Unpolished, twisted and atonal. Just a few words to describe the music of the Finnish band Kinahmi. The raw Black Metal that is presented on the debut ‘Birth of the Nine Diseases’ sounds rather inspired by the French scene of the 90’s and even more so by the bands in Finland that took the gnarly and skincrawling sound to heart such as Warloghe. The riffs are uncomfortably shifting, breaking tonality to reach an unnerving atmosphere in which the majority of the instrumentation is rather repetitive.
This atonal character could even be described as deliberately off-key in the main riff of ‘Fever – Victorious Flames Eternal’ and ‘Gout – Crossing the Heart of Blind Knowledge’, songs that are unsettling despite their melodic character. A track like ‘Ulcer – Beautiful Infection of Sacrifice’ is a rather more Punk driven song, focusing more on groove. And the overlap with Punk is not merely limited in the backbone of the sound of Kinahmi. The vocals are certainly Punkier than your average Black Metal shrieks, although brought with a similar level of dedication and degeneration. To add to the idea that Kinahmi may still be developing their direction, a slower song like ‘Plague – Violent Death of Mighty Justice’ leans almost towards a Burzum-esque sound or depressive Black Metal, and there is a clear underlying sense of melancholy in some of the riffs of the record. Or perhaps that shift in identity between songs is all part of the plan, giving each of the nine diseases of the album title a distinct character.
There is plenty of charm in the twisted and atonal riffs on ‘Birth of the Nine Diseases’. The uncomfortable feeling the riffs convey together with the hypnotic repetition make it a rather fascinating whole. For me, the guitar sound could have been a touch rawer and the vocals maybe a bit rougher, but that doesn’t take anything away from the overall quality. Certainly a solid debut that tastes like more.
Death Monument
- Country: Finland
- Style: Black Metal
- Links: Homepage, Youtube
