VARCOLACI "Among The Cloud-Graves" [12" LP, Black Vinyl]
2023 - Raw Black Metal from International
Detailed Description
From the earthen tomb the sepulchral shadows of the Varcolaci cultus, reaches with wolfish claws and burning eyes towards the moon. Storm-clouds darken and envelop the sky, bringing the shadows and nightmarish spirits of night. Varcolaci is Vampyric Magick woven in sound, obscure black metal and ambient waves of the tomb and darkened skies. Varcolaci is a conceptual manifestation of the deep knowledge and ancient powers associated with Vampyrism from Slavic and Pagan magical practices and religion. The depths of meaning are as the vast green vines and snakes which enter the dark earth to find balance between the chthonic and the skies of both storm and night. Among the Cloud-Graves is based on the Slavic origins of the Varcolaci Cultus, deeply connected by the ancient Thunder God and Lightning Spirits. The Storm God was equated to the concept of being "suckers of rain" who stalk and hide within Cloud-Caves and sleep in Cloud-Graves, these vampires essentially die and sleep in death with the coming of Winter. When Spring comes, the vampires, who are known much later in parts of Transylvania, Wallachia and other Slavic and Greek lore as Varcolaci, awaken and arise from their graves. These celestial witches and warlocks, Black Magickial sorcerers then begin to feast upon milk or blood; the very life-giving rain from the clouds which invigorate the land anew. The Varcolaci and Vourkolakes drink from their prey at night, in the darkness of the thunderclouds which under their predatory attacks, turn day under the veils of night. When the dawn comes, the crowing of the rooster returns Varcolaci to distant clouds or in bodies by the ones which are living Vampyres and Undead by earthen graves. In Slavic lore, Vourkolakes are a terrifying and theriomorphic chaos-shape of Werewolf, Vampire (as a fanged, undead corpse or demon) and Dragon. The Slovenian name for Vampire, Pijavica, is applied to that which drinks blood from human victims from a state of being Undead. The Vampyre in the theriomorphic astral form which can enter the dreams of the sleeping, finds a parallel abstraction with both the Slavic Vourkolakes (Varcolaci) who drinks blood and the Dragon, which drinks victims' dry of milk and blood along with the Giant Opivala (who in myth, can drink dry a lake). The cult of the Werewolf is associated also with the Dacian-Getic wolf warriors of what is now Transylvania. The Baltic Veles are Spirits of the Dead, having the same name as the Russian deity Veles, who is the god of flocks (cattle) and the Underworld. A shapeshifting deity, he could punish oath-breakers with disease and is able to manifest as a Dragon, Wolf, and was a god of Magic, Sorcery and Musicians. Among the Cloud-Graves invokes the cycles of nature which include the instinct to drink the life-bringing element of Water (and Blood) and the serpent-symbolized idea of the Ouroboros as renewal, death and the invigorating Varcolaci-Spirit which transverses arcane planes of existence. The Varcolaci Cultus derived from the ancient cycles of nature, rising in spirit to drink blood from the moon, spitting enough to cover and eclipse the moon.
