PANDRADOR Seiðr CD-digibook

label: Pagan Records
format: CD-digibook
year: 2023
country: Poland
genre: post death metal

Limited to 150 copies hardcover Digibook CD with 24-page booklet.
Second album from Polish post death metal act Pandrador, ispired and spiritualised by the heritage of Scandinavian culture.

1.  Asgardsreien Leaving Valhalla
2. Towards the Black Einherjar
3. Midgard’s Bane
4. Frelsari
5. Nithstang of Sleipnir
6. Hvergelmir
7. Valediction of Exalted One
8. Helferdast
9. Seiðr

"Seiðr" is a story of pride, betrayal and downfall told over the course of the album. Pandrador is not only inspired by monumental works of Scandinavian culture, but also enters into an active, open dialogue with them. They also refer to revenge tragedies, legends and chronicles written down by Saxo Grammaticus, Elizabethan dramas or the concept of theater of cruelty. However, despite an almost academic approach to the subject matter covered, a fair amount of hermeticism, abundant allegories and spinning the tale as much by outlining the plot as by archetypal references, "Seiðr" is as far from a dry, scholarly treatise as possible. The bond of the story are human emotions, and at its heart - reflection - as personal as it is very universal.

"Seiðr" is a contemporary heroic poem, and its protagonist is every listener. It is a commentary on what was, is and (perhaps) will be.

The story spun by the band is inseparable from the music. They complement each other, set the pace and mood for each other. It spirals through a spectrum of emotions, from unbridled rage, through denial, painful understanding and powerlessness in the face of one's own tragedy, to the final statement - "too late."

The band itself, represented by its leader – Bartłomiej "Bard" Bardon, comments on the contents of the album as follows:
"The last few years (not only for known reasons) have left us disillusioned with the reality in which we have lived, the events and their consequences we have experienced. This has led us to reflect on what "Seiðr" is - a commentary on the "conventionality" of our surroundings; a look at the human desire to oppose one extreme in order to fall into the next one in emotion; the desire to be someone important because we are driven by satisfaction and conventional values, and often conventional complexes. In the midst of all this, there is also the deluding of ourselves with apparent benefits and rationalizing quietly how pathetic we actually are in our actions."

Understanding "Seiðr":
"Seiðr" is a hard-to-define term for the body of knowledge and practices that made up Nordic shamanism. "Seiðr" was a story told around a campfire explaining truths about the world. "Seiðr" was also a contact with a spiritual world, as well as a set of rituals that accompanied that contact. It was also an entrance into a trance and a journey beyond flesh and time.

The etymology of the word can be found in the Old Norse "to sing" or "to speak." Sheena McGrath in "Asyniur: Women's Mysteries in the Northern Tradition" suggests that the word has a connection to Old English "sieðe" (modern English: "seethe"), meaning "to boil with anger" or "to become quietly and slowly furious." In "Witchdom of the True" on the other hand, Stephen E. Flowers claims that it means "looking into the future."