Heilung - Drif (2022)

Music that connects us to a primal past is something that has become more popular in the modern age, as we seek to reconnect with the Mother Earth that lives beneath our feet. None create this music better than mysterious and ethereal HEILUNG (meaning ‘healing’ in German). The trio hailing from Denmark, Norway, and Germany have undergone a meteoric rise since their inception in 2015. The band’s celestial and esoteric spirituality, coupled with their deeply conceptional and highly atmospheric music has built a bridge between the ancient world and the modern that all of us can cross. Unlike the band’s previous offerings that were centred around prehistoric northern Europe, Drif sees them explore the ancient civilisations and peoples outside northern Europe. Utilising ancient inscriptions, Roman military poems, Celtic battles and rune spells for lyrical inspiration, Drif shows HEILUNG in a form that you have never seen them before.

The sheer abundance of historical context contained in this album is quite frankly daunting, however with the extraordinarily thorough research that HEILUNG have conducted for each song helps you build incredibly vivid and accessible image in your mind. It’s as if the ghosts of ancient past are using the band as spiritual vassals to tell their story through their inscriptions and spells. With that in mind, Drif is memorably and purposefully poignant. The word “drif” translates to “gathering” and alongside the definition of the band’s name, Drif is a ritual of group healing in sonic form. Whilst each song has its own unique story, there is a feeling of connection that transcends the album. The various cultural experiences on Drif are the sparks of small flames that drift together to create a vast, vivid fire of culture that appeals to the curious, ancient soul within you. This will lead you down a path which is simultaneously unfamiliar and familiar, as the primal ancestors guide you through HEILUNG’s music. With this in mind, Drif has a distinct allure, as it creates a space for you to heal whilst exploring history from millennia ago.

Given the geographical shift the band have experienced through the creation of Drif, there is a new warmth to their music reflective of the more southerly parts of Europe and North Africa that the band have been inspired by. With clever post-production the band have revealed a new perspective on the sounds that their ancient and archaic instrument can create, building up ornately layered and intricate atmospheres. The elements that lead each song are the vocals and the percussion, whether it be dramatic and fierce or subtle and ethereal, the album has a beating heart that intensely feels the emotions of the music. In what seems like a moment of synchronicity between ancient and modern, the listener feels intrinsically bonded with Drif in that very moment, ebbing and flowing with the album’s various movements and narratives. HEILUNG’s innate ability to call upon things that were seemingly forgotten and frame them into a modern perspective connecting old and new in a finely turned process is truly remarkable, and Drif is the strongest representation of the band that we have to date.

With each song having a considerable wealth of symbolic context, it takes a few listens to fully take in all its messages and nuances. Opening up with Asja, this is HEILUNG’s attempt at a love song, using a selection of lines from the Hávamál in combination with a selection of blessing words, the song is aimed at providing help for the listener in a troubled time, making it a deeply ethereal and thoughtful song. Anoana is a spell from the Dark Ages, with lyrics taken from bracteates (golden, circular coins or amulets found in Northern Europe that date from the 4th to 7th centuries CE) which usually defy translation. This deeply divine and ritualistic song feels like a protective enchantment as it draws upon the words from Norwegian and Danish finds working in tandem lyrically. Tennet works in palindromes; whilst mysterious this is a masterful composition as it plays the same backwards. Keltentrauer is a poem written and spoken in New High German that describes the clashing of Celtic and Roman cultures, a vivid and adrenaline fuelling song as the sounds of battle unfold around you. Buslas Bann is a curse, inspired by a rune spell in a legendary saga written in Iceland around the 13th century. It’s the darkest song on the album, and parts were recorded in the Icelandic lava desert to bring the listener closer to the piece.

HEILUNG have created what could be argued as their strongest and most connected album. Bringing together a wealth of scholarly historical knowledge to create a vivid set of songs that will leave an indelible mark on the listener long after the album’s finished. Drif is the most intense representation of “Amplified History” to date.