Down My Throat “Through the River of Denial” CD

I have Full House Records and Down My Throat to graciously thank for introducing me to the rather impressive metallic hardcore scene in Finland over four years ago with the band's debut full-length release, "Real Heroes Die". It's been far too long, but they're finally back and as strong as ever with their new sophomore effort, "Through the River of Denial". Down My Throat has actually been around for nearly a decade and provides a great representation of one of the staple contemporary hardcore sounds in Finland: Severely burly vocals over crushing midpaced breakdowns and speedier metal riffing that keeps the Scandinavian melody largely under wraps in favor of late-80's/early-90's thrash metal with a modern twist. This is a slightly more melodic affair than the band's past work, not to mention some of their Finnish contemporaries, but it's certainly no less lethal, and still exhibits both powerful and memorable songwriting aplenty—with strong production values and a nice looking layout to complete the package.

Down My Throat "Kiss it Goodbye"
Down My Throat "Lost in the Darkness"

I'm telling you, if you enjoy this style of hardcore you're seriously fucked if you're not into the Finnish scene yet. I've been ranting and raving about the premium quality of the locale's metallic hardcore for almost five years now, and Full House Records has definitely dropped some of my favorite albums from the area. I highly recommend their recent discs from St. Hood, Bleeding Heart, and Cutdown, as well as older gems from Security Threat, Bolt, and Morning After, among others. But there are also plenty of other damn solid bands over there, like Scalping Screen, Worth the Pain, Canvasion, End Begins, and many more. In my opinion Finland really does have the best scene in the world right now for this style of extremely heavy hardcore that doesn't totally turn its back in favor of metal, so if you dig these tracks definitely use the Full House label as a springboard to explore more such bands out of Finland, and absolutely pick up Down My Throat's first CD as well, because "Burn" is still one of the best metallic hardcore tracks ever put to tape!

"Through the River of Denial" should soon be available from Interpunk in the US, but until then you can score it straight from the label, so get to it, boys and girls:

@ Full House Records