Prayer of the Countess
The Making of the Third and the Mortal’s Tears Laid in Earth
Early ’90s Norwegian doom metal. Not something you hear every day. Communed from the same natural mysteries of the landscape that animated their black metal countrymen—forests, folklore, the cycle of seasons—Norwegian doom metal concerned itself with nature’s more inward-gazing aspects: less witching-hour midnight, more solemn dusk. Less diabolical full moons, more sobering sunsets—and in the case of one of Norway’s earliest doom purveyors, the Third and the Mortal: less nihilism, more animism. Understated and ethereal, sorrowful yet driven by strong progressive sensibilities, Norwegian doom officially ascended from the underground in August 1994 wrapped in shades of autumnal gold and liturgical purple, carrying a somber epitaph: Tears Laid in Earth.
The origins of the Third and the Mortal begin with Nightfall, a death/doom band from Trondheim that released a self-titled demo in 1990 before swapping down-tuned guitars and caveman death vocals for ethereal doom textures and the then-19-year-old Kari Rueslåtten, whose enchanting, classically-trained soprano voice, ethereal keyboard structures and poetry of snow and sorrow reconceptualized the doom metal sound.
The combination was an immersive one, bordering on the spiritual, and nearly impossible to get your hands around. Journalists perplexed by the band’s adventurous sonic worlds clumsily shoehorned Tears Laid in Earth into the death/doom canon. But was it death/doom? Most certainly not. Was it metal? Usually. Was it doom metal? Yes, but in an ethereal sort of way that shared as many textural aspects with the Peaceville sound as it did 4AD. It wasn’t the bashed-over-the-head tectonic doom of Winter or Saint Vitus; Tears Laid in Earth dwelled in a much more introspective and understated space. Think The Silent Enigma-era Anathema or The Angel and the Dark River-era My Dying Bride co-produced by David Gilmore and Tolkien.
Though embraced by the doom community, the Third and the Mortal’s arrival in 1992 (and subsequent touring through Norway through 1994)—also meant the band would rub shoulders with the then-embryonic black metal scene smoldering six hours away in capital city Oslo. Despite obvious sonic distinctions, the Third and the Mortal were not without their ties to the black metal universe, largely due to Slayer Mag founder (and essentially fifth member of Mayhem back then) Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen signing the band to his Head Not Found label in 1993. In other convergences, Mayhem/Thorns guitarist—and the guy who drove Varg Vikernes to Euronymous’ house that fateful night—Snorre Ruch played keyboards in the band’s earliest incarnation.
Tears Laid in Earth would go on to become wildly influential to doom and atmospheric metal post-1994 largely due to the positioning of vocalist Rueslåtten at the helm. Although the classically trained female voice was not unfamiliar to doom devotees by 1994—think Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion, Paradise Lost’s Gothic, Anathema’s Serenades—no one had yet built an entire sound around it. In doing so, Tears singlehandedly prophesied the seismic shift European metal would undergo in the last half of the ’90s when female-fronted bands like Holland’s the Gathering soared to massive commercial heights internationally. Tears also held heavy sway in funeral doom circles when fellow Norwegians Funeral (the band) took direct inspiration from it on their 1995 gloomy touchstone Tragedies.
The Tears-era Third and the Mortal lineup wouldn’t remain intact long enough to enjoy such accolades, however. Just four months after the release of the album, Rueslåtten would depart to launch a solo career that led to Grammy nominations and international celebrity. Reunited for several reunion shows commemorating the 30th anniversary of Tears Laid in Earth, we gathered the band’s original six members for a leafy stroll down memory lane. —Scott Koerber
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