While there’s always been something biblical about the sweeping doom metal sounds of Windhand, they’ve never quite touched on the Good Book to the extent vocalist Dorthia Cottrell does on the latest single from her forthcoming sophomore solo album, Death Folk Country. “Take Up Serpents” lifts its name directly from the 16th book of Mark, verse 18—which, incidentally, is metal as hell: “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The New Testament verse is in reference to Jesus’ disciples and the immunity he grants them in spreading his word.
While not necessarily religious, Cottrell still identifies with the mysterious power behind these words, identifying similar “forces beyond current human understanding” in the world today. “I think we interact with those forces and they have an effect on us,” she explains. “This verse always stood out to me; I think love and faith in the unseen are deeply connected. I always thought this verse perfectly described the kind of omnipotent power that love is, and how it can inspire such a faith and devotion that can reframe reality.”
Meanwhile, the track’s instrumental falls very much in line with the other death-folk country ballads on the new LP, landing somewhere between the darkly subdued chamber-pop of Marissa Nadler and Lingua Ignota’s more intense backwoods spirituals. Check it out below, and expect the rest of Death Folk Country to arrive April 21 via Relapse Records.
