#Vodun #heavy metal #hard rock #psychedelic metal #stoner metal #ritualistic doom metal #occult rock #traditional West African music #afrobeat #music video
Amidst the rushing screams of Mother Earth; the pounding drums of Ouidah; the markets of Lomé and the open heart of Erzulie, there exists Vodun. Born of only three comes the embodiment of crushing noise intertwined with enrapturing harmonies... heavy, weird, soulful... yes, we are expectant of the abnormal and so should you be. From: https://vodun.bandcamp.com/
From Kiss’s hard rock kabuki to Slipknot’s masks, metal has always loved a gimmick. Factor in bands like Alestrom (pirates), Battlelore (Hobbits) and Gwar (hell knows) and it can often feel as if no schtick has been left unexplored. In 2016, the latest band to go high concept is Vôdûn. A UK-based trio who play lucid thrash spiked with tribal drums while daubed in warpaint, they’re primarily inspired by west African vodou.
“It’s about taking on the spirits we embody, that warrior element, and helping us to be truly in the moment,” explains frontwoman Chantal Brown, formerly of cowl-sporting arkestra Chrome Hoof and, before that, oddball nine-piece Do Me Bad Things. “It’s about entertainment value, too, but our interest in vodou runs deeper than that.”
Brown discovered the religion through fellow Hoof singer Lola Olafisoye. “She’s a spiritual practitioner, and she’d share all these books she had on west African history,” says Brown. It proved a powerful inspiration to a group wanting to write heavy music steeped in spirituality and feminism. “It had feminist undertones: a lot of the gods and priests were female,” Brown continues. “People have tried to demonize it for centuries. It was the culture of a people who have been oppressed, killed off and enslaved. There’s more to it than sticking pins in dolls.”
Vôdûn’s aesthetic could easily be seen as contrived but it undeniably sets Vôdûn apart from other heavy British bands. Musically, they cut through the current trend for floppy-fringed emo-metal in the vein of Bring Me The Horizon. By contrast, Vôdûn’s debut album, Possession, sounds like Slayer doing Black Box’s Ride On Time and their shows are more like acid raves than metal gigs. A similarly rave-y sense of abandon is key to their music, and Brown sees links with her own musical heritage: “I come from a gospel background; being possessed is like catching the holy ghost, or speaking in tongues.” From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/15/west-african-vodou-meets-hard-rock-in-metal-trio-vodun
