Do you ever hear a punk song and think, “Sure, I’d like to overthrow the establishment too, but couldn’t you learn to play guitar a little better?” Have you ever felt awkward banging your head to a sick black metal riff written and performed by one of the most repulsive lesser humans in the world? Yeah. Thousands of our brothers have done the same in every squat and co-op from Greece to Iceland.
And as they usually do, they’ve taken the situation into their own dirty hands, printing a huge variety of records that radiate from the clash of metal and hardcore in every hue and shadow, from the bilious How Hate is Hard to Define to the deep-blue archivist. Rosa Faenskap, as expected, fits the long wavelength of that rainbow.
Practicing a particularly dark and frozen form of Euro-Lefty-Black-Hardcore, Rosa Faenskap sit between the feral paleness of Thurm and the bloody fury of Svalbard, at times reflecting some fleeting tones from Plebeian Grandstand‘s early records. Emil Vestre grinds frozen tremolos, as sharp as they come, that rattle and clatter in discordant combination with singer Håvard Solli’s growling bass. On the chug and pick-scrape of “Faenskap for alltid,” you’d swear you were standing two meters from their amp in a damp Oslo basement. Drummer Anders Jansvik’s performance is also big and thriving. Whatever the trio lacks, it isn’t energy.
Although Rosa Faenskap are fairly “green,” this second record is remarkably focused, holding its ground through power and fury, hitting some riffs as hard as possible before closing them out. “Den Svake Mannen” rides an arpeggio with such sustained highs that you can still hear it when Vestre switch to tremolo, but I’m never disappointed when they return to it mid-song. “Faenskap for Alltid” pursues a simpler black metal at first, skillfully executing some stock tremolo metal riffs with a finesse that surprises me to hear outside a Spectral Wound record before the band shifts from blackened to bruised, overcoming a collapse and proclaiming “faenskap for alltid!” again and again.
The success of Ingenting Forblir is due in part to the band’s clever writing, but far more to the quality of its sound. The production and mix of the record, handled by the band in collaboration with Oskar Johnsen Ryd and Torfinn Sommerfeldt Lysne, respect the liveliness of the material, sounding live and vivid. My only complaint is that Jansvik’s drums can get “buried” in crowded spots, partly due to a choked snare tone. Despite the low DR mastering, the record is dynamic where it needs to be. When the band leaves Vestre alone and pensive with their guitar, the quiet registries can be heard and feel myself slipping a little closer to the record.
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“Jeg Våkner Snart” closes Ingenting Forblir as the band’s most ambitious and successful song, combining tremolo over gang vocals, receding into quiet, resonant melody and ending in a hot blaze of noise. For a second record leaner and wilder than the band’s 2023 debut, it’s exactly the right ending. Ingenting Forblir hardly opens new musical horizons, but Rosa Faenskap‘s sour determination will likely push it into my regular listening rotation this year. In practice, I may not be ready for faenskap forever, but I’d happily recommend faenskap for songs.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format reviewed: 320 kbps
Label MP3: Fysisk Format
Websites: rosafaenskap.com | rosafaenskap.bandcamp.com
Releases worldwide: March 6, 2026
The review was done by Angry metal guy.
