Hamferð’s extraordinary fourth LP, "Men Guðs hond er sterk" ("But Strong Is The Hand Of God"), builds on the deep, existing artisanal sonic vision of guitarist and producer Theodor Kapnas.
Concertedly eschewing all the quick-fix trickery of modern recording technology, the band recorded the songs playing all together live in the studio, without a click-track. The result is a resoundingly human album that heaves, swoops and shifts in elemental style - from passages of glacial post-metallic beauty through sorrowful folky goth cadences, via icy blackened blastbeats to shuddering vistas of extreme doom mastery - with a crackling tight-but-loose interplay recalling the giants of yesteryear.
As well as the old-school recording set-up, Theodor’s vision for the sound is best exemplified by penultimate song "Hvõlja" (Whaleskin), a sluggish sludge crawl with a beautifully disgusting tone. “I had a big fascination with making stuff rougher, dirtier and uglier,” affirms Theodor. “Musically it’s all about tension; suspended chords and tense harmonies, always having that feeling of uncertainty. That penultimate song is maybe my favourite track on the record, just because it’s so uncompromising. Everything goes to 11!”
The narrative concept behind "Men Guðs hond er sterk" is inspired by a harrowing local event: the 1915 whaling disaster off the Faroe Island village of Sandvik (home of Hamferð keyboardist Esmar Joensen), when 14 men died driving whales ashore in the stormy bay. The village population witnessed the tragedy from the seaside.
Fittingly, the sad tale has enabled Hamferð to powerfully bring to life the meaning behind their Faroese name, zeroing in on the traumatic emotional force behind this supernatural phenomenon. “When you see someone in hamferð, you see their apparition,” Theodor explains. “Mostly it’s wives with husbands at sea, who’ve seen them dripping wet in the doorframe in the middle of the night. Typically in folklore it’s a warning that something bad will happen, and there are several documented episodes of this happening in Sandvik in 1915. So it’s kind of full circle for us.”
Blue Marble Vinyl Pressing
*Please note image is a mock up only, actual colour may vary on finished product*
Tracklisting
Side A:
1. Ábær
2. Rikin
3. Marrusorg
4. Glæman
Side B:
5. Í hamferð
6. Fendreygar
7. Hvølja
8. Men Guðs hond er sterk