Dawn Ray’d – To Know The Light

Dawn Ray’d are, at this point, an institution. Coming up on nearly ten years since their first release, they’ve built an impressive library of releases over which they’ve developed their unique sound.

While their music remains as sharp and blistering as ever, the two most interesting things to me about Dawn Ray’d, both of which are in prime form on their new record To Know the Light, are their lyrics and their seamless incorporation of folk-influences. The incorporation of folk music has long been a part of black metal, with bands like Ulver dedicating long parts of their albums to acoustic passages as far back as 30 years ago. Dawn Ray’d, like their contemporaries in Panopticon and Zeal & Ardor, draw on specific folk-influences in an effort to capture, in the traditional music of a people, the sound of resistance to oppression. The sporadic use of violin on the album provides some compelling textures to the rougher edges of the music but, even more than that, the rousing a cappella songs and passages on the album really stand out, providing moments where the antiauthoritarian lyrics snap into crisp focus.

And, speaking of the lyrics, To Know the Light is the rare record where I insist that you should read every word screamed, sung, or whispered on the album. Dawn Ray’d write songs that read like the poetry of the people, and it’s worth quoting passages from the album at length. “Freedom in Retrograde,” for example, opens with the following lines, lyrically conveying the ongoing history of resistance Dawn Ray’d put as central to their storytelling:

This body is only a host
Of struggle’s dancing flame,
The whole world knows its warmth,
Though it goes by different names.
Some might call it freedom,
And also sometimes joy,
Sometimes it answers to revenge
And other times destroy.

I always appreciate a band who can create lyrics that simultaneously are actually enjoyable to read, while also leaving no confusion as to exactly what they’re about. These two things can cut against each other: ambiguity is often wistfully beautiful and precision often sharply instrumental. Yet, when Dawn Ray’d builds to lines like:

If hooded in black you hold the line
And if you free animals from a cage
And if you attack that border fence
Or rescue families from the waves
If you make food for those without,
And if you pour sugar in to their machines,
If you help those stolen by jail
Or fight for your neighbours basic needs,
You the still unafraid to love
A demand for the end of demands!

In the final song of the album, “Go As Free Companions,” they manage to find a beauty in fiery, rhetorical clarity. Through their clever use of a broad variety of sounds and their ability to turn a phrase like almost no other current band, Dawn Ray’d have crafted, with To Know the Light, a record that stands as the voice of a people and the sound of a struggle.