Manegarm Want Winter’s Force to Be With You, Wimps

Earlier this year, during one of the coldest winters both Europe and America have known in quite some time, Månegarm unleashed the video for their dramatically chilling song, 'Vetrarmegin.' The song is taken from the Swedish Viking death metal band's dark, brooding album, 'Nattväsen' ('Night Creatures'), which was released in November via Regain Records.

"'Vetrarmegin' means winter force," Manegarm's vocalist/drummer Erik Grawsiö tells Noisecreep. "All elements have [their] own 'megin,' and the winter has its own raw and untamed force. In the video, the winter is 'shaped' as this evil female character who tries to mesmerize and destroy the king of the village."

This sounds kind of new age -- not musically, of course. But the subject matter? Seems so. "It does, doesn't it!" Grawsiö agrees. "But as you say, when you check out the video, you'll get the lovely primitive pagan feeling." Noisecreep suspects Grawsiö has a solid sense of irony.

The video is quite the melodramatic epic, moodily shot in black and white and color, and reenacting Viking lore in a reconstructed village built on a former burial ground. "It's a recreation," Grawsiö says. "But it's built up in the same way as it was built back then. It's located on a place where there are over a hundred Viking graves." The chilly-looking, snowy scene reminds us that these fierce some Swedes probably think we're wimps for becoming shut-ins at a mere four degrees below here.

"You are wimps. Here in Sweden we're sitting outside bare-naked in our goatskins, drinking mead and here it's -20 degrees," Grawsiö deadpans. "Actually, I don't like the cold at all, so I'm staying inside as much as I can. But it's cold here in Sweden too. Last week the temperature was -10 to -15 degrees and the week before that it was -25 degrees for one day! Madness."