When it comes to black metal the walls have been stormed, the stores pillaged and the sounds have been applied to genres that wound the purists. Rosa Faenskap have again bolstered the resistance and with its second album of Norwegian patricidal black metal it has hit it even harder. Ingenting Forblir pushes the black metal sound and atmosphere deeper into its backbone of hardcore and post-metal to create a sensational and urgent release.
The overriding theme of the album “is the exhausting feeling of witnessing the seemingly safe world one grew up in gradually mutate into a bleak and uncomfortable place.” The band tackle this with different measures of anguish, anger and just a light dusting of hope and the brief is absolutely accomplished. Much like Agriculture last year and its great advancement from first album to second, so too Rosa Faenskap have upped the sounds for their second release. Jeg blir til deg is a great album but the fulfilment of the promise on Ingenting Forblir is undeniable.
As well as a turn up in aggression, the sounds have expanded in scope. There are moments of Regarde Les Hommes Tomber in ‘La Barna Leve’ where the black metal is hammered into a hardcore pace. ‘Faenskap For Alltid’ can sound like Birds In Row with a more ferocious edge and beatdowns. ‘Klarhet I Kaos’ switches between 2000’s UK hardcore sounds like Beecher and Stella Dawes to Liturgy transcendental riffing and even some calm post sounds.
With the cacophony of sounds Rosa Faenskap does exceptionally well to keep a breadth of variety and intrigue. It is forceful without being overbearing and it is a great advert for diversifying music genres. The contemplative moments give rise to even heavier outbursts and the tonality shifts are exceptional and the closing duo ‘Famler I Hatet’ and ‘Jeg Våkner Snart’ expertly show these moves of slowing down to go faster. The anger, urgency and beautifully screamed harsh Nordic vocals make Ingenting Forblir a formidable release.
