The end is near – but how near?! Yes, the white noise in our heads is louder than ever, the pressure on our chests heavier by the day. But. There is still magic in the world. There is still a place of origin, a place of peace, where we are pure and real. And there are tools to use to get there – to expand these moments of existential truth.

“I try to write and create as honestly as I can, in the hope that it will bring me closer to a sense of peace and a connection to the universe”, says Mat McNerney – singer, guitarist, songwriter and founder of Hexvessel a psychedelic folk rock outfit from Tampere, Finland.

“Call it a search for meaning or purpose, or trying to reach nirvana. Enlightenment comes in many forms and mine felt like the key was music.”

It was in 2009 that Mat settled down in Finland – the oddball country of Scandinavia, where the humour is as dark as the winter afternoons and the nature as breathtaking as their moonshine. Originally from the UK, he came here via stints in Norway and Holland, already with weight to his name in the underground of extreme and avantgarde metal music, having sung and written in bands like Dødheimsgard and Code among many more, sometimes under the moniker of Kvohst. Later, he achieved success with modern post punk darlings Beastmilk and its spin-off Grave Pleasures.

In Finland he found his “kin”, and there he invoked Hexvessel – a band founded to voice Mat's inner self, and to connect it with the vast cosmic infinity around him. Simply: to play psychedelic music in the true sense of the term.

More like a commune than a regular band, the spirit surrounding the group invokes a vision of a bunch of Northern heathens coming to live in Laurel Canyon in the late 1960's. Sonically, it's more the other way around; Joni Mitchell and The Doors set free in the Finnish wilderness (quite possibly intoxicated under the midnight sun).

Hexvessel is rock but never roll – balancing the simple folk tune with psychedelic drive, hinting at Captain Beefheart, King Crimson and The Beatles as well as the dewy-eyed Americana that contemporary folk artists like First Aid Kit have adapted and re-defined. Stirred together, this makes for one truly unique brew of timeless storytelling and song craft.

Since the release of their debut album in 2011 the band has sold out headline tours in their homeland, been nominated for 2 Finnish Grammy awards, toured Europe together with bands like Sabbath Assembly and Alcest, played prestigious festivals like Roadburn in Holland and SXSW in Texas, and seen their music on the charts and on critics lists. This strange pack of Finns have succeeded in creating their own world, of which an ever-increasing number of curious outsiders are hungry to take part.

Come January 2016, Hexvessel's third album will be out. Their first release licensed to Century Media Records via their own Secret Trees label imprint. A body of work that Mat McNerney says is his most personal to date. Moving into the next phase, further probing into the mysteries and wonders of life, love and death – the question is ultimately turned to the listener;

Will you look beyond what meets the eye?
Will you allow yourself to face love and death?
Are you (h)experienced?