goal.
, announced publicly for the first time that a new album was going to be released in late November the same year. Called A Retrospective, it is a look back on the history of the band. Aside from ten remastered tracks from their previous albums, it contains a re-recorded version of The Franconian Woods In Winter's Silence from the album A Wintersunset, as well as two new tracks in the neofolk
style of late Empyrium (Der Weiher and Am Wolkenstieg). The sixty-page book
let provides an extensive account of the musical influences of the band, and how Empyrium has changed over the years.
The album leaked onto the Internet
in early November 2006.
and Schwadorf personally announced that the band had reunited and revealed plans to release a new album soon, beside contributing to the label's upcoming v/a compilation Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
symphonic folk
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...
/doom metal
Doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...
and (later) neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
/dark folk band.
Band's history
Empyrium was founded in 1994 by Markus Stock (mostly using the pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Ulf Theodor Schwadorf) and Andreas Bach, but later many other participated.
The band draws inspiration from nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
as some of the album titles reveal. Consequently, Empyrium are often referred to as a dark folk or apocalyptic folk band, expressing in their music (most conspicuously in the last two albums) sentiments akin to those expressed by some other 'legislators' of the genre, as Forseti
Forseti
Forseti is an Æsir god of justice and reconciliation in Norse mythology. He is generally identified with Fosite, a god of the Frisians...
, Orplid
Orplid
Orplid is the creative neofolk, martial, post-industrial and experimental music works of German musicians Uwe Nolte and Frank Machau. The name is drawn from the poem Gesang Weylas by Eduard Mörike, beginning ‘Du bist Orplid, mein Land’ . Orplid in the poem is a faraway fantasy land...
, and Ulver
Ulver
Ulver is a musical group from Norway. Since their first, folklore-influenced black metal release entitled Bergtatt – Et eeventyr i 5 capitler , Ulver’s musical style has been fluid and increasingly eclectic, blending genres such as rock, electronica, symphonic and chamber traditions, noise and...
(Kveldssanger
Kveldssanger
-Credits:*Garm - performer*Håvard Jørgensen - performer*Erik Olivier Lancelot - performer*Alf Gaaskjønli - cello*Kristian Romsøe - co-producer, engineer, mixing*Craig Morris - mastering*Tanya "Nacht" Stene - album cover design...
). Connoisseurs of dark folk will mention that many of Empyrium's compositions are true representatives of the genre, as, for instance, Dying Brokenhearted, The Shepherd and the Maiden Ghost ("Where At Night..."), Heimwärts, Waldpoesie, Die Schwäne im Schilf ("Weiland"). Intricately woven and always impregnated with an exquisite wistfulness or profound, remorseful sadness (Dying Brokenhearted), these compositions may be regarded as a manifesto of the dark-folkloristic gloomy and pantheistic Weltanschauung. The lyrics are mostly in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, though in Weiland only German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
is performed. Like the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
black metal band Burzum
Burzum
Burzum is a musical project by Varg Vikernes . It began during 1991 in Bergen, Norway and quickly became prominent within the early Norwegian black metal scene...
, Empyrium also used Theodor Kittelsen
Theodor Kittelsen
Theodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway. Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls.-Biography:Kittelsen was born in the coastal town of Kragerø in...
's drawing on one of their album covers (Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays
Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays
Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays is the third album by the German symphonic folk/doom metal band Empyrium. Contrary to their previous two albums, this is an acoustic album...
).
Metal records
Their first two albums, A Wintersunset and Songs of Moors and Misty Fields, following a demo entitled ...Der wie ein Blitz vom Himmel fiel..., can be considered doom metalDoom metal
Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...
(or, as some will argue, folk metal
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...
) with folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and symphonic
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
influences. They combine harsh
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic male vocals, with deep slow guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
parts and atmospheric sounds.
Acoustic records
The following two albums, Where at Night the Wood Grouse PlaysWhere at Night the Wood Grouse Plays
Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays is the third album by the German symphonic folk/doom metal band Empyrium. Contrary to their previous two albums, this is an acoustic album...
and Weiland
Weiland
Weiland is the fourth album by the German symphonic folk/doom metal band Empyrium. It is the second acoustic album released by the band, and the first to be completely sung in German language. All their previous albums only contained English lyrics, even though two songs on the album Where at...
are acoustic, display a constantly heavier neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
influence. Instead of keyboards, the band switched to acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
s, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
s and the flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
. Operatic male vocals are still used, and in Weiland the band uses choir vocals and the piano. Though the music still remains dark and melancholic, Empyrium's music has largely moved away from heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. Many people consider these two albums to be the apex of Empyrium's skill and some accomplishment of the band's - or rather Schwadorf's goal.
Departure
After their 2002 album, Weiland, the band decided to stop recording. As Schwadorf himself put it,QUOTE
Empyrium has explored nature-mystics since 1994, and after 8 years we feel to move on and made a glorious farewell to the concept with "Weiland"
"A Retrospective"
In August 2006, Empyrium's label, Prophecy ProductionsProphecy Productions
Prophecy Productions is a German record label located in Zeltingen-Rachtig, founded by Martin Koller in 1996. It proclaims being a "label for eerie emotional music", which roughly comprises artists with a dark metal, black metal, or neofolk background, but a unique and unconventional approach to...
, announced publicly for the first time that a new album was going to be released in late November the same year. Called A Retrospective, it is a look back on the history of the band. Aside from ten remastered tracks from their previous albums, it contains a re-recorded version of The Franconian Woods In Winter's Silence from the album A Wintersunset, as well as two new tracks in the neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
style of late Empyrium (Der Weiher and Am Wolkenstieg). The sixty-page book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
let provides an extensive account of the musical influences of the band, and how Empyrium has changed over the years.
The album leaked onto the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
in early November 2006.
Comeback
On September 17, 2010, Prophecy ProductionsProphecy Productions
Prophecy Productions is a German record label located in Zeltingen-Rachtig, founded by Martin Koller in 1996. It proclaims being a "label for eerie emotional music", which roughly comprises artists with a dark metal, black metal, or neofolk background, but a unique and unconventional approach to...
and Schwadorf personally announced that the band had reunited and revealed plans to release a new album soon, beside contributing to the label's upcoming v/a compilation Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings
Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings
Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings is a compilation album by various neofolk and metal artists. It was released through Prophecy Productions on October 29, 2010...
.
QUOTE
We are incredibly happy to announce that EMPYRIUM, the most renowned Prophecy act ever, has decided to reunite and to record new music! Here's the official statement of Schwadorf on the reunion: Since the rumours start to spread we think it's about time to make this official: EMPYRIUM is alive again! Our first new sign of life will be the song 'The Days Before The Fall' on the Prophecy Prod. compilation 'Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings' but we have plans for more! The spirit is back and it really feels right to us to start writing songs with EMPYRIUM again. We are not in a rush though so don't expect a full lenghttoday or tomorrow but we have the patience and faith to make this new songs outstanding and unique. Just as EMPYRIUM ever was....
Discography
- ...Der wie ein Blitz vom Himmel fiel... (Engl. He Who Fell From Heaven Like a Lightning) demo tape 1995
- A Wintersunset... CD/2LP 1996
- Songs of Moors and Misty FieldsSongs of Moors and Misty FieldsSongs of Moors & Misty Fields is the second album by the German band Empyrium.Elaborating on their previous full-length album, A Wintersunset... released a year before, with Songs of Moors... Empyrium delve into a more sophisticated intricacy of what is sometimes called "romantic metal", offering...
CD 1997 - Where at Night the Wood Grouse PlaysWhere at Night the Wood Grouse PlaysWhere at Night the Wood Grouse Plays is the third album by the German symphonic folk/doom metal band Empyrium. Contrary to their previous two albums, this is an acoustic album...
CD/2LP 1999 - Drei Auszüge aus Weiland (Engl. Three Excerpts From Weiland) 7"EP 2002
- WeilandWeilandWeiland is the fourth album by the German symphonic folk/doom metal band Empyrium. It is the second acoustic album released by the band, and the first to be completely sung in German language. All their previous albums only contained English lyrics, even though two songs on the album Where at...
(Engl. In Older Days) CD/3CD/2LP 2002 - A Retrospective... CD 2006
- Whom The Moon A Nightsong SingsWhom the Moon a Nightsong SingsWhom the Moon a Nightsong Sings is a compilation album by various neofolk and metal artists. It was released through Prophecy Productions on October 29, 2010...
(V/A, Prophecy ProductionsProphecy ProductionsProphecy Productions is a German record label located in Zeltingen-Rachtig, founded by Martin Koller in 1996. It proclaims being a "label for eerie emotional music", which roughly comprises artists with a dark metal, black metal, or neofolk background, but a unique and unconventional approach to...
) --- as a contributing artist to the compilation, 2CD (Digibook) / 2LP, due out in late October 2010
Line-up
- Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (g, b, dr&p, v, etc.); Andreas Bach (k)
- Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (g, b, dr&p, v, etc.); Andreas Bach (k); Nadine Moelter (flute)
- Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (g, b, dr&p, v, etc.); Andreas Bach (k); Nadine Moelter (flute); Thomas Helm (bv)
- Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (g, b, dr&p, v, etc.); Thomas Helm (bv); guests (Weiland)
See also
- NoekkNoekkNoekk is a German progressive doom metal band that is a collaboration of two former Empyrium members . The origin of the band's name is supposed to come from a water creature that was able to transform into a beautiful white horse...
- reunion band of Empyrium members - Sun of the Sleepless
- Autumnblaze
- The Vision BleakThe Vision BleakThe Vision Bleak is a gothic metal band from Germany formed in 2000, consisting of former Empyrium member Ulf Theodor Schwadorf and former Nox Mortis member Allen B Konstanz. The band's themes are most notably orientated towards horror....
- Nachtmahr