Faroaese doom metal band Hamferð return with the third part of their trilogy, Támsins likam, an album that is at once crushing and beautiful.

Often, where a band is from can have a great impact on their sound and  Hamferð  hail from Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, which lie roughly between Norway and Iceland in the North Atlantic. Culturally, the islands have their roots in Nordic culture but due to the relative isolation, many of the movements that swept across Europe never made the jump to the Faroe islands, so they maintain a strong traditional culture that draws on stories of hardship, unpredictable weather, superstition, and history. Within this setting the band developed, forming in 2008 releasing one ep and two albums of a conceptual trilogy, Vilst er síðsta fet (ep, 2010), the critically acclaimed Evst (2013) and now, Támsins likam. As with previous recordings the band recorded at Studio Bloch in the Faroe Islands but this time had Daniel Bergstrand (Meshuggah, Soilwork, Dimmu Borgir) mix the album in his Dugout Production Studios.

Being that this is advertised as doom metal and given the sometimes what I imagine to be bleak environment the band  originates from, one can enter the listening experience with a good bit of expectation around what is to come.  Singer Jón Aldará described the album as marking “the beginning of the end. It’s the third and final part of our reverse chronological saga, which explores mortality and the perverting nature of loss through the lens of Faroese culture and mythology.”  Certainly heavy topics and the much like on the previous album Evst, the band delivers amazing performances filled with nuance and emotion, heavy and crushing, and yet, beautiful. Continue reading »