Have you ever marathoned the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended version)? Did you at one point stay up to 2:07am exploring the path to Whiterun or leveling up your undead warlock?
If you answered “yes” in any capacity to the questionnaire above, Withered Land is your next fascination.
From the Belarusian capital of Minsk, Olga Kann composes and performs everything in this project, from icy guitar riffs and blackened growls to folk instrumentation like kantele and tagelharpa.
What are those last instruments mentioned, you ask…
Well, the kantele is a zither-like indigenous instrument mostly found around Finland, while the tagelharpa is a bowed lyre with history in 10th century northern Europe.
Olga confirms that the upcoming Withered Land album will “feature many tracks with the kantele and tagelharpa” that she recorded herself, despite the natural difficulty that they both bring to the mix of a black metal song. She adds that sometimes she’ll take the instruments “into nature, into the forests” just to improvise, adding “that velvety sound is simply mesmerizing… all this magical vibration goes through the inside.”
In addition to her folksy instrument choices, Olga is fully immersed into fictional fantasy worlds – Middle Earth, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls.
Her favorite release from The Elder Scrolls video games series is “definitely Skyrim,” admitting that she’s played the game from its release in 2011 to now. “Sometimes I even just come to certain locations – the Hall of the Dead, Guardian Stones. I can stay there for a very long time, admire the atmosphere, enjoy the music, imagine myself in this place and get peace,” explains the vocalist / multi-instrumentalist, before adding that she’ll even paint the in-game locations. Naturally, the lore of Skyrim made it’s way into the music of Withered Land considering it meshed so many of Olga’s interests… “Nordic and medieval history, epic nature, atmospheric music, detective quests, the theme of fallen knights, dragons, dark folklore, there are even vampires and werewolves, it’s just wonderful.”
The upcoming tracks “Draugrs of the Dead Men’s Respite” and “In the Restless Depths of Ustengrav” are conceptually married to the Scandinavian mythical creature – a draugr. Olga is happy to explain the historical lore of the living dead creature and how she’s eventually found sympathy for them. Such sympathy can best be showcased in the track “All Dead, All Rotten,” dedicated to Tolkien’s Dead Marshes and the Battle of Dagorlad during the War of the Last Alliance.
Even beyond music, certain fantasy worlds have heavily impacted Olga Kann. “Warcraft literally saved my life at a young age, pulled me out of the abyss of destructive thoughts, and potentially destructive actions,” she shares.
While we’ve previously featured Belarusian metal acts including Belle Morte or Mora Prokaza, Olga comments that it is “not easy to play music here” referring to the dying state of the doom, viking, or folk metal scenes. Fortunately, she notes that there’s some black and death metal notables powering through.
Withered Land may be destined to lead the Belarusian metal scene to international level with the next month’s release of Hall of the Dead. The upcoming album includes eight, epic folk / black metal tracks, fully written by Olga with guitars and production work by Filippos Koliopanos (Ocean of Grief, ex-On Thorns I Lay). Filippos also engineered Olga’s melodic death-doom project Monumentum Damnati. “He is one of those people who dives into art head first… I really enjoy this collaboration and am proud of all works with him together,” adds Olga.
In addition to the forthcoming Hall of the Dead record, Olga looks forward to taking Withered Land to the stage, but likely limiting herself to “periodic performances at festivals” citing obstacles like her “lifestyle, isolation, and health problems.”
Surprisingly, Olga has a third album already in the works as well as an “acoustic album with kantele / tagelharpa covers of black metal classics. I plan to continue searching for new sound styles, adding clean vocals, ethnic instruments, experimenting with themes and atmosphere.”