Eight tracks of straightforward hardcore/punk from Finland with lots of fast power chords and pumping basslines with quick songs and fast Finnish vocal patterns. Overall there's a mid-80's kind of US hardcore sound present to my ears from a musical standpoint - they tend to keep it hard, fast, and aggressive. There's not a terribly large amount of variety as the songs are all pretty similar in tempo and overall approach, so they just kind of blast through without much of a breather. "Samassa Laboratoriossa" gives the basslines a little more room and offers a couple of slightly slower chord progressions; "Roskaa" breaks off some dirty lead breaks offering a noisy edge; and "Jotta Tied?t Mit??" feels somewhat more frantic but also breaks up the pacing more often with one heavier break that stands apart without sounding out of place or coming across as metal in any way. The recording's actually really fucking good for this style, though. They've got just the right amount of dirtiness with a well balanced mix that keeps the vocals in the core of the music and lets the bass drive just as much of the force as the guitars, so they're in really good shape there. The record is pressed on white vinyl and the packaging is also awesome, with lots of collaged high contrast imagery and some color printing that makes nice use of metallic bronze ink. All of the lyrics are in Finnish, but English translations are provided, and as expected the material deals largely with socio-political commentary on the fucked up state of the world, be it political greed or the pressures and stress of living as a result of some of the larger problems of modern society. Not bad at all. It's a pretty basic and to the point record, so I'm not sure what else to say! Fans of traditional hardcore should certainly look out for this one, I see no reason why it would disappoint, though the band might benefit from spicing things up a little more in the future.
[Tuska & Ahdistus]
Running time - 12:00 (approximately), Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Samassa Laboratoriossa, Roskaa, Jotta Tied?t Mit??]]
Tuska & Ahdistus Records - http://www.tuskajaahdistus.tk
