ALBUM REVIEW: Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk – Hamferð
Faroese death doom titans HAMFERÐ are one of those kinds of bands that only seem to get better with each album they produce. They may not have produced a large amount of music since their formation in 2008, but their music benefits from the long gaps between recordings, with their first two albums, 2013’s Evst and 2018’s Tamsins likan both being exceptionally impressive albums that showed a lot of growth and progression in the bands incredibly layered and bombastic sound. The band’s latest record, Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk, coming six years after its predecessor, is yet another fantastic addition to the bands growing legend, and may well be their best output to date.
Ábær, a huge, rhythmic juggernaut of a track with dense guitars, cavernous drums and an ethereal keyboard sound, kicks this album off with a powerful statement. The slick, melodic hooks only add to the majestic undertone of the music, with only the aforementioned meatier hooks, and bellicose gutturals providing a harsher edge to the bulk of this music, with sonorous clean vocals only further adding to the effect, making for a grandiose and imposing start to this record that immediately draws the listener in.
Rikin, with its haunting keys, slower, bleaker guitar sound and steady tempo, veers towards a more ponderous, sombre sound, with the rumbling growls anchoring this firmly within death doom territory, whilst still allowing some of the lighter, catchier flourishes to shine through, notably on the virtuosic leads and more bombastic vocal passages, making this punchy and punishing in equal measure. Marrusorg takes this funereal sound and blends it with a touch of post-rock, accentuating the more expansive undercurrent that is at play within the bands sound, whilst similarly bringing the weightier touches of the guitars and bass to the fore. The vocals, far more subdued than on the preceding tracks, complement the more crystalline moments incredibly well, and rise during the heavier moments to lend them an epic feel that makes this song even more beguiling as a result.
Glæman, song with a decidedly more reserved sound, is a brilliant, slow-burning offering that crafts a minimalist, melancholic sound right off the bat, and gradually gathers momentum as it progresses, with soaring vocals, polished guitar work and a subtly intricate sound in comparison with earlier tracks, stripping away much of the more thunderous drive of the music and making for a great alteration in the albums sound that is impactful in a very different way to the fiercer three numbers before it.
Í hamferð injects some great, atmospheric black metal flourishes into the music, creating a monolithic backdrop around which swampy leads, grand vocal deliveries and sludgy basslines, once again shifting the records core formula very slightly and transforming their sound into something distinctly different, eventually morphing into a far chunkier slab of death doom with excellent, domineering vocals as it reaches its climax. Fendreygar reverts to the fantastic combo of soft, delicate guitar lines and soulful vocals that was evident on Glæman, with the ambient keyboards and tar-thick bass adding a depth to everything, with the songs second half transforming into a brooding, doomy powerhouse, with this song as a whole standing out for all the right reasons.
Hvølja, much like the albums opener, possesses some magnificently huge rhythms that, along with the hazier tones of the guitar and bass, make for some extremely ferocious and visceral foundations on which the rest of the music is shaped. The vocals, perhaps denser and more noxious than ever before, match this dark and aggressive shift, with only the keyboards and some of the sharper guitars cutting through the mix and adding anything lighter into this songs sound, making this arguably one of this albums harshest and most experimental offerings. Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk, by contrast, returns to the subdued, almost acoustic, sound that has crept into this album earlier on, with only a few spoken word passages drawing attention away from the guitars and keyboards, closing the album out in a similarly sublime fashion to the way the albums first half concludes.
Although the darkness and grandiosity of Evst and Tamsins likan is still very much evident on here, Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk does show some degree of tweaking and alteration within the bands sound, with there being a greater emphasis on melodic, punchy leads and a wider range of styles featuring within each of these songs, simultaneously making this album far more accessible than its predecessors. At points, far more ambitious on a songwriting front, with the end result being an album that’s every bit as bleaker and imposing as their earlier work, whilst being decidedly more inventive and catchy. The six years between this album and Tamsins likan have been well worth the wait, and has given listeners, and the band, a record that could very well make HAMFERÐ one of the most dramatic and powerful death doom acts in the world at the moment.
Rating: 9/10
Men Guðs Hond Er Sterk is out now via Metal Blade Records.
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