“Blóðberg” by Sigur Rós

“Blóðberg” is the first new Sigur Rós song since 2020’s Odin’s Raven Magic. As expected, it’s a lovely piece, filled with mournful strings (courtesy of the London Contemporary Orchestra) and Jónsi’s subdued vocals. The song doesn’t culminate in a massive, earth-shattering climax à la songs like “Ný batterí,” “Popplagið,” or “Glósóli”; rather, it’s an elegiac slow-burn.

The song’s video, directed by Johan Renck, drives home that sense as the camera glides over a desolate wasteland strewn with an increasing number of naked corpses, like the detritus of some mass extinction event. (As you can imagine, the video’s not really work-safe.) Describing his video, Renck said:

I feel as nihilistic as one could regarding the future. We are powerless against our own stupidities. Some aspects of this came to merge with my impressions of the themes of “Blóðberg.” The music becoming a score to my own miserable thoughts, giving them beauty as only music can.

Sigur Rós is currently working on a new album following the return of keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson last February, though no release date has been set. (Drummer Orri Páll Dýrason left Sigur Rós in 2018 following allegations of sexual assault.) The band will also be touring this summer in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. with a 41-piece orchestra, and the setlist will include new songs, including (presumably) “Blóðberg.”