Öde Verser by Hexmyr

Öde Verser means ‘Deserted Verses’ in Swedish, and is an apt description of this debut EP from new death industrial project Hexmyr, formed only this year. It’s also a reflection of the physical destruction of the artist’s homeland, especially around the Norrland area, specifically highlighting the devastated forests, abandoned factories, the countryside communities denuded of population, and the after-effects of uranium mining, along with rivers that have been drained, the exile of indigenous peoples, and a consequent rise in the suicide rates. The anger and the hopelessness is in evident abundance here: washes and drones, dark cold winds, frigid, empty, and ruined landscapes all abound, testifying to the destruction of once-thriving communities amidst pristine environments. However, this is not just a lament for the loss of Sweden’s beauty – it is also a damning indictment of the rest of the corporate industrial world, portrayed as an uncaring faceless behemoth hellbent on destroying all in its path in pursuit of profit.

Hexmyr is Swedish artist Tomas Östergårds, also known as Oestergaards. Hexmyr is named after a small lake, Häxmyran, near the village where he grew up in Sweden, Edsbyn. The name roughly translated means ‘The Witch Morass’. This marks the project’s first release in the death industrial genre, an entity that allows Tomas to express his sorrow, anger, and frustration at the state of the world today

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