Riistetyt "Kahleet" 7"
[Havoc]
Here's another slab of straight up crusty hardcore/punk from this longstanding Finnish act. The sound quality's got somewhat of a distant sheen to it as the mix feels sort of muffled and there's some noisy midrange to the guitar tone, but it's not that big of a deal. A little more low-end and a better balance of crispness could've helped 'em out, but I can easily live with this. Expect a good amount of tempo changes from chunky midpaced palm-muting and power chords to faster and more traditionally arranged hardcore/punk. "Ei Totuus Palaa Tulessa" has a little more energy and somewhat of a metallic churn to some of the picking patterns during the verse part, and of course I'm all for that; but closer "Kuoleman Tanssi" is the real kicker here: Opening up with a quick slow paced bass churn with dissonant guitars before blasting into a thrashy dash of speed with some twisted note bends. The slower rhythm comes back in later with some borderline spoken vocals that offer a nice change of pace, so I'd love to hear them experiment more with some tunes along these lines. The packaging is of course black and white with a few band photos and some illustrations, while all of the lyrics are in Finnish with English translations. I don't really care for the overall look of the packaging (come to think of it I'm not sure I've ever seen a Riistetyt record that I thought looked very good), but fuck it. As one might expect the lyrics are covering the staples of this niche of the genre, attacking religion, the destruction of the environment, war, etc. This one actually ends pretty quickly, averaging just about two minutes per song, so even though I'm not blown away, these guys can still do some damage after all these years. They should definitely warm up to a little more metal, though! "Kuoleman Tanssi" is very tactful in its metallic flirtations, and damn does it pay off! (6/10)
Running time - 10:00 (approximately), Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Ei Totuus Palaa Tulessa, Kuoleman Tanssi]
Havoc Records - http://www.havocrex.com

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