DANEFAE – Trøst
Release Date: 31st January 2025
Label: Self Released
Stream
Genre: Progressive Metal, Folk Metal, Contemporary Rock.
FFO: We the Moon, Mads Odgaard, Needle, Animalyze, Gammelfrisk, Joe Gun.
Review By: Mark Waight
Danish progressive metal band DANEFAE use timeless images of the ancient pagan worlds of nature, myths and magic to recant the wonderful tales and songs in their upcoming sophomore album “Trøst”.
Sung in their native tongue, DANEFAE conjure up their melancholy melodic music by knitting together an intoxicating blend of traditional folk and modern progressive influences to bridge the widening gap between the old world and the new.
DANEFAE is Anne Olesen (vocals, piano), Anders Mogensen (guitar), Carl Emil Tofte Jensen (bass) and Jonas Agerskov (drums).
Opening track “Fuglekongen” reads like a fairytale, with heavy folky influences adding to the atmosphere and ambiance. Leaning almost exclusively on the piano, “Vaetter” has a much more modern and contemporary sound with some lovely crystal-clear vocals.
Following a similar pattern, “Natsvaemer” again makes good use of the piano duetting with crystal-clear vocals to form a slow burning build-up which is further enhanced by some extremely sharp guitar work. “Vandskabt” is a darker, heavier and broody song with a lovely touch of doom about it.
Completely opposing each other you have the epically long “P.S. Far er dod” with its soft, gentle and deft approach gifting us some beautiful and haunting harmonies that slowly build to a grandstand finish. Title track “Trøst” is a short and sweet instrumental that echoes the sound of a rainstorm.
Rounding off the album nicely, DANEFAE give us a brief glimpse into the edgier side to the band with the harder rocking riffs of “Blind” and the “we will rock you” style hand clapping of “Sang on Hab.”
Trøst is a concept style album for me, with DANEFAE bringing together lots of different ideas into one place to showcase their obviously immense talent. There is certainly a feel-good factor to Trøst, and you don’t have to speak Danish to enjoy what DANEFAE have to say because you can just let the music do the talking. Trøst is an album to enjoy by the fireside on a cold winter’s evening, with DANEFAE acting like the bards of old.
(3.5 / 5)