Fællesskab translates to “community” in Danish, and the idea of community is at the center of Danish black metal project Afsky’s new album, but not in the way you might hope.  “Here, community is praised like herd animals fleeing responsibility.  A parade of moral superiority, where truth is trampled in the name of consensus.  Where unity means silence, and doubt is a crime.  Six songs of shame disguised as care, of freedom suffocated, and of the solitary few who still dare to question.”  A little 2edgy4me on the surface, but I really wanted to review this album, so please don’t let there be deep and unpleasant implications here…

A stylistic hallmark of Afsky’s music has always been a blending of that raw Nordic black metal sound with deeply poignant emotion and melody, and Fællesskab keeps that trend faithfully.  There’s a lot of deep emotion poured into the furious and howling black metal that makes up the aforementioned six tracks, and you feel it in every anguished scream from frontman Ole Luk and in every almost saccharine melody laid down.  Maybe the funeral bell tolling at the beginning of “Flaggelanternes sang” is a little on-the-nose, but it is pretty cool, and there’s lots of little moments like that on Fællesskab that reveal the amount of emotion and depth to this album.  There’s even a guitar solo on “Den der ingenting ved tvivler aldrig” that is unexpected in the best way possible.  I’ve always known that Luk is a fantastic guitar player and that his repertoire of tricks is wide and deep, but even I am pleasantly surprised at more than a few moments on Fællesskab.  This is an Afsky album in sound if I’ve ever heard one, and while it has a little bit of a meaner edge than its predecessors, it still retains that signature Afsky blend of cathartic emotion and compelling melodies.  And yet, I find myself relatively uncompelled in the long run…

Fællesskab is an album that truly is all gas and no brakes: from the moment the chopped-and-screwed pop song that opens “Velkommen til livet” to the last ringing chords of “Svanesang” fade out, there is nary a pause at all between the blast beats and tremolo picked guitar lines.  Unfortunately, this works as both a blessing and a curse for Fællesskab.  It means this album rips, for sure, and its blistering energy works for it for a while, but that aspect also tends to make the whole album blend together for me.  That’s not usually a problem for me when it comes to black metal, but I think the production of this album also hampers its impact.  It’s on the raw side for sure, and while it’s not the least polished I’ve ever heard a black metal album be, it is quite thin.  I think that is ultimately what makes a lot of the moments that should be extremely impactful miss the mark a little bit.  There just isn’t enough oomph behind the guitars and drums to grab me, and even the deft use of melody can’t make the majority of this album stick in my brain beyond when it is over.  Also, I feel like the relatively short runtime and uniform nature of each of the songs makes Fællesskab cry out for an interlude of some kind to break up the pace and flow.  The fact that there isn’t something in there is really surprising to me, since Afsky have been on something of an acoustic tear lately, and I feel like there’s a little bit of a missed opportunity to bring that into the signature sound of the band.  At any rate, while I like what I hear, I don’t end up loving it like I was hoping I would.  

Afsky are celebrating the release of Fællesskab with a special release show in Denmark and then a run of European dates, so if you’re interested and in the area, get out there and see them.  I might have bounced off of Fællesskab but maybe you won’t.  It’s not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, just a little flat, and perhaps repeated listens will give it some redemption for me.

— Ian

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Fællesskab will be available October 17 on Eisenwald.  For more information on Afsky, visit their Facebook page.