![kūka’ilimoku / hakkapeliitta – kūkahakka’ilipeliimokutta [split]](https://www.vm-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Kukailimoku-Hakkapeliitta-–-Kukahakkailipeliimokutta-Split-cover.jpg "Kūka’ilimoku / Hakkapeliitta – Kūkahakka’ilipeliimokutta [Split]")
Info
- Band(s): Hakkapeliitta, Kūka’ilimoku
- Label(s): Forbidden Sonority
- Release Format(s): Cassette, Split
- Release Year: 2024
- Review Date: February 2, 2025
- Author(s): FelixS
Although the American one-man Black Metal band Kūka’ilimoku has quite an extensive discography for its relatively short existence, the band has been around for about five years now, the year 2023 went by without too much activity. Except for a compilation LP that brought together two older EP’s the only real noteworthy event was the release of a new demo during Spring of that year. It even took the band until September of this year to throw out a new sign of life in the form of this new Forbidden Sonority-released split tape. After splits with bands such as Ebony Pendant and the great Chevallier Skrog Kūka’ilimoku now teams up with the relatively unknown Hakkapeliitta.
It may have been quiet around the band, but that does not mean that Kūwāha’ilo, the man behind Kūka’ilimoku, has unlearned his foul and unpure tricks. The very essence of his main musical vehicle has not changed an single bit. We are still presented with stripped-down Ildjarnian Black Metal with enough Punk-attitude to make the majority of the contemporary Punk band feel ashamed. The raw production again fits seamlessly to the stripped-down music that is predominantly leaning on the primal rhythms and the simple melodies and riffs. Yet, together that blends into a tantalising kind of primitivism that can appeal to fans of both the most elementary Black Metal, Punk and even Garage.
Hakkapeliitta, at the other side of the tape, then, has chosen itself a name that would make you think you’re dealing with a Finnish band, but in fact this is also an American entity. Yet, it is indeed a Finnish name. The Hakkapeliitta were a group of Finnish cavalryman who fought for the Swedish King during the Thirty Years’ War in 1600’s. Whether the anonymous person behind the band has Finnish roots is unknown to me, but at least his music has very little or even nothing to do with what we know see as typical “Finnish Black Metal”. Just like Kūka’ilimoku, Hakkapeliitta also seems to take inspiration from the same sort of Punk-ish straight-forward and bareboned aesthetics, yet is much more riff-driven and a tad darker in sound. But the spirit and soul is very much in line with their split partner, bringing the very basics of the Black Metal/Punk amalgam in an equally alluring way. The bit of a “fuller” sound, makes this a bit easier to swallow, even when the overall production is still as gritty and raw. Fans of bands like Ildjarn, Akitsa and old Isengard should take notice. If, by the way, there should be any kinship with a Finnish band, it would definitely be the ever-prolific Kurjuus.
Forbidden Sonority
- Country: USA
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal
- Links: Homepage, Instagram, Bandcamp
