The Pagan Music List 21
The PAGAN MUSIC LIST is an attempt to create a comprehensive list of Pagan, Heathen, Esoteric, Animist, and related music that we listen to and love. We include embedded YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links when possible for each artist.
Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).
We also provide a constantly updated index of artists that we have reviewed by name and genre.
And if you are a Spotify listener, you can click on the embedded player to listen to the full updated playlist!
Collection 21
In this special edition of the Pagan Music List, we’ll look at recent releases from bands we’ve previously reviewed.
Rúnahild: Wounded Healer
Longtime readers of the Pagan Music List probably know by now that Runahild is my absolute favorite pagan singer, and I was utterly thrilled when she released her latest album, Wounded Healer.
The entire album is really, really, really good, and much more focused on her aetherial vocals than previous albums, making the entire thing much more intimate. As she writes in her introduction to the album:
One layer at a time, I have been diving deeper into the inner sea of my unconscious, with Mother Nature to give me a shelter and to always remind me of the magic of this world and with music to give me a way to express myself when I otherwise became silent.
One layer at a time, I came closer to the source of my aching. The hardships, violence and abuses experienced within my family have left a deep open wound, which has been influencing my own way of coming into this world and experiencing life.
So I had a drum journey which I initiated by inviting the spirit of all my ancestors to join me and heal as I heal within. And as I journeyed back in time seeking answers, old wounds and forgotten memories concealed within my subconscious came back to the surface. And so I saw the faces of my ancestors and I could see in their eyes the tremendous and deeply ingrained amount of pain that had been torturing them. I could feel how their own life experiences, their struggles to survive and the wars they had to endure had shaped them. And I could see how this transpired from one generation to the next and how it had been defining a long line of individuals, and in the end, haunting me.
The song Draum (Dream) is particularly beautiful, as is the video she made for it:
I follow my inner song
It lures me within
I feel a deep sorrow
I listen in the darkness
The shadows are whispering... I remember
I sing life
I sing light
I seid myself whole
I seid myself free
I seid myself in my energy
Also haunting and exquisite is her song, “Sacred Lunar Blood:”
Eluveitie: “Aidus”
Eluveitie just released their first single since their 2019 album release Antegnatos, entitle “Aidus.” While the lyrics have not yet been released, it begins with a chant that has become a current theme in several of their songs (and often opens their live performances). The song (and accompanying video) is much harder than much of their previous work, but still maintains the melodic elements for which they’re so well loved.
Eluvietie & Faun: “Gwydion”
Speaking of Eluvieitie, they also recorded a song with the other heavyweight of pagan music, FAUN, and it’s really brilliant.
The song is called “Gwydion,” invoking the former name of the bard Taliesin. Most delightfully, it’s in both German and Welsh, with Eluvietie’s frontman Cris Kringle singing the Welsh parts (parts of the poem Cad Goddeu, or “Battle of the Trees.”)
The German lyrics are as follows in English:
The cold winter held us tight
But now the wheel is turning
In old dreams I saw you
When I lay under the moon
This is how I am from my deepest dream
awakened by your word
And forest and tree go with you
Into the final battle
Stuck in the cold spell
Your singing blows from afar
Gwydion
son of the goddess, seer
Your light in the alder grove
Release the grip of winter from me
push back the night
Stuck in the cold spell
Your singing blows from afar