Baelfyr Track By Track Run Down of 'Empowered By Hatred' EP
Potent British black metallers, BAELFYR, release their colossal new EP, Empowered By Hatred, on Friday— which is the same date that they’ll storm the stage at this year’s Bloodstock Festival. With the band on the rise, we exclusively checked in and asked the band to give us this unique track by track breakdown of their stunning EP.
Track 1: At the Mercy of a Vain God
This song is a condemnation of religious attitudes towards morality and the idea held by some, that one can only ever be truly good if their actions are guided by religious doctrine. This was the common sense opener to the EP with a calm guitar intro that lulls you into a false sense of security, building into an almost atmospheric black metal sound before unleashing a frenzied end section, its probably the song that contains the most aspects of our sound and we love the ebb and flow as it cycles through those elements.
Track 2: Innocence Defiled
Innocence Defiled is a song inspired by true events and one that has a great deal of meaning to me (Allan), it tackles the subject of child sexual abuse and the betrayal of trust by someone who should be the child’s most fierce protector. It’s an appropriately unrelenting song with a palpable anger present in the performance of every instrument, Tom really pulled it out of the bag with the backing vocals on this one and really captured the pain necessary in very few words.
Track 3: The Consequence of Endless Expansion
The clue is really in the name with this one, it’s about the ever growing urban sprawl that we see around us. We live in a part of the country where we’re surrounded by an abundance of natural beauty, but it seems like there’s a constant growth encroaching on the green spaces around us and when I travel to visit other countries it really hits home how much they care for their natural heritage and go to far greater lengths to protect it. This is another pretty Relentless track it clocks in at 3:47 but it’s so intense that it’s almost blink and you’ll miss it.
Track 4: Under a Starless Sky
When we initially formed Baelfyr, we began writing some songs about English folklore and we wrote this song, originally titled ‘Black Shuck’, about a myth from our local area. When we decided to start writing songs more grounded in reality, we scrapped a lot of what we’d been working on but we saw parallels in the lyrics to the struggle with anxiety and panic, so the decision was made to keep the song and we’re glad we did, it’s probably the song that captures the black metal side of our sound most accurately, with a lot of blast beating and fast tremolo picking, along with the customary high pitched vocals present throughout the song.
Track 5: Rust & Dust
Rust & Dust is about many facets of the modern world, the over abundance of social media, fakeness, isolation and over consumption, it all comes together in a stompy, groovy track with an ultra heavy breakdown section at the end and a gang vocal that was a lot of fun to record and will definitely be amazing to have the crowd participate with live.
Track 6: Evil Incarnate
This is the first song we wrote together and over time it’s been rewritten a few times until we landed on version 4 and stuck with it. It formed the basis of our sound but as we evolved, the song had to as well and we’re really pleased with how it ended up. This song focuses on the battles we fight within ourselves and the personal demons that we all have to overcome and the fact that sometimes we don’t win those battles.
Track 7: Empowered by Hatred
The title track to the EP, this song concentrates on familial abuse and the feelings of worthlessness and despair when you’re betrayed by those that brought you into the world, it’s a revenge fantasy and again the clue is in the name, it’s about feeding off the feelings caused by that behaviour and using them in pursuit of vengeance.”
