Review by Sonny for Hamferð - Men guðs hond er sterk (2024)

Hamferð are a six-piece doom metal band from The Faroe Islands. They have been in existence since 2008, but this is only their third full-length release in all that time, their debut having seen the light of day back in 2013 after winning the Wacken Metal Battle competition at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2012 and it's follow-up hitting the shelves in 2018. I must admit, I have only recently got on board with these guys myself during a dive into exploring more obscure doom metal bands, but I found much to enjoy in both of their earlier releases.

The new album's title translates as "But God's hand is strong" and the lyrics are sung in Hamferð's native Faroese, relating the tragic tale of fourteen faroese whalers who lost their lives at sea in 1915, with the album's title being a quote from one of the survivors upon his rescue. Musically they play strongly melodic death doom with both growled and clean vocals provided by singer Jón Aldará (also of Iotunn and Barren Earth) who switches between styles, to good effect, often within the same track. The band as a whole are very proficient with a nice clean sound that perfectly suits their more melodic approach to death doom. This melodic approach doesn't seek to crush the listener under waves of heavy riffing, but rather  attempts to affect them more subtly with sorrowful airs that worm their way into the consciousness, effecting a deeper sensation of melancholy than a merely bludgeoning approach would achieve. Occasionally they become very light of touch indeed, verging almost on the balladic, which may have come off as a bit corny, were it not for the consummate ability of Aldará who, vocally, never descends into overt melodrama, but who maintains a subtle earnestness throughout, for which he deserves great credit.

I may have given the impression that this is a lightweight album and even though it does like to paint it's sonic landscape with lighter shades, there are certainly heavy moments present. Opener Ábær kicks things off and drags the listener in with a suitably heavy, but also melodic main riff and penultimate track, Hvølja, is the album's heaviest with a monster riff that poses a real risk of crushing the air out of the lungs of the unprepared listener who may have been lulled into a comfort zone by some of the preceeding lighter moments. Elsewhere, second track Rikin features a scarily bellowing Aldará threatening to peel the paintwork with his growls on top of a thundering main riff that you feel at gut level.

Although Men guðs hond er sterk is a concept album, thankfully the music is always pre-eminent over the concept, so none of the tracks feel forced, with the possible exception of the final spoken-word piece, although it isn't at all jarring, especially as it is the final track. The overall impression I get from the album is similar in feel to some of Enslaved's later work, such as RIITIIR or In Times, only within a doom metal framework rather than black metal. I don't wish to downplay the others' contributions, but ultimately it is the astonishing vocal talent of Jón Aldará that strikes me more than any other aspect of the album and on the evidence of this he is one of the absolute best vocalists working in the doom metal field and his performance alone is worth the entry fee.