A week ago, The Nocturnal Vigil was unveiled as the first single from the forthcoming Runemagick double album After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil, to be released on September 18 through Hammerheart Records.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a few thoughts about the song, the creative process behind it, and how it fits into the larger journey of the album.
Although The Nocturnal Vigil is only one of eight songs, it carries many of the ideas and currents that flow throughout the entire work.
The song is dedicated to the rune Isa (ᛁ). While Isa is often associated with ice and stillness, I found myself drawn towards another aspect of its nature. Not stillness as something frozen or lifeless, but as complete presence. A state where unnecessary movement has ceased and awareness becomes deeper than action itself.
The vigil described in the lyrics is therefore not about waiting for something to happen. It is about remaining awake when nothing demands your attention. Standing within darkness without fear, expectation or the need for answers. When everything grows quiet, another way of listening slowly begins to emerge.
For me, that is where the real journey begins.
This perspective runs through the entire album.
After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil unfolds across two parts, four movements, eight songs and eight runes, where every composition is dedicated to a specific rune. Rather than telling a linear story, the album moves through different states of being, from collapse and silence to awareness, transformation and finally the endless continuance beyond fixed form.
Musically, the foundation remains rooted in the heavy death-doom sound that has always been part of Runemagick. At the same time, this album allows more room for atmosphere, contemplation and ritualistic passages to emerge naturally whenever the journey calls for them. It still belongs unmistakably to Runemagick, but it also explores another side of the entity that has gradually become increasingly important throughout Era VI.
The runes are not presented as mystical symbols to control reality. Instead, they are approached as living currents, expressions of forces that have always existed beneath the visible world. Much of the inspiration comes from an animistic way of experiencing nature, where forest, stone, water, darkness and silence are not merely scenery, but living presences with their own voice. The runes simply reveal places where these currents become perceptible.
One aspect that some may find interesting is how every lyric on the album came into existence.
None of the lyrics were originally written in English.
Every song began as a relatively short poem or text written in Swedish, often little more than a seed containing the essential atmosphere or current connected to its rune. From there, each text gradually evolved into complete lyrics before finally being translated, reshaped and refined into English.
The intention was never to produce literal translations, but to preserve the atmosphere, rhythm and underlying current of the original Swedish texts. In many ways, I consider the English lyrics to be another stage of the creative process rather than simply translations.
For that reason, I also chose to leave fragments of the original language intact. Four of the eight songs still contain short passages in Swedish, quietly reminding the listener where these words first emerged.
Another important part of this journey is the visual interpretation.
The illustration accompanying this post is the original artwork created by Dísa Draugirinn. Rather than receiving a finished visual concept, she immersed herself in the lyrics together with an early demo version of The Nocturnal Vigil. From those impressions she created her own interpretation of the song, capturing its atmosphere long before the final recording was completed.
Dísa also lends her voice to the closing melody of The Nocturnal Vigil. Her haunting vocal lines became a natural extension of the song itself, and her voice returns at several other moments throughout the album, quietly adding another thread to the larger weave.
Those who have already spent time with Cycle of the Dying Sun (Dawn of Ashen Realms) may notice that some of its currents continue here. While every album in Era VI stands on its own, After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil became the second passage in what gradually evolved into three interconnected works. I have never really thought of them as a traditional trilogy, but rather as three chapters exploring different stages of the same unfolding current. One final passage still waits beyond this one.
Since the beginning of Era VI in 2024, one of the most rewarding aspects of creating Runemagick has been watching music, lyrics and artwork grow together rather than separately. They constantly influence one another. A lyric shapes the music. The music inspires an illustration. An illustration sometimes reveals something I had not consciously perceived while writing the lyrics. Everything becomes part of the same living current.
Nothing here is meant to provide absolute answers. Like the runes themselves, these songs are not intended to explain. They are invitations to experience, to reflect, and perhaps to discover something different each time you return to them.
Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared the single, pre-ordered the album or simply followed this journey over the years. Your support truly means a great deal. It allows Runemagick to continue evolving, exploring and creating without compromise.
The vigil has only just begun.
Seven songs remain.
Seven runes have yet to reveal their current.
Listen:
https://runemagick.bandcamp.com/album/after-chaos-nocturnal-vigil
Pre-order (CD, LP & Digital):
https://runemagick.lnk.to/afterchaos
In stillness,
Nicklas Rudolfsson
ᛁᛚᚾᚱ