Sweden's HORNDAL are today premiering a new music video for Rossen via Decibel Magazine, with an accompanying interview. Taken from their recently released sophomore album, Lake Drinker, the animated video was put together by Kalle Haglund (Bruto Studio). Rossen's stark warning against big tech and tale of industrial decline is captured with unnerving and captivating aplomb through the high octane visual, as a solitary figure metaphorically embodies Lake Drinker's real life tragedy.
Lake Drinker is out now via Prosthetic Records.
Speaking with Decibel on the music video, HORNDAL comment “The director is called Kalle Haglund and he’s really talented. He’s done really cool videos for The Hives, for instance, and they come from a town that’s really close to Horndal. His idea was, “What if, from the old steel mill, there’s one worker left behind. Just imagine that it’s not gone 40 years but maybe hundreds of years and he’s become this weird figure that is running around in the old factory.”
Always with us, we have true stories and stuff inspired by true events, but at the same time, it’s this sort of ghost story feel."
Lake Drinker is the heavy soundtrack to a true horror story about a small industrial town in Sweden being brutally murdered, left to rust away, and then fooled into believing in the false hope of prosperity, promised by big American tech. The follow up to 2019’s Remains, Lake Drinker is a cautionary tale about making a deal with the devil. But this story of urban decay is not a fairytale or fantasy, it’s rooted in the real lives of the citizens of Horndal, retold by a band whose own lives are umbilically linked to the town itself.
Recorded in the iconic Studio Gröndahl in Stockholm, Sweden with producer Karl Daniel Lidén (Bloodbath, Katatonia, Crippled Black Phoenix) taking care of recording, mixing and mastering, Lake Drinker is a worthy follow up to their debut. The songs are captured in a raw, organic form, making the album come alive as it weaves its tale, incorporating elements of sludge, death metal and furious punk attitude. The album features some guest contributions courtesy of Pelle Jacobsson from Sweden’s National Radio Symphony Orchestra (classical percussion), Christer Falk and Daniel Johansson (horn arrangements), Johan Jansson of Interment and Dreadful Fate (guest vocals), and last but by no means least the voices of Horndal’s own protesters.
This is a story about the town of Horndal, but there are many others just like it out there. Here’s to all rusty hometowns out there. Drink up.