I was a treeplanter for almost a decade, so I’ve spent many months of my life living far off the grid in the wilds of Canada. Places where the only human contact was us who came to re-plant and the men who came to de-forest. Living in the city, I fear humans – humans behind the wheel, humans walking, humans harming themselves, and maybe me. But I also trust humans; I trust that a human will come to my aid if I need it. Living in the woods, spending entire days by myself hiking through cust and alongside the dense forest, my fears were different. My survival instinct was triggered. My DNA shook loose of its city bondage and reminded me that I was alone here. I was the enemy. I was the destroyer. And I was easy prey if a grizzly wanted me dead. Watching the new video for blackened noise project Obsidian Knife‘s track “Altar Of Will,” I’m being taken back to my days and nights in the forest. The stunning cinematography of Brigitte Zobel has me once again seeing the untouched moss bursting from the forest floor, the carefully tread and shared animal pathways snaking through the trees. Being overcome by a sense of peace so deep I knew I was home here. But all the while with an underlying dread, a heightened awareness of my vulnerability, a need to dart my eyes around my surroundings like deer. Nature knows that without fear there can be no peace, but we pretend that we can have one without the other and the cognitive dissonance of our city life leaves us with nothing but stress. “Altar of Will” is a track off their release IV, which came out in mid-February via Kammer Records and can be ordered here.
