About

“It may be difficult to imagine heavy metal without guitars - but with only bass, drums and violin, Völur not only make it work, but also create music that would be criminal to label as merely one style.” - Exclaim Magazine

With a name derived from "völva," a seeress in Norse folklore, Völur are not the kind of band to fulfill faux-pagan longings, neither thematically nor musically. Völur formed in 2012 when Gadke and Bates—touring as support musicians for a folk singer—discovered their shared love of Death, Igor Stravinsky, and The Dirty Three. They entered the studio with Ian Blurton in 2013 to produce their demo Disir. The first pressing sold out in Europe and North America and was reissued by German label Prophecy. In 2017, they released their sophomore record Ancestors, included in Metal Hammer's 50 best albums of 2017 and described by Vice Noisey as “intoxicating, cementing Völur's status as one of the most intriguing new bands in heavy music”.

In 2019, the trio returned to the studio with producer Alia O’Brien (Blood Ceremony) to record Death Cult, their heaviest and most eclectic offering to date, described in Spin magazine as "a truly unique and utterly immersive listening experience". Death Cult reflects the influence of free jazz and avant-garde classical music punctuated by labyrinthine riffs and distinctive nods to blackened death metal and psychedelia. Inspired by Tacitus’s Germania, Death Cult pulls from ethnography, myth, ritual, and ecology. Traversing genres, Death Cult ties together disparate threads of music rooted in haunting melodies and hypnotizing riffs. 

Electric & Upright Bass, Vocals / Lucas Gadke

Electric Violin, Viola, Vocals / Laura C. Bates

Drums / Justin Ruppel