Hear Corvus Corax Era Metallum's Epic New Song "Yggdrasill" With Kreator Guitarist

Across more than 30 years, countless band members and a prolific array of releases and live performances, Germany's Corvus Corax have embraced of the title of "the loudest unplugged band in the world," spearheading a particularly theatrical and phantasmagorical brand of neo-medieval music. The group's current incarnation boasts four bagpipe players and three percussionists, who combine for a massive sound evoking the primal roar of a long-gone age.

Things get even more massive with offshoot project Corvus Corax Era Metallum, which, as you may have surmised, does not hesitate to plug in and crank up the electric guitars. Said guitars are played by Kreator's Sami Yli-Sirniö on the new song "Yggdrasill," a dark, twisted epic that retains Corvus Corax's tribal primitivism while ushering in a fresh layer of modern heaviness. The cut, which arrives with a grim, psychedelic music video, is the second single off the group's forthcoming album, Corvus Corax Era Metallum, due September 4th and available for pre-order and pre-save now. Listen and watch above.

"Yggdrasill, the tree of life, connects the entire world," drummer Norbert "Norri" Drescher says of the song and its visual. "It is where Odin was sacrificing himself by drinking his own blood mixed with honey wine, hanging in that tree for nine nights. It is where Odin died and resurrected to get the eternal wisdom of Yggdrasill." vocalist Castus Karsten Liehm adds simply, "This is a morbid video about voluntary human sacrifice."

For more Corvus Corax, the band will be livestreaming one of their characteristically bombastic live shows tonight (April 23rd) at 6 p.m. EDT. "Aware of what was to come, Corvus Corax recorded our first streaming concert in the band history two days before the final COVID-19 shutdown in Germany," Drescher explains. "It happened next to our studio in a very nice medieval countryside house, supported by good friends who usually working for professional audiovisual live recordings." Tune in below.