Hamferð – Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk

Written by on 21-03-2024 at 18:55.

How strong is the hand of God? Men Guðs hond er sterk? That’s what we’ll have to ask ourselves for the next three-quarters of an hour as we listen to the album of this Faroese sextet, still well-sheltered under Metal Blade Records. This should come as no surprise because even with their previous album, which is already six years old, Támsins Likam, the gentlemen resided under the Metal Blade roof. The Faroe Islands are a collection of rocky natural beauty embraced by wild waters, and hopefully, you can hear that reflected in the new work of these gentlemen.

The song titles for this album were provided to us in the local language as well as in English. Let’s just use the first ones; it has something special. I assume that few of you are fluent in the local language, and that adds to the mystique, the mystery that we sometimes need to keep us intrigued. In any case, the music of this band is firmly built on familiar death and doom metal foundations, but we already knew that. The older work of this sextet already told us that.

Entering the studio together, starting, playing, and finishing a song all at once without technical gadgets, no click track, or anything else. In this way, guitarist and sound engineer Theodor Kapnas tried to capture the essence of his band, of the music. On the first listen, you can only fully support this choice. Textually, they concluded a story with the previous album. So, it’s not surprising to opt for something entirely new. The gentlemen write about the disaster in 1915 that occurred in Sandvik, leading to the loss of fourteen people during whaling. The sound fragment used on this album is an interview with one of the survivors of this disaster, which continued to resonate with the local population for a long time. Regardless of what anyone thinks about whaling, this tragic event has proven to be an ideal breeding ground for this band.

Knowing this, it’s almost impossible to escape the music of this Faroese collective. The very deep growls, as well as the crystal-clear clean vocals of Mr. Aldará, are particularly impressive. Along with the highly narrative, storytelling guitar parts that push you from one side of the beach of Sandvik to the other, make this album exceptionally high-quality from the first sounds. The swampy, very wet, drenched drum and bass parts then need a little more to provide support. Rikin drags you through the wild water in a very slow manner. Marrusorg combines very pleasantly deeply melancholic vocals with rather typical resonating death/doom sounds. Something that Glæman repeats. Hvõlja sounds so slow that it almost scares you. The gentlemen end with the already mentioned very strong title track.

Impressive new album, Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk, from the Faroese death/doom collective, Hamferð. This is truly a masterpiece both from a textual and musical perspective.

Score:

85/100

Label:

Metal Blade Records, 2024

Tracklisting:

  1. Ábær
  2. Rikin
  3. Marrusorg
  4. Glæman
  5. Í Hamferð
  6. Fendreygar
  7. Hvõlja
  8. Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk

Line-up:

  • Jón Aldará – Vocals
  • Theodor Kapnas – Guitar
  • Eyðun í Geil Hvannastein – Guitar
  • Jenus í Trøðini – Bass guitar
  • Esmar Joensen – Keyboard
  • Remi Kofoed Johannesen – Drums

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