Cygnus Rock Band - Vegvisir (Ancient Visions)

This song is very dear to me. In fact this is one of my all-time favorite songs by Cygnus.

I remember the moment it hit me for the first time. Interestingly, it wasn't the first time I was listening to this song, but in my case it's rather common with Cygnus-songs that they hit me sometimes months after getting to know them.

This is another reason why I love them this much - I experienced that a lot of their songs need to "ripen" in a sense for being able to taste their real flavor. This way every song is like an open door waiting for me to enter and discover all the gems that are hidden behind it. A never-ending, exciting hide-and-seek game... and the best of the best is that it is true even for those songs I already like and cherish.

It was already night with full moon some time in late 2021 or very early 2022, I don't remember anymore. It was cold and I was walking among the soulless, 10-storey-tall concrete blocks of a local residential area when my player randomly jumped on this song. I remember, before this moment I hadn't paid much attention to this song, but at that moment, staring at the full moon it hit me with its theme, the medieval-sounding tagelharpa

enormous respect and a salute goes out to the amazing Myrkvan Skáld, an Italian tagelharpa player, who appears as a guest musician in this song, enriching it with the special tunes of his instrument - you can follow him on YouTube as well as on Instagram

the shaman drum, the deeply gruntling bass and Ruxx's sharp voice so hard that I had to stop and stand for a while thinking why and how this song had escaped my attention earlier. Then I put it on repeat and while walking home I greedily and gluttonously grabbed the song and allowed it to sink into my body cells.

The truth is that since then this song didn't just grow into one of my biggest favorites but it did save me from doing things I might have regretted later.

Yes, it did save my life, too.

There had been times when this song was on repeat. Sometimes for two days in a row, massively, without interruption.

That was nasty. I was still full of benzodiazepines, but despite these chemicals the other side of the tunnel was too far. I wanted to give up and let go everything. The demons I had in my head (and whom the benzodiazepines were supposed to quieten) were overscreaming the sedatives. They were too loud. I remember, I was a bit on autopilot mode when I put on my headphones and switched on Cygnus in my music player. I wanted something, anything that is louder than this noise.

I remember the player jumped on Vegvisir and it knocked me out right there. I think there are a few of you who know what the feeling "laying on the floor in tears" means... The lines "I am not going to be defeated by this darkness" and "If I must go through hell itself, and overcome this test, I will" were those I held onto, while I tried to get up, both figuratively and literally.

And here I am.

The song starts slowly with the shaman drum, soon the tagelharpa enters, and these two - with other percussions by their side - join in an ethereal, bit otherworldly atmosphere. More instruments arrive along the way

it's slowly but surely getting radiation-powered here! ☢

then it suddenly emerges into a smaller explosion and the humane voice appears.

Ruxx is singing this song, in the first stanza he is accompanied by the tagelharpa, the shaman drum and the bass. They calmly stay in the background allowing the Colombian's powerful voice to dominate only to turn into full power for the bridge and then in the chorus getting escorted by the orchestra.

In the second stanza only the rhythm section stays with the vocals

that rhythm section which already showed its radioactive force in the chorus, and at this point it's getting on the level of Chernobyl. The bass so beautifully gruntles that it over-radiates (pun intended) even a hoarde of raging nuclear wild boars directly from Pripyat, bringing tears to the listener's eyes

then the guitar appears, too, this way the two stanzas are making a wonderful comparison with each other: the first with its folkish, acoustic tunes, while the second brings forth the intensity of electric instruments and the massive touch of rock and metal. Ruxx lets the power of his rock/blues/smoke-soaked voice flow.

The solo is massive, heavy and robust, the rhythm section holding it faithfully on its shoulders. The chorus returns one more time with its full beauty, with the sound, tough rhythm section

songs like this are the real gems of people like myself, who are rhythm section fanatics. These songs should be taught in music schools under the label "see, kids, that's what it's like when the drummer and the bassist can fully rely on each other and they groove their asses off"

the orchestration that makes a beautiful contrast with the heavy, distorted guitars and with the humane voice as the leading power.

This song is one of Cygnus's underrated songs. I admit, sometimes I feel sorry for the people who don't see (or can't see, I'm really not sure anymore) the million hidden treasures of this track. Yes, you need to focus. You need to open your ears, de-earwax it, clean it, together with your heart. You must learn to appreciate the seemingly small but in reality very thorough efforts of these musicians. It's not easy, I know. But it's not impossible either. 

You have the chance now to start it. The reward is magic itself.