ETHER DRIFT
Veil of Valour by ETHER DRIFT
The legends live on – the full saga awaits in Veil of Valour, coming soon. Release on November 11, 2025, on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music og Bandcamp.
Veil of Valour is available.
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Table of Contents / Quick Links
3. Epic Heroines – A Visual Companion
Veil of Valour – symphonic/epic metal with cinematic, soundtrack-like elements, rooted in history and mythology.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music og Bandcamp.
Veil of Valour is a sweeping, mystical metal odyssey that brings to life the spirits of legendary women from history and myth. Across 16 evocative tracks, it journeys through time and imagination – from fog-shrouded Nordic highlands and shadowed battlefields to ancient deserts, sunlit rivers, and turbulent seas.
Each song conjures a heroine whose courage and power transcends mortality. From the warrior queens and rebels of history to the Valkyries and mythic beings of old tales, these women –real and legendary stand as timeless symbols of strength, honor, and defiance.
Figures such as Germania, Artemisia I, Caterina Sforza, Jeanne d’Arc, Tomoe Gozen, Manuela Sáenz, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Lozen, Yaa Asantewaa, Gráinne O’Malley, Hatshepsut, and Grendel’s Mother each cast their own shadow, weaving a tapestry of courage across continents and centuries.
Musically, the album fuses the primal and the epic: Norse folk echoes, Japanese motifs, Apache-inspired rhythms, Celtic melodies, and Mediterranean tones are interlaced with the full power of modern metal – towering guitars, thunderous drums, and soaring choirs. Ethereal, haunting vocals drift over these landscapes, evoking visions of ancient battles, heroic deeds, and the whispers of forgotten legends.
This is an album where the boundary between history, myth, and legend dissolves. Every verse is a portal, every chorus a rallying cry, and every solo a torch lighting the darkness of forgotten ages. Veil of Valour is a musical saga – mysterious, cinematic, and eternal – honoring the courage and grandeur of women who shaped the world, whether through history, myth, or the imagination.
Listen to the opening track on the official Ether Drift YouTube channel soon..... www.youtube.com/@EtherDriftMusic
Veil of Valour – Official Album Promo | Track 1: The Eternal Guardian – Germania.
Epic Heroines – A Visual Companion to Veil of Valour
Beneath the music lies a gallery of sixteen heroines — women of legend and history whose courage shaped the spirit of Veil of Valour.
Each image is more than a portrait; it is a window into a life, a moment, a heartbeat of defiance.
Click on each image to discover the story behind their strength and the song they inspired.
Veil of Valour is not only an album — it is a living mythology, told in sound, image, and memory.
Echoes of Valour
Long have the shadows whispered through the valleys of forgotten battles, and long have the voices of the fallen awaited their call. Upon a mountain high and veiled in drifting mists stands Germania, the Eternal Guardian. Her eyes pierce through the folds of time, seeing the courage buried beneath centuries of silence, the sorrow hidden in the folds of history, and the strength that yet sleeps in shadowed hearts.
She lifts her voice, low and resonant, and it rolls across snow-bound highlands, through forests cloaked in frost, over sun-scorched deserts, and across rivers that catch the first light of dawn. The call is a song older than memory itself, a summons to the daughters of legend and history alike, those whose deeds were lost to the turning of ages. And they hear it. From shadowed glens, from ruined cities, from the hidden corners of forgotten realms, they rise.
Yet Germania alone could not bear the weight of such a gathering. At her side descend the Valkyries, Odin’s Maidens, silent and luminous. Their wings glint like silver upon the mist; their eyes pierce the veil that separates the remembered from the forsaken. With their judgment, they choose the brave, the steadfast, the unsung warriors – those whose spirits demand to be heard and whose courage cannot fade.
Among them move the extraordinary: Elizabeth Báthory, whose dark and calculated might reminds us that power and ferocity know no bounds, neither by legend nor by expectation. Grendel’s Mother rises from the depths of legend, a primal guardian whose strength flows from the instinct to protect, fierce and unyielding, a force that will defy all odds to shield what she holds dear. Though one emerges from shadowed history, and the other from myth, both reflect the untamed breadth of female power – cunning, instinctive, relentless – a force that shapes destiny and whispers of truths too often unrecorded.
Through wind and frost, sun and storm, the sixteen voices converge into a living tapestry of valour. Their footsteps resonate across continents and centuries, carrying the rhythms of their lands and the whispers of forgotten legends. Every note of Veil of Valour, every soaring chorus, every ethereal refrain, is a torch that illuminates their courage, their sorrow, and the enduring power of their spirit.
And so begins the odyssey: a journey through history, myth, and memory, where the lost daughters of legend rise from shadow, where their stories intertwine with the land and the wind, and where the Eternal Guardian watches, steadfast, her call echoing through the ages, guiding the forgotten into the light once more.
The Story Behind Lady of Death
The song "Lady of Death" draws inspiration from the life of Lyudmila Pavlichenko – a forgotten hero whose courage and precision turned her into one of the most feared snipers of World War II.
Her story reflects the central theme of Veil of Valour: individuals once vital to history, yet later silenced or forgotten.
Below is an expanded account of her extraordinary life — the woman behind the legend.
Lady of Death – Lyudmila Pavlichenko
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born in 1916 in Belaya Tserkov, Ukraine. As a child, she described herself as a tomboy who loved competition and challenge, determined to prove that girls could perform as well as – if not better than – boys. At 14, her family moved to Kyiv, where she discovered marksmanship. She quickly earned the Voroshilov Badge, demonstrating her exceptional skill with a rifle, while working at a weapons factory and studying history at Kyiv University with aspirations to become a teacher.
From Student to Soldier
When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Pavlichenko was 24 and in her fourth year of university. She immediately volunteered for military service, rejecting the standard assignment for women as a
nurse. Officers, skeptical of her abilities under fire, initially tested her in a frontline position. Armed with her Mosin–agant rifle, she quickly proved her skill, eliminating two Romanian collaborators in her first engagement. Accepted into the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division as a sniper, Pavlichenko became one of only about 2,000 women to serve in this role during the war – and one of the few to survive.
Precision of Death
In her first months on the front, she became one of the Soviet Union’s deadliest snipers. During the Siege of Odessa, she scored 187 confirmed kills, earning promotion to senior sergeant. Later, at Sevastopol, she increased her total to 257, including 36 enemy snipers, sometimes engaging in duels lasting days. Her record ultimately reached 309 confirmed kills, earning her
the nickname “Lady Death.”
Wounded but Indispensable
In June 1942, Pavlichenko was injured by shrapnel to the face. Considered too valuable for frontline service, she was reassigned as an official Soviet representative to the United States, lobbying for support for a Western front. At 25, despite language barriers, she addressed large audiences, describing the horrors of war and challenging gender expectations. She famously
told a Chicago audience:
"Gentlemen, I am 25 years old and have already killed 309 fascist soldiers. Haven’t you been hiding behind my back long enough?"
An Icon and a Human Being
Pavlichenko returned to the Soviet Union as a celebrated hero, promoted to major and awarded the Order of Lenin and the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She trained new snipers and completed her studies as a historian. Despite her accolades, she struggled with post-traumatic stress and depression, bearing the invisible scars of war.
In 1957, she reunited with Eleanor Roosevelt in Moscow, fifteen years after her U.S. tour, in a poignant meeting despite the Cold War. Lyudmila Pavlichenko died in 1974 at the age of 58, remembered as one of history’s most successful female snipers – a symbol of courage, precision, and endurance.
Female Snipers of the Soviet Union – A Tribute
Approximately 2,000 women served as snipers in the Red Army during World War II, many facing extreme danger, with only around 500 surviving the conflict. Notable figures who did not survive include:
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Roza Shanina: Credited with 75 confirmed kills, including 12 enemy snipers. She was killed in 1945 at the age of 20.
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Mariya Polivanova: Killed in action in 1942 at the age of 19.
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Natalya Kovshova: Killed in action in 1942 at the age of 21.
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Tatyana Kostyrina: Killed in action in 1943 at the age of 19.
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Nina Petrova: Credited with 122 confirmed kills. She was killed in 1945 at the age of 51.
There are currently no complete records or lists of the approximately 2,000 female snipers who served in the Red Army during the war – neither of who survived nor who lost their lives. If such records exist, they are likely hidden in archives within the territories of the former Soviet Union and are inaccessible to the public.
Pavlichenko remains an icon for them all, embodying strength and resilience in the face of war. She reminds us that:
"War does not differentiate between genders. Only between those who can aim best."
– Lyudmila Pavlichenko
Battle for Sevastopol (2015)
A remarkable film was made about the life of Lyudmila Pavlichenko — one of the most accomplished snipers in history.
Released in 2015, Battle for Sevastopol is a powerful biographical war drama that follows her story with impressive historical accuracy, portraying both her extraordinary achievements on the battlefield and her later mission to the United States.
Film works for reference
The 2015 Russian-Ukrainian biographical war film Battle for Sevastopol (original Russian title Битва за Севастополь) tells the extraordinary true story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, one of the most successful snipers in history. Directed by Sergey Mokritskiy and starring Yulia Peresild as Pavlichenko, the film was released on April 2, 2015 in Russia and Ukraine. Wikipedia+2IMDb+2
Production details include:
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Production companies: Kinorob (Ukraine) and New People (Russia) FILM.UA Group+1
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Runtime: approx. 110 minutes IMDb+1
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The film depicts Pavlichenko’s wartime service, 309 confirmed kills, and her subsequent mission to the United States. Wikipedia+1
You may purchase or stream Battle for Sevastopol via authorized services. Alternatively, a third-party upload with English subtitles is available on YouTube; please note that this upload is not officially licensed, and all copyright and distribution rights remain with the original right-holders. Ether Drift Music neither hosts nor distributes this film.