Noorvik
Hamartia

Noorvik, the German band who takes their name from a small town in the northern parts of Alaska. They are giving us their third album called Hamartia, an album that takes us to warmer territories, to the Greek mythology and the story of king Tantalus and his downfall due to arrogance, narcissism, and greed. He did receive a funny punishment though. I think the story has some relevance to modern times, and the cover looks good – so what about the music? After all, that is the most important component.

It is instrumental post-rock with several progressive elements, and a desire for epic storytelling. The music is well-painted with a sense of adventure, a bit arduous adventure one might thing considering the playing time that goes well past the hour. I don’t think they have the variation and dynamics to sell such a long story, and think they can do away with about a third of the album without compromising anything. I don’t think they revolutionise anything withing the style of post-rock, they follow established teachings and they do it well, not doubt to the joy of fans of said genre.

I find this to be a good album, a fine listen and fairly enjoyable. A bit too long for my taste though and at times it is almost like that punishment of Tantalus, the end that is, always slightly out of reach. But it also has me thinking about how you can look at the story in two ways, kind of like much of how the world looks today with fascists and right-wing, racism gaining ground. Conveniently we forget the lessons we should have learnt from the past, check out old films of Adolf Hitler and try to not compare him with contemporary fascists like Le Pen, Trump, Åkesson, Putin, or many others. It is the same with this story, and many others. We keep repeating the atrocities and mistakes of the past – it may not be exactly what this story is about, but many adaptations of old mythic stories have my mind going in that direction – when will humanity learn from its past and move forward instead of scurrying backwards when the present starts to be frightening? Maybe we fear questioning the established ways too much? Do we fear ending up like Tantalus?

This album doesn’t really question anything, it tells its myths in a nice and relaxing way – and if you have time over and want to relax it might be a nice one to listen to while leaning back in a comfortable chair.

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