More than a year has passed since the world famous ritual collective’s last performance. Now, after a restful silence, they are officially ending their hiatus. This October, Heilung will return to Lava Studios and begin working on their highly-anticipated fourth full-length studio album.
“When Heilung creates its magic, we do so by fully immersing ourselves in our bubble by closing the doors to the noise of the outside world, which these days, between automation and conflict, seems louder than just a few years ago”, Heilung says.
“In German, Heilung means healing. It speaks to one of the core intentions for our project: to heal. Because healing is needed and has always been needed”, they continue. “The path the band has taken, and will remain committed to, is deeply rooted in history, spirituality and art. It will not be influenced by any modern ideology, trend or form of automation.
“Heilung lives between all this. It lives in the imperfections between the perfect. It lives in the grass, and, sometimes, the thorns beneath our bare feet. It lives in laughter, crying, love and fear.
Everywhere you focus, there’s a door that leads to healing. Heilung guards this door and welcomes you inside”.
As the world eagerly awaits their next official studio album, today, Heilung are excited to reveal Sagas, a special amplified gift from the past that they will soon share with their fans.
“This is no ordinary Heilung release”, the collective says about Sagas. “This is something special”.
Sagas collects the recordings Heilung made in collaboration with computer game developer Ninja Theory for Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga. It includes unheard recordings that do not appear in the game.
“Eight years ago, we began collaborating with Ninja Theory”, Heilung says. “This led to a long, intensive and hyper creative period that focused on the crossroads between vast Icelandic landscapes and the innermost corners of the human mind. Some of the sounds we created found their way into Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga. However, many did not. Until now, with Sagas. Soon, these recordings of our travels from deep underground ice caves, over bursting volcanoes, through endless lava deserts and into the very depths of our own minds will be released in their raw entirety”.
More information about Sagas is coming soon. In the meantime, watch the trailer on Heilung’s YouTube channel.
HEILUNG don’t play shows. They perform a ritual. Every performance begins with Kai Uwe Faust leading Christopher Juul, Maria Franz and the rest of the Nordic collective in an ancient prayer. Soon after, the audience is swept into rapture, swayed by incense and throat singing, primordial rhythms, subtle electronic textures, a mesmerizing light show, an army of warriors and bursts of fire.
Since they began in 2015, Heilung have been paving melodic paths to the past with their unique and mystifying sound. Evading all conventional genre tags and the confines of any specific labels, the group aptly self-describes their sound as “amplified history,” emphasizing their ability to connect modern society with the rudiments of humanity’s beginnings through music.
“Our ancestral Nordic civilizations did not just pop up, exist and disappear in isolation”, says Faust, a throat singer and one of Heilung’s three composers. “With singing these primordial songs we want to give tribute to these cultures, reconnect to the beginnings and remember that we all, from East to West, from past to present, are connected through the exchange of ideas and inspiring each other”.
While Heilung features authentic and archaic instrumentation that ranges from rattles and ritual bells to human bones and throat singing, their captivating brand of music is far from primitive. Producer and founding member Christopher Juul implements subtle electronic elements that elevates the musical atmosphere and provides a more in-depth and layered soundscape.
Indeed, Heilung’s success has been unprecedented, achieving milestones in its few short years of existence that many do not see in a lifetime. The collective already had rapidly been growing a buzz upon the self-release of their first full-length Ofnir in 2015, but their dizzying upward trajectory really took off from the moment they set foot on the stage at Castlefest in 2017 for the now-legendary debut of their live ritual. Luckily for those who were not fortunate enough to bare witness to this magical event, the full ceremony was captured on film, having since been viewed by tens of millions of fans across the globe.
As Heilung trekked across Europe and brought their mystifying experience to new audiences, talk of this new band and their stunning ceremony made way to Season of Mist label owner Michael Berberian, who quickly offered the band a record contract after seeing their undeniable musical impact for himself.
By 2019, Heilung launched their second full-length record, Futha, which contrasted the masculine and battle-heavy themes of their debut with a feminine counterpart that celebrated fertility and female energy. Upon the first week of the record’s release, it graced the Billboard charts with coveted numbers, debuting at #3 on the Heatseekers Charts and #4 on the Billboard World Music Chart, placing on a total of seven Billboard charts while meeting critical-acclaim from the press on a global scale.
Their music has even appeared in places that extend far beyond typical concert venues. From hit television series like Game of Thrones and Vikings to video game giants like Conqueror’s Blade VII: “Wolves of Ragnarök and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II to the blockbuster Robert Eggers film The Northman, Heilung’s music has risen far above the underground and has transcended into a greater world. Even a global pandemic couldn’t slow down Heilung’s success; it only strengthened them and gave them the gift of time to complete work on their third album. In English, Drif translates as “Gathering”. The music embodies this philosophy by tying together the beginning of civilization with today’s modern society.
Heilung perform their rituals all over the world. They sold out their first North American tour in 72 hours. Upon returning to the United States in 2021, they were greeted by another sold-out crowd, this time at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. This performance was released as a live album on vinyl and CD in 2024. A Blu-Ray edition of Lifa Iotungard will follow, along with the release of their 2023 performance at the Apollo Theatre in Hammersmith, London.
In 2025, Heilung embarked on headlining tours of Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Along the way, they cast their spell over more of the world’s biggest stages, including Roskilde Festival, Download Festival and Glastonbury.
After completing their 2025 Amplified History tour, Heilung went on hiatus. After a restful period, in September 2026, the collective announced that they are returning to the recording studio in October to record their fourth studio album. They also announced Sagas, which collects the recordings they made in collaboration with Ninja Theory for Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga.
More information about Sagas is coming soon.
Line-up:
Kai Uwe Faust
Christopher Juul
Maria Franz
Order & Stream: https://orcd.co/lifaiotungard
Follow Heilung
Official Website: https://www.amplifiedhistory.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amplifiedhistory
Instagram: https://instagram.com/amplifiedhistory
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7sTKZr30LqC928DZ5P9mNQ
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Heilung
Bandcamp: https://heilung.bandcamp.com/music
Bandsintown: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/1977594-heilung
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