Perchta

Taking their name from an alleged pagan goddess that older scholars tried to reconstruct as being worshiped in the Upper German and Austrian Alpine regions, PERCHTA were conceived in Tyrol, Austria in 2017 with an aim to preserve and rejuvenate regional traditions. Three years later, PERCHTA released their debut album "Ufång" (2020), which established the band's reputation as a highly individualistic and unique act. All lyrics of the entire album are intoned in the Tyrolean vernacular. The words are shrouded in a tempest of tremolo guitars and ritualistic folk with bone-piercing extreme vocals on top. Once touring activities resumed after the global break, PERCHTA also began to earn attention for their outstanding live performances, which strengthened the bonds within the band. With PERCHTA's sophomore full-length entitled "D'Muata", which translates from her Alpine Austrian dialect to English as "The Mother", mastermind and vocalist Frau Percht and her band have created a feminist manifesto within a folklore influenced black metal context. "D'Muata" places the focus on procreation, birth, the nourishing of life, and motherhood without reducing women to this aspect. Such themes as female sexuality, menstruation stigma, the loss of a child, violence against women, and even femicide are also explored and also personified as in the dark ancient Alpine folklore figures described in the track 'Langtuttin & Stampa'.