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Hamferð turns the metal band experience on its head. All members dress in jacket and ties. Even the drummer wears a white shirt, a vest, and a tie. When a song stops, the stage lights are immediately turned off. There's no contact with the audience between songs. After our applause we can spend a few seconds contemplating what we just heard before the next one begins. The mood is somehow both solemn and very joyous.
Jón Aldará has both a deep full-throated growl and a majestic clean voice. He sings in Faroese and sounds alternatively like an emissary from Hell or a chanter of otherworldly sacred songs. He's far from the typical extroverted frontman. During the beautiful encore, the person in front of him gets a brief pat on the shoulder, and the rest of us get a quiet "tak." And that's the extent of his interaction with the audience.
The drummer, Remi Johannesen, is more active than most drummers playing music this heavy and sad. There are passages where we're almost in drum solo territory, at least briefly, and it sounds so good. Now and then the lighting is used to great dramatic effect, like the time when Aldará switches from crooning to growling and is instantly bathed in firelight. The sound is just perfect. At times I get so carried away it feels like I'm not touching the ground.
Hamferð is signed to Metal Blade Records. Their second full-length, Támsins likam, and the live EP, Ódn, are on Bandcamp. For their debut EP, Vilst er síðsta fet, and their first full-length, Evst, you can go to the Faroese Tutl Records, and they will ship them to you, literally, aboard a boat from the Faroe Islands. Recently, Aldará was announced as the new vocalist of Metal Bandcamp favorites Iotunn, and I cannot wait to hear how that turns out.