They say that dark times create dark art, and Swedish genre-benders DAMPF are here to prove that statement true. Something of a “supergroup” formed from heavy metal royalty, this collective first brought together their powers on their debut album The Arrival, and they’ve gone one step further on their sophomore effort No Angels Alive. A ten-track album that leads the listener down a maze of human darkness, DAMPF shine a light in the black and bring back tales from the other side.
No Angels Alive isn’t an album for the faint-hearted as the opening track makes abundantly clear. There’s no fancy introductions or elongated preambles, just a wrecking ball of a riff that’s come to demolish your speakers. Like a bullet between the eyes you don’t see it until it’s about to penetrate your skull, and it is all the more powerful for it. Yet, don’t mistake the band as some kind of barbarians, for because nothing could be further from the truth. DAMPF never lose sight of melody or song structure and never forsake the song for heaviness. The band prove that you can have both, and if you need further clarification, look no further than ‘Ghost’. It’s a track that’s punctuated buy huge white spaces and this makes the perfect foil for the heavier sections, with each acting as a foil to highlight and enhance the other. It’s a juxtaposition that continues throughout the record; No Angels Alive is very much like stepping into a hall of mirrors with sound fractured and bouncing in all directions. Tracks such as ‘Heart Of Darkness are deep and multilayered which means that this is the type of album that’ll reward repeat spins and subtle (and not so) nuances buried deep in the mix will reveal themselves on successive spins.
The modus operandi that DAMPF have adopted has given the band a lot of freedom; you feel that there’s no genre of heavy music that they can’t throw into their skillet. Hard rock, thrash, power metal and even elements of electronica are in evidence here, but I must admit I was a tad surprised when the pirate-flavoured ‘War With The World’ sailed into view. It’s no easy task blending styles; get the mix wrong and the results can be an unlistenable stew, but DAMPF prove themselves master alchemists and get the mix just right. Therefore No Angels Alive affords plenty of opportunities for headbanging and air guitar action, but there’s also a cerebral nature that would lend itself well to quiet contemplation (those tension of opposites again).
With their definite crossover appeal, this could just be the album that takes DAMPF into the mainstream. Hold onto your hats.
- No Angels Alive is released via Silver Lining Music on 23rd August 2024.
- Official Website | YouTube Channel
Track List:
- No Angels Alive
- Masquerade
- Ghost
- Might As Well Have Died
- Heart Of Darkness
- War With The World
- Hellfire
- Away
- Mists Of Avalon (Don’t Wake Me Up)
- Dark Side Of My Moon
