{"id":99124,"date":"2023-04-11T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=99124"},"modified":"2023-04-12T10:38:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T09:38:17","slug":"news-dorthia-cottrell-releases-second-solo-studio-album-death-folk-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/news-dorthia-cottrell-releases-second-solo-studio-album-death-folk-country\/","title":{"rendered":"DORTHIA COTTRELL: WINDHAND Vocalist Streams New Solo Track \u2018Take Up Serpents\u2019 (April 11th, 2023) | News @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DORTHIA COTTRELL: WINDHAND Vocalist Streams New Solo Track \u2018Take Up Serpents\u2019<\/strong><\/span>
\nApril 11th, 2023<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Dorthia Cottrell, vocalist of Richmond, Virginia-based stoner metal band Windhand, has made new solo track \u2018Take Up Serpents\u2019 available for streaming, which can be accessed below.<\/p>\n

The title \u2018Take Up Serpents\u2019 comes from the Bible verse Mark 16:18: \u2018They 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.\u2019<\/em> \u201cEven though I don\u2019t consider myself a religious person, I do believe that there are forces beyond current human understanding. I think we interact with those forces and they have an effect on us,\u201d Cottrell commented. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dorthia Cottrell issues second solo full-length studio album Death Folk Country<\/em> on April 21st, 2023 through Relapse Records.<\/p>\n

Cottrell was raised in rural King George, Virginia, a town with less than 5,000 inhabitants. \u201cThis album to me is about painting a picture of a place where my heart lives,\u201d Cottrell explains. \u201cThe title Death Folk Country<\/em> is partly me describing a genre that fits the sound \u2013 but it\u2019s also meant to be taken as a Naming, a coronation of the world inside me. Death Folk Country<\/em> is the music and also the land where the music takes place, and the two have always been inextricable from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottrell grew up deep in a Virginia Pine forest in a house built entirely by her grandfather. \u201cThe only type of door I knew was made of plywood and had a hook instead of a knob,\u201d Cottrell remembered. \u201cWe were excited to have our washing machine and dryer on the porch so we didn\u2019t have to hang clothes up to dry in the winter. Our heat came from burning wood. If you didn\u2019t cut the wood you didn\u2019t get warm. If you didn\u2019t make a specific effort for something, you went without it. And I loved it. I still love it. The smell, the air, the way it looks, the way it sounds. The way it doesn\u2019t sound. The feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Death Folk Country<\/em> \u201ctakes these nostalgic ideas of \u2018home\u2019 and confronts them with their own imperfections and darkness,\u201d continued the press release. \u201cThere are things I don\u2019t love about it too,\u201d Cottrell said. \u201cDark things. Misguided ideas. Fear of things not understood. An altogether monstrous and violent evil that seeps unsuspecting and aloof (seemingly) into even the most (seemingly) innocent conversation. As I grow older, the things I love and hate about it only become more and more vivid and I often think about how to keep the two worlds apart–how to separate the divine from the evil and if it\u2019s even possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Death Folk Country<\/em> was recorded and produced by Jon K. and Cottrell at SANS Studios in Richmond, Virginia. <\/p>\n

The track listing is as follows:<\/p>\n

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01. \u2018Death Is The Punishment For Love\u2019
\n02. \u2018Harvester\u2019
\n03. \u2018Black Canyon\u2019
\n04. \u2018Family Annihilator\u2019
\n05. \u2018Effigy At The Gates of Ur\u2019
\n06. \u2018Midnight Boy\u2019
\n07. \u2018Hell In My Water\u2019
\n08. \u2018Take Up Serpents\u2019
\n09. \u2018For Alicia\u2019
\n10. \u2018Eat What I Kill\u2019
\n11. \u2018Death Is The Reward For Love\u2019<\/p>\n

Directed by Richard Francis Howard, a music video was filmed for the track \u2018Family Annihilator\u2019. The track speaks to the unease and tension of Cottrell\u2019s surroundings. \u201cI had never played it before, I kind of brought it out of the attic,\u201d Cottrell said of the song. Despite being over a decade old, \u2018Family Annihilator\u2019 spoke to the moment she was in. \u201cWith the threat of another four years of conservative offices in power,\u201d according to a press release, Cottrell thought of family back in the South who would be voting, and remembered something her grandfather, a farmer, had told her years ago: \u2018If a crop is diseased, you have to burn the whole crop.\u2019 \u201c\u2018Family Annihilator\u2019 is a result of me wondering if the whole field must burn today, to save the flowers of tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clip can be viewed below.<\/p>\n

The track \u2018Harvester\u2019 can also be streamed below. \u201cWhere I\u2019m from, and probably most rural places in the U.S., there is a strong Christian religious presence, whether you identify as being religious or not, and it was always my feeling that that has a lot to do with being surrounded and immersed in nature and every part of your life being at the mercy of it \u2013 even when it is merciless and brutal,\u201d Cottrell said in relation to the song. \u201cWhen you\u2019re surrounded by something so vast and beautiful, the presence of \u2018god\u2019 and whatever that might mean to anyone, is blatant and undeniable. To me, \u2018god\u2019 is nature and God is Mother Earth, so also to me, when I\u2019m back home or anywhere like that I feel deeply the presence of my own idea of spirituality, the wonders of it and the feeling of being something small in the face of something totally out of your control. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what \u2018Harvester\u2019 is about. Bad or good, in the patterns of nature you can see the patterns of all life, maybe even the patterns of the universe too, and that symmetry to me is god, and I\u2019m grateful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dorthia Cottrell\u2019s self-titled debut studio record was released in March 2015 via Forcefield Records.<\/p>\n

Promotional photograph by Richard Howard.<\/em><\/p>\n