Alfahanne return with their sixth album. Known for mixing black metal, classic rock and punk styles along with melodic grooves and bleak atmospheres, “Vår tid är nu” (Our Time is Now) is marketed as their heaviest album so far. A point of interest to me about this album is the guest appearances at various points of Nattefrost from Carpathian Forest, Horna’s Spellgoth and others from members of Sorhin and Nordjevel.
After a dark and creepy intro, the style switches the bright melody of “9e Circkeln”. Not so bright are the rasping vocals but this is to all intents and purposes a rock-based song with those vocals and a withering but forward-pressing riff in the background. It ends with a guitar solo. “Eremiten” again mixes melody with black metal. As a song it has bounce but it doesn’t develop at all. Time for something different perhaps … “Elden Har Vaknat” starts more darkly and proceeds in a more overtly black metal style. At the heart of all these songs is a persistent rhythm and so I was finding I was no further forward by the end than I was at the beginning. “Alfa Omega” is the song featuring Nattefrost. The despairing cries go with the latest piece of black n roll. Unfortunately it ends there as the basic song is laid out in the first 30 seconds and we’re then left to fend for ourselves, twiddle our thumbs or whatever for the last four minutes.
I was duty bound to finish listening to this album, and to be fair the songs are blackened and breezy, but I wasn’t getting any inspiration from them or their lack of development. “Wolfman” contains all the usual ingredients, a bit of rasping and a predictable chorus. Energetic it is though. “Nar Allt Faller”, the one with Spellgoth featuring, makes a move in a darker direction and fires along through the blackened clouds. Slowing down, we get the promised bleak atmosphere, and the accompaniment of warriors chanting before the flame is ignited once more and the song ends in all sorts of chaos. “213” reverts to type – a forward driving rhythm and a blackened rock song – but it does have a colourful, 60s rock style guitar section in the middle. To what end this is I don’t know because we return seemingly by default to the driving beat which filled the first half. The colourful guitar joins in for a combination but even so this isn’t blowing me out of the water. The title song follows. Laced with the perma-beat, it has a vigour and energy that seemed to be missing previously. There’s plenty of growling but it is the drum beat and guitar line which give this an upbeat and defiant feel, bordering on epic. All that remains is the creepy outro.
I read that the band refer to their music as “Alfapocalyptic rock”. But where’s the apocalypse? Dark and growly as it is, the melodies dominate. I can see Alfahanne going down well in pubs where no-one’s much bothered about what they’re listening to. The music is energetic, rocking, rolling and black but I didn’t personally find it inspiring.
(5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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