”The man in black fled across the dessert, and the gunslinger followed.”

With those words, Stephen King begins his Magnum Opus, The Dark Tower. But the phrase might as well be a graphical, description of the neo-folk band Dune Messiah.

Hailing from Copenhagen, the band shoots through its listener with visceral honesty. Dark, romantic, and personal, the band bares itself completely, engulfing the listener in candid stories of love, loss, and mysticism told with both finesse and violence.

Dune Messiah released their debut album, The Iron Oak, in March 2017. On the following tour in Europe and Denmark, the band supported the American neo-folk veterans King Dude and dark-wave duo Drab Majesty.

On stage, Dune Messiah is a blazing, intense experience. Inspired by all forms of art dealing in immutability (from Leonard Cohen to Edgar Allan Poe and Federico Fellini), the band inescapably channels its demanding themes.

It is both terrifying and beautiful to behold. But regardless the wickedness displayed live, the monstrosities conjured by the instruments, or the heart-breaking truths told through the lyrics, Dune Messiah’s raison d’être is to capture and project honesty.

A concept that, like the man dressed in black, fleetingly runs ahead in this barren, fallacious world.