Håndgemeng´s sophomore full-length takes the band into heavier, fuzzier, but at the same time melodic sonics.

The band formed in 2017 in Drøbak, a town 40 kilometers south of Oslo. Since then the band has dropped EPs and singles and two full-length albums. On this new album they have filled their cauldron with everything heavy from Black Sabbath to Kvelertak, added some Heavy Psych and some anarchistic and blackened Stoner music and stirred it, and the result they aptly call “Doom´n´Roll” and they surely have evolved from the Rawk´n´Roll on their previous album Ultraritual, as the title of the album shows, and they added the ironic-iconic cover which proves their tongue-in-cheek attitude. You will notice this on the record and the lyrics, but also if you are lucky enough to see their extremely vivid live shows. Do not hesitate if they swing by your home.

The band´s name translates to “brawl” or “fistfight” and they are hell-bent on leather, delivering a broad-legged, riff-based, vigorous, pedal-to-the-metal, swaying, powerful, and feral musical ride that opens with a sinister, sampled voice on the first song ”The Cauldron Born”. The voice is drowned out by heavy riffs, intense drumming, rumbling bass, and energetic vocals singing ”Born from the fire, rose from the cauldron”. Then speeding ahead towards a captive chorus, ”Lucifer come take my hand, tonight. / Stay with me and take me home, alright.”. The themes for the album are set, and the dazzling sonics are put on high speed, recreating the band´s amazing live performances. This band takes no prisoners, pushing the doomy Sludge to its limits. We are in for a ride as the band hauls the bedazzled listener through the album´s wild music with swirling twists and turns.

Fuzzy guitars open the next track, ”Medieval Knievel” leading into a bass-induced part with drums underpinning the bass and guitars. The title is a nice nod to the motorcycle daredevil, Evel Knievel who operated in the early 70’s - famous for jumping 14 Greyhound buses. They use the motorcycle metaphors to great effect both in the soundscapes and in the lyrics; ” Medieval Knievel can you jump from here to hell?” or ” Every time he rides down the street, hail Satan. / Every time he burns the concrete, hail Satan”. And the music follows through, as it swells into two guitars forming the theme with rumbling bass and choruses singing ”hail Satan”. The song has the sense of a heavy motorcycle speeding away towards a stunt, thus alluding to the classic phrase ”(…)heavy metal thunder(…)”. It is energetic and invigorating when the whole thing takes heavier turns as the bass goes lower and the riffs repeat dense themes from which a high-pitched solo guitar emerges to support the ferocious vocals until it ends on a heavy note.

The album´s title song opens with another sampled voice proclaiming ”To the late night ritual of death” before Doom appears in the form of guitar riff onslaughts and breathless raw vocals. The thumbing rhythm section is relentless as the vocals lead the proceedings. Wah-wah guitars swirl around the heavy flow. Then the music pans out to embrace strong clean vocals demonstrating the vocalist`s immense range. The heaviness is still intact, the guitars begin to swirl again as the bass and drums rumble below.

”A Path Less Traveled” has fascinating elements in the heavy music. Not only does the vocalist show yet another facet as he sings in a relaxed, dreamy mode the lines of the song; ”For aeons you have wandered, now this world you conquered”. The music intensifies and the vocals grow stronger until it cracks with a chorus behind it. The band has structured and orchestrated the song in a way that gives a sense of fleeting calm with the harmonies and the repetitive riffs, and at the same time induces an extremely heavy sound using low-end bass to take the lead with its deep rumbling grooves. And there are two fuzzy guitars that, when they are not following the rhythm, riff against each other before one breaks out in a high-pitched solo.

”Earthwoman” is speeding up as the song races forward. There are elongated riffs at a Doom pace leading to a more rapid part with swirling fuzzy guitar before it melts into chugging above a rumbling bass that takes the lead with subtle shifts in modulation. It is as if the bass lifts the musical flow, carrying it on its back. There are some poetic lines too; ”Earthwoman, I look in your eyes, I can see all the stars in the sky”. On ”The Sundrinker” the music is undulating and wavey and constantly changing in mode with the guitars shifting between chugging heavy riffs and glissading mode until a release opens up the sonics driving the song forward with energetic vocals and with guitars playing low pitched bursts on each side of the vocals.

The band is no stranger to demonstrating the roots from which Heavy Metal rose many aeons ago, singing ”I´ll go, way down low. I´ll go down below” and at the same inducing a sense of blues into the sonics on ”Down Below”. A high-pitched guitar with rounded wah-wah effects appears in the dense music. Clean harmonies bring the track forward with the support of the other band members. It is a fascinating song using the blues roots of Heavy Metal creating a nice grind in its leisurely pace.

There is a great twist on the last song, ”Supermoon” that opens softly with dreamy vocals, with wah-wah effects from the guitar before a riff begins a sort of Boogie-Woogie and setting the tempo of the song. It is heavy and wobbling with energetic vocals sing lyrics matching the rhythm ”Trembling mountains, rumbling sky. Misty forest, trouble is night”. It is an excellent album closer; it is fast and energetic when a high-pitched guitar with wah-wah effects races fast forward with a creative solo part supported on each side by other guitars. The solo line keeps engaging the other instruments to go high and low, fast and slow, racing to the end where another guitar takes over with the bass, first slow then melting together with all the other instruments, fast drumming full speed ahead to end the album.

To conclude, paraphrasing the Rolling Stones - ”It´s only Doom´n´Roll (but I like it)” and also with a song title from 1949 - ”Let the Good Times Roll” (Louis Jordan and Tympany Five).