Review: Fanatisme - “Tro, håp og kjærlighet”
Fanatisme are a brand new band from Oslo, Norway, supposedly playing some sort of black metal synthesized with post punk. Their debut album “Tro, håp og kjærlighet” roughly translates to “Faith, hope and love”. Not exactly the core tenets of black metal. Thankfully, that's not really an issue, as the music Fanatisme play has in all actuality, little to do with pure black metal at all and a lot more to do with dirty old death metal and emotive indie music. Many bands from metal’s past have pulled influences from rock and even emo music successfully, but on this record Fanatisme seem to gravitate towards aspects of rock that many metal bands wouldn't dare touch. Forget death metal, this album is dance metal.
What do I mean by “dance metal”? Well I’m being a bit tongue in cheek, but right off the bat, on the first real track after an intro, titled “Nordens eteriske sommer”, the rhythm section is more akin to ABBA than Absu, laying down an incredibly simple 4/4 rock beat, almost summoning your foot to tap along. This is thankfully interwoven with some serviceable blastbeats, which do a good job expanding the atmosphere of the track a bit. Where I think the rock aspect of the Fanatisme becomes a negative is on the 2nd full track “Kjærlighetsbrev til våren (Liljens avblomstring)”, which at its core sounds like a doo wop or surf track, especially in regard to the drums. I don't think these guys are actually pulling from those genres, as they are in their early 20s, but instead I imagine they are pulling from indie and emo bands that may have been pulling from those older sources. That doesn't change the fact that for me personally, it just does not work, even if it makes you wanna dance.
As the album goes on, we get a lot of wilting melodies, not far removed from a band like Alcest, but with nice death metal rasps throughout. The latter half of the album is less danceable and noticeably more melancholic, with tracks like “Månestrøket” and the closer “Livet er en dans på rosens torner” being the highlights of the record in my opinion. The closer, which translates roughly to “Life is a dance on the thorns of the rose” has some very catchy sections and even makes good use of high pitched synths. That, in combination with the great bass playing and interesting song structure, make this track feel a bit more evolved and complete than some of the other offerings on “Tro, håp og kjærlighet”. I feel it's important to again give some credit to the band's bass player Erik Consani, who is absolutely stellar throughout this entire record.
Fanatisme are quite obviously a band interested in experimentation and not worried about fitting into any one category. I believe this is the band’s strongest attribute and one that will take them far, at least in terms of creative success. For a first offering, the band lay their cards on the table with grace and seem to be comfortable and confident with treading a new path. This, along with the few truly great moments from the later half of the album, have me very optimistic about their future. I believe more Norwegian bands (and metal bands in general) should take inspiration from the boundless experimentation of acts like Dodheimsgard, Fleurety and Solefald. Fanatisme definitely has a bit of that in their DNA, which is more than enough of a reason for you to check them out.
7/10
