Upon realizing a common creative ground and like-minded artistic approach back in 2000, Borknagar’s main songwriter Øystein G. Brun and Swedish multi-instrumentalist Mr. V (a.k.a. Vintersorg, prior to even joining Borknagar) decided to get together one day to create a band-project with musical output that slightly differs from the style of their main bands.
Having pinpointed each other’s wishes and ideas back and forth for some years, while also working on releases with Borknagar, CRONIAN (in its first incarnation still referred to as Ion), didn’t come into material existence until 2005, when the proper work of the final musical expression for the debut album “Terra” started out.
Sharing a passion and interest for movie soundtracks, Øystein and Mr. V decided to go into a then-unexplored atmospheric vibe of such soundtracks to combine it with their metallic roots. Anybody that has been witness to the musical evolution of Borknagar throughout the years but also understands the variety shown by Mr. V with his main band Vintersorg but also in projects like Otyg or Fission, will now too appreciate the more avant-garde appeal of CRONIAN that never loses its catchy songwriting.
Being lyrically inspired by human near-death experiences and emotional extremities, one could picture desolate arctic landscapes, “Terra” carries a through and through cold feeling and attitude to it. As atmospheric and gloomy as the frostbitten visual presentation of the release might first appear, it also carries a pure and majestic note to it, which easily relates to the music as well. Recorded in complete autonomy by CRONIAN, with engineering assistance by Mattias Marklund and a final mastering process done by Dan Swanö (Edge Of Sanity, Unicorn, Bloodbath, etc.) at his Unisound studio, “Terra” is a challenging personal journey of the soul as well as an authentic Winter-Manifesto (recorded in snowy times with minus 20 degrees Celsius), spanning elements from ‘70s art-rock to current Nordic Black Metal with supreme melodies and experimental soundscapes. A soundtrack for our current arctic times…