Latvian heavy music band "Purva Metāls" offers their first EP of the same name "Purva Metāls". The album contains five compositions dedicated to swamps and mythology. In 2018, recordings of the first demo versions of the songs began, so 2018 can be called the year the group was founded. The instrumental and vocal performance of the music varies between different metal and rock genres, without trying to fit into any particular one. The main sources of musical inspiration are 80s-90s metal, symphonic motifs and industrial rhythms. Lyrics are mostly about devils, monsters, fantastical beings and different inhabitants of swamps or the swamp itself. The swamp is depicted both as a mythical and mystical place for various epic events and stories, as well as as a very real part of nature with its biological properties.
The members of the band, similarly to the old school Scandinavian metal traditions, want to remain anonymous, therefore they have adopted Latin names of swamp and forest plants, mushrooms and animals as their pseudonyms.

Brief explanations of lyrics:

1. In Silent Bog, Undergrowth

Instrumental.

2. Spirit of the Ancestors 

A song devoted to the memory of ancestors.
The composition plays upon the themes of the Devil and the spirits of the dead or veļi, as both words bear phonetic resemblance. There could be also an etymological connection between the words velns (devil) and velis (spirit of the dead). Thus, the Devil and the spirits of the dead all dwell in the underworld or the Devil might be the ruler of the spirits.
In terms of the mood, the song could be split into three parts: the first deals with the terrifying Devil, from the deep below, who visits the Latvian households in the autumn darkness and marks the beginning of the time of the spirits. The second calls upon the Latvians to prepare to welcome their dead ancestors. The third part urges the modern Latvians to remember their ancestors by setting the tables with food and drink and burning candles, much like our ancestors did before us.

3. Devil Hunters 

The lyrics address the eternal social theme of people craving power and money. The ones who walk in the footsteps of the greedy and power-hungry Devil, themselves turn into devils. They are opposed by those who fight for freedom, truth and justice – the devil hunters. They chase the covetous Devil across the swamp, through the forest, to catch him and throw him back into the nightmare of his own creation, the bottom of the swamp. Let the Master of the Swamp and anyone who bend their backs to him continue to rot there, at the bottom of the swamp, in their full glory – their avarice and lust for power.
As a backdrop for this narrative, an actual early-morning hunt is incorporated in the lyrics. Beaters headed into the Great Kangari bog through the forest to chase roebucks towards the positions and the barrels of the hunters. The beasts managed to get away this time, however.

4. Ore Metal 

The song is about the Great Kangari Lake. The text is adapted from an informative plaque near the lake about its biological composition, animals and plants. There is a beast swimming in the lake – the Amur sleeper – a predatory fish, who sleeps deep in the sludge, as well as the ravenous crucian carp. The lyrics also list some of the characteristic flora by Latin names. The Kangari Lake is a great, dark eye, which provides outstanding resonance when someone is singing or playing an acoustic instrument. Let the harsh sound of the ore metal, born from the dark Great Kangari Lake, ring out to honour this natural space.

5. Earth Gods and the Thunder 

The final composition is based in ancient mythology – the tale of the eternal battle between devils and the Thunder. It brings the listener into the world of legends and stories – step down deep into the underworld, journey to the Devil’s castle, feast at the table of various devils and witness the main event – the Thunder attacking the Devil’s castle.
 


Information drawn from the books of the professor K.Straubergs “Latvian Magic Charms” (1939), Part 1 and 2