AADAL: Aggressive Hymns, Energetic Ballads

The oxymoronic title of guitarist Michael Aadal's quartet AADAL may be the best clue to what lies within. Aggressive Hymns, Energetic Ballads is the band's fourth release and the follow-up to Silver (Apollon Records, 2020). The group features Aadal alongside saxophonist André Kassen, bassist Audun Ramo and drummer Gunnar Sæter.

While the title suggests contradiction, the music itself is anything but paradoxical. Aadal's compositions guide this Norwegian ensemble through a terrain where jazz and post-rock intersect with natural ease. The approach recalls the American band The Messthetics, particularly their work with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, where groove, texture and improvisation coexist without hierarchy.

Across eight concise tracks, the album opens with "Wall of Ground," an atmospheric glide powered by Sæter's stealthy pulse and the braided timbres of tenor saxophone and guitar. Melody remains central throughout the record. "The Moon Doesn't Care" unfolds as a gentle, immersive soundscape that seems deeply rooted in the Norwegian experience. Despite its title, "Wichita Linedance" bears no relation to Glen Campbell's 1968 hit "Wichita Lineman" (Jimmy Webb) nor the Metheny-Mays ECM classic As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1981). Instead, it is a grandly constructed, with Kassen's saxophone and Aadal's guitar climbing in dramatic arcs over Ramo's steady undercurrent.

The mood softens with "Absurdly Normal," a sparse duo between guitar and saxophone, before "Brockenspekter" veers decisively onto a post-rock path, expanding outward with confidence and swagger. The album's standout may well be "Lakenskrekk," which Mr. Google translated as "bed sheet terror" (please don't trust AI), a blues-soaked showcase of collective interplay. As the groove deepens and intensifies, the track feels tailor-made for the live setting, where its energy would surely peak.

The quartet closes on a darker note with "Hint of Skogbrann" (forest fire), a piece steeped in the weight of a Scandinavian winter. Its dense atmosphere and near-deafening quiet evoke snow-laden forests and smoldering tension beneath the surface. Another seeming contradiction that, here, feels entirely resolved.

Aggressive Hymns, Energetic Ballads confirms AADAL as a band fluent in opposites, capable of fusing force and restraint into a coherent, compelling whole. It is music that thrives on contrast while sounding utterly sure of itself, leaving a lasting impression.