The second full-length from Gaahls Wyrd picks up exactly where the Norwegian band’s 2021 EP, The Humming Mountain, left off. In fact, the first line of “The Dream,” the opening track on Braiding the Stories, is the last line of “The Sleep,” the EP’s closing track. As leader and lyricist Kristian “Gaahl” Espedal explains, the experimental metal band wanted to explore the world of dreams. “Since I always work with the awareness of the subconscious, it felt very natural to delve into the dream realm,” he tells Apple Music. “As long as Gaahls Wyrd has existed, it has been the plan that we would end up in this sphere this time around. Then we’ll dig ourselves out of the dreamscape for the next releases.” Musically, Braiding the Stories exists in a soundscape created by guitarist Ole “Lust Kilman” Walaunet that Gaahl refers to as the White Lodge or Bright Lodge, with intended reference to late director David Lynch’s exploration of the subconscious. “For some reason, there’s always some kind of melancholic energy that hangs over my musical expression,” Gaahl explains. “But this time, I feel that maybe I have been able to break that pattern. Of course, there’s a lot of melancholia in this music and in the emotions of the lyrics, but I still feel there is a lot of playfulness and joy in this album. There’s a spark of hope and a positive vibe.” Below, he comments on each song. “The Dream” “It was one of the songs that came in on a late note. I prepared the album without the three interludes, and ‘The Dream’ was one of them that came in just at the end of the production. I felt that we needed something to glue the album together and braid it into the final result, instead of forcing it in there. I didn’t want to start the album with the finishing line of ‘The Sleep’ from The Humming Mountain just for transition. I could have done it just spoken, but it’s good to have music for that kind of thing. Ole’s lovely, masterfully guitaring made it all fall into place.” “Braiding the Stories” “It’s maybe the track that’s least connected to the dream concept. This is more like the entrance to that, but it’s still a bit on the outside. Very stoic. It’s the one that dives in and allows us to enter into the subconscious state. It is a very obvious song in my head. It has a very logical journey, while other tracks don’t necessarily have the same logic pattern.” “Voices in My Head” “This has to do with how I create music, where I decide where to go, and how I choose the different characters that I portray. In my mindset, anything I can hear in my head, I can transform and turn into a vocal construction, basically. Anything that I hear, I can also execute. So, it is partially a reference to this as well as the voices you might hear in dreams. These storytellers that you really don’t know who they are, but you have to try to connect with them, turn them into something. Manifest them, basically.” “Time and Timeless Timeline” “There is no time in a dream. It’s limitless. That’s basically what the title refers to. Time doesn’t really exist, anyway. At least I think time doesn’t exist, but of course we are all aware of it and connected to it. But time is just something we have fabricated, even though everyone is under the spell of it, and we have a limited amount of it. It’s a fascinating concept. I will never get the answer from it, but these are things you constantly can converse with.” “And the Now” “This was the first song I completed for the album, so it’s the mother or the father of all the tracks in that sense. The way it’s built is very cinematic, almost like a theater play: moving from one situation to another, and there’s a lot of drama in it, maybe a bit too much information for many to consume. It’s linked to all the other tracks, but also the previous albums—a lot of info both from the past and the now.” “Through the Veil” “Lyrically this is very simple. It’s about entering the void or becoming non-physical. It has a lot of references to old mythological energies because I have strong connections to the Norse roots and people that have the understanding of Odinistic character. I don’t follow any gods or anything—for me, they are more metaphors of our psychological state. In the song, it’s a time when you are not in a state of the physical, ‘When even his beloved could not find him.’ It’s a small link to the concept of the album.” “Visions and Time” “This is returning to the same dramatics we have in ‘And the Now.’ Also, it’s the closest we have to a nightmarish state because there’s not a lot of nightmares in this album. But it does have this haunting feel, especially the introduction of the song. Very massive, almost ritualistic. You wake up, but you’re still asleep. That’s why I sing with kind of a nasal voice on this. Very often, when you are slumbered, you have this kind of voice. So, you walk out of this extreme, haunting, almost nightmarish state and then slumber back into the dream state.” “Root the Will” “For me, this is a really happy tune. Very heavy metal in a way. It’s the oddball on the album, kind of an outsider. There’s a good flow of positive energy from the band, and it’s also a tiny nod to Lemmy from Motörhead. It’s not transparent, but people can probably hear it if they listen to the rhythm pattern of part of the song. The way it ends reminds me of movies from the ’50s and ’60s, and this, I think, allows it to become part of the album. If I didn’t add the final part, I don’t think it would have fit the concept. It would have just been a happy metal track.” “Flowing Starlight” “Originally, I had another song in mind for the closing track that I had done quite a bit of work on. ‘Flowing Starlight’ was going to be one of the main centerpieces of the album. But then Ole brought in these interludes, and I chose to save the other song for a later release and restructured ‘Flowing Starlight’ into what it is. I’m kind of embarrassed when I listen to it because it’s something that I don’t think of myself doing. Some of it is a bit cheesy, but I feel that’s OK as an artist. I could allow myself to do it. You always need to work with things that embarrass you in a way. It’s a good growth process for oneself to do these things that make you blush a bit. But it’s a really good conclusion to the album, and I’m very happy with it.”