Hail there!
I like to shed some light about what will be (Lyric-wise) our upcoming album. Now I am sure it will be called "KURBADS".
"Kurbads" is name of legendary hero from Latvian fairytales/legends of old. He magically was born from white mare, grew up very fast and was unimaginable strong!
In his tale he travels the world, fights various evil creatures, especially his sworn enemy Snake witch, venture into realm of the dead to save daughter of king, finds the hard way out of there and finally fight in last epic battle against Snake witch and her champion.
Tales about Kurbads is half fairy tales and half legends. They was collected and recorded in the end of 19th century by some folk enthusiasts and they are type of "told from mouth to mouth, from generations to generations".
Mainly those stories are short or middle length and have many variations. There are several heroes, who were born from various beings and things. For example: son of wood, son of iron, son of blacksmith, son of ox, son of pea, son of wolf and most known son of bear. From tale about son of bear there was written our national epos "The Bear Slayer" (in latvian "Lāčplēsis").
The main story for all of them however in common is very same with some variations. The thing for me there is that some parts, in my view, are coming from very old past, from times of totemism, when some powerful beast (bear or white mare) appears as the first father/mother of some tribe or even nation! Unfortunately, as it happens with such things, these stories are changed all the way through the centuries, some things are forgotten and other things are imagined anew by tellers themselves. But the very core of those tales still is the same and mainly it is legend about Dragonslayer, which have almost every indo-european nation, the man who fight against some mythic evil force and becomes legend.
I believe that the tale about "KURBADS" is interesting enough as it discovers many things form past of Latvian people - not historical facts of course, but things from daily life and way of thinking of people who lived in ancient times.
Baltic cultural heritage is mostly unknown for the rest of the Europe (even as it is part of it!) and world, so we want to uncover it a bit as best as we can and show that there, in Baltic (Latvian and Lithuanian) literature is as great legends and tales as those about Cuchulainn, Nibelungs, Kalevala, King Arthur and the knights of the round table and such!
Peter