Season of Mist is proud to announce the signing of Via Doloris, the singular project of composer and multi-instrumentalist Gildas Le Pape. Conceived in solitude and shaped by discipline, Via Doloris traces a restrained and introspective path through black metal’s formal foundations, guided by melody, atmosphere and emotional clarity.

Via Doloris is rooted in an inward journey rather than orthodoxy. Across carefully structured compositions, Le Pape explores the architecture of the human psyche, moving through despair, inner rupture and fleeting moments of illumination. Melody stands at the center of the music, not as ornament but as its organizing force, leading expansive guitar lines through measured rhythms and subtle harmonic tension. Folk and pagan echoes surface quietly, lending the material a timeless, almost ritual quality without overt gestures or excess.

“I’m hugely excited by the signing with Season of Mist”, says le Pape. “Partnering with a label known for its professionalism and deep industry experience is a huge step forward for Via Doloris. With their support, VD will reach a much wider audience and gain the visibility I feel the project deserves. This is a major milestone in the project’s history, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve been crafting during the last years. Thanks to the team and everyone who has supported VD so far – this is just the beginning!”

The project’s first full-length work extends this vision into a unified and deliberately paced statement. Moving between languages and emotional registers, it traces a quiet passage through shadow and emergence, shaped by introspection rather than narrative clarity. Crafted in Norway under Le Pape’s sole direction, the material favors tension, texture and inner motion, allowing meaning to surface gradually, without resolution or insistence.

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Via Doloris is the vision of founder Gildas Le Pape. Through sound, he crafts a world where emotion, discipline, and atmosphere converge — a place to give shape to what cannot be spoken. Rooted in solitude and shaped by the interplay of darkness and beauty, the project confronts the gravity of existence: the quiet burdens we carry, the hidden wounds time buries deep, the road to death. This “Way of Suffering” unfolds as a passage through pain in search of meaning, and the distant, flickering promise of rebirth.

Via Doloris’ musical identity draws from the towering legacy of Nordic metal while forging a distinct path. At its core lies a commitment to detailed guitar work, high-level musicianship, and the art of songcraft. Rather than follow genre trends, Via Doloris returns melody to its rightful place: not as decoration, but as the driving force of the music. These strong, expressive lines guide the compositions with raw clarity, carving out a language that speaks directly to the listener’s inner world.

Though the instrumentation nods to black metal’s formal foundations, the project resists confinement. It blends harmonic depth with subtle dissonance, creating tension and richness without sacrificing cohesion. Folk and pagan influences run like ancestral threads through the arrangements, lending them a sacral, mythic quality. The result is a sound built on contrasts: luminous and shadowed, forceful yet introspective, epic yet intimate. Layered into this sonic landscape are lyrics written in French, English, and Norwegian. Each language brings its own weight, rhythm, and tone, unlocking emotional registers that feel both ancient and immediate.

Based in Oslo, Gildas Le Pape first gained attention in 2007 when he joined the legendary Satyricon as a guitarist. Over the next six years, he toured the world and contributed to the band’s recorded legacy, before stepping away to explore a broad range of musical directions. In time, this path led him back to extreme music, this time with a renewed creative vision and sharpened intent. In 2023, he invited his long-time collaborator, Frost — arguably one of the most accomplished drummers in the genre — to join him in bringing the debut release to life.