ORYAD have unveiled an emotive and scenic video for “Wayfaring Stranger”. Taken from their new album Sacred & Profane, this song explores deeply personal physical and symbolic connections to one’s ancestors. The mystic prog metal ensemble from Tennessee and Colorado combine a wide variety of influences, including opera, jazz and metal, into their distinctive sound. ORYAD’s music is also deeply connected to nature and the myths of their home, and these themes are central to Sacred & Profane, which is available now.
“This one has a lot of personal significance– it was shot along the Tennessee/North Carolina border near the counties where my actual Murphy forebears lived. I’m wearing my Mamaw Murphy’s necklace and ring and the walking stick was my papaw’s. I wanted to imagine that an early Scots-Irish settler in the 18th century dreamed of her successors in the future, and for me it was my modern self coming back home after decades away, treading the same ground. Not dwelling on the losses when a dear one passes, but the things you carry on from them as a legacy.” – Moira Murphy
Watch the video for “Wayfaring Stranger” here: https://youtu.be/qzReDEDfqK0
Purchase Sacred & Profane here: https://oryadband.square.site/
Stream the album here: https://orcd.co/oryad
More On Sacred & Profane:
Each song on the album speaks for the deep connection with nature and its spirits. The music holds the ability to carry its listeners through a colorful pallet of emotions, a journey which the band describes as follows: “In our society we have anesthetized so much of the human experience and partitioned off parts of ourselves, claiming that anger, for example, can only be ugly. That grief should be hidden. That it is socially acceptable to only revel in their brighter siblings love, joy, and hope…which only makes those three more cloying and homogenized”.
Although the band has been working on music since 2017, the new and fresh material, written from 2020-2022, creates a more progressive doom opera style, adding modern elements to the symphonic metal foundation. Compared to their mini album Hymns of Exile & Decay, which the band released in June 2021, the sound of ORYAD has elevated to a broader level, with heavy emphasis on ritual and dance at their live shows. ORYAD keep their artful eye on creating a live experience for the audience that feels more like a musical emotional journey, connecting with nature and myths, rather than simply just playing songs during their eye catching live performances: “The songs are an exploration of ourselves, grief, and our connection to the universe through the vehicles of myth”, the band describes.
ORYAD band lead Moira Murphy and her operatic, powerful vocal performance constitute the force of the band. Although in the early steps of each creative process, Moira and drummer Matt Gotlin-Sheehan joined hands, the process then continued in team effort with additional musicians Luca and Adam, who are classically trained in jazz, to meet the music’s majestic and powerful demands.
Links:
https://oryad.band/
https://www.facebook.com/OryadBand
https://www.instagram.com/oryadband/
https://youtube.com/@OryadBand
Credits:
Mixed and mastered by Vikram Shankar
Photos by Emily Winders
1. The Path: Part I
2. Scorched Earth
3. Blood
4. Lilith
5. Eve
6. Alchemy
7. Wayfaring Stranger
8. Through The Veil
9. Slice Of Time
10. The Path: Part II
