Track By Tracks: Helfró – Tálgröf (2023)

The sophomore release of Helfró is created from a vastly different source from the debut both in terms of songwriting and lyrical themes. The debut album Helfró was not really written with strong intent, as it was just the manifestation of some free time, frustration, and loneliness. There was no sign that it would ever get released by a professional label and listened to by more than just a small circle of close friends.

This time around I felt it very important to cleanse my current musical influences from my consciousness and write with intent from a much more personal style. The lyrical themes are also much different. The debut revolves around personal experiences of despair, self-pity, narcissism, and loneliness. Tálgröf is based upon journals and features real-life murderers and criminals who were either apprehended or killed. Some of the tracks talk about a personality trait that these types of people all seem to have in common.

1. Jarteikn (Omen):

The track talks about a traveler of a spiritual nature, someone who dives deep into his own mind to seek the answer to the riddle of life. Concepts of truth and violence are explored. Ultimately, what he finds is that life has only one solution to itself: death.

2. Fláráð Fræði (Deceitful Theories):

The subject of this track is a sick person/entity, haunted by intrusive thoughts of violence and murder. Seeking the remedy for this mental ailment, it seeks knowledge and actively pursues any leads that help it to understand the source of its compulsion to violent acts. The catch-22 is that the more knowledge is gained, the stronger the drive into sickness becomes, ultimately cementing the fate of the person until he accepts that he must act on these malicious thoughts.

3. Fangelsaður í Tilvist að Eilífu (Imprisoned in Existence Forever):

Here the subject for discussion is the man-made idea of eternal life. The nightmare of never being to escape existence, at most transmuting into another state of being, but never being granted ultimate death and nothingness. Even nirvana and paradise become a prison for whoever is trapped there for uncountable aeons. This is the hellish promise that contemporary religions try to sell us.

4. Þögnin Ytra, Kyrrðin Innra (The Silence without, The Stillness Within):

A godlike entity is trapped on earth and cannot bear the sounds and activities emitted by the human race. Each verse talks about how even the faintest step, the quietest breath is like an unbearable thunder in the ears of this entity. The inane affairs of the humans resound inside the mind of the entity until it can not bear it anymore and wipes out the human virus with glee and joy.

5. Guðlegt Rétlæti (Divine Justice):

Ascending the throne of the king of all men, the subject of this song claims the scepter of fate over humans and wields it unforgivingly, judging us all with disapproval. Those who will inherit the earth are set apart from those who will be cast down to the empty void.

6. Sindur:

For just a fleeting moment, perfect clarity and stillness are experienced. Colours of the world are enhanced, there is apparent beauty flowing from the source of all things and it almost feels within grasp for just a moment. There is a desperate prayer to be allowed to stay in this state for just a little moment before the inevitable fate of harm and suicide encompasses the narrator.

7. Ildi Óhreins Anda (Oxygen for the Unclean Spirit):

Lies. They are the birthright of the manipulator. Only fools fail to utilize the gift of untruth. I sow poisonous seeds of malicious words and gleefully reap the fruits while others bear the unsavory consequences. Only those who I deem worthy are told the truth. Everyone gets lies. Lies are like the oxygen I breathe.

8. Traðkandi Blómin í Eigin Hjartagarði (Trampling the Flowers in my Own Hearts garden):

In order to be able to perform the horrible acts that I feel have been bestowed upon me as my fate, I must first cleanse myself of the pathological human traits of empathy and compassion. The subject of this track is actively self-isolating, binging depressive subjects, desensitizing itself and willfully poisoning its body and mind.

9. Minning um Morðingja (Eulogy for a Murderer):

A sad, empty husk of a soul travels the valley of death under a faint moonlight. Having always chosen the easy way in life, always choosing mistreatment and dishonesty, the entity now must wander the wasteland of purgatory forever. On earth, it is only remembered for a brief moment in history by others like it, inconsequential lowlifes devoid of morals.