HEX

On September 20th, the members of Ryders ov Amalon will celebrate the anniversary of their record The Pale Witch. Though the album has since become a classic, rising even above the status of “cult,” only one single ever charted. HEX, released September 28th, though it featured their signature eeriness, was inspired by a short story of the same name found in a dusty tome within an abandoned mine shaft where they once congregated to perform spells of nonsense and hope. The concept of the song, as well as the entire album, was the tale of a misunderstood mage and chemist who had been cast to the woods surrounding a budding utopia. Given the horrible designation “pale witch,” she was considered evil, vile, and liable to eat the innards of children who misstepped in her forest kingdom. But the tragedy of the pale witch was that she alone protected the village. She alone understood the medicinal purposes of the flowers, shrubs, and berries that inhabited the grounds. After a child fell ill, her attempts to save him were misconstrued as devilish and she was chased into the town belltower. The structure was set alight and came tumbling down upon her, and many of the fiendish citizens as well. What they did not understand, as the smoke wafted into the night sky, was that her spells of protection had prevented an undead army from attacking the quaint, now savage, denizens. Without her watchful eye, they soon became victims of hungry skulls and bones.