Hamferð is back with a brand new record Men Guðs hond er sterk due out March 22 on Metal Blade Records, and a doomed new single "Ábær" streaming right now. The narrative concept behind Men Guðs hond er sterk is inspired by a 1915 whaling disaster off the Faroe Island village of Sandvik, when fourteen men died driving whales ashore in the stormy bay.
"When you see someone in hamferð, you see their apparition," said Hamferð guitarist Theodor Kapnas. "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."
Kapnas continued, regarding the single: "'Ábær' is about sailing through a hurricane, through ocean valleys, in a rowing boat and surviving it. The waves crashing, the wind and rain beating and biting you, death greeting you everywhere you look. Perseverance, melancholy, dread, willpower, endurance and doubt interweave with every note and word."
