![viharukous – viimeisiä houreita [ep]](https://www.vm-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Viharukous-–-Viimeisia-Houreita-EP-cover.jpg "Viharukous – Viimeisiä Houreita [EP]")
Info
- Band(s): Viharukous
- Label(s): Rat Covenant
- Release Format(s): Cassette, EP
- Release Year: 2023
- Review Date: May 13, 2024
- Author(s): FelixS
After four demos, recorded in the timeframe between 2018 and 2021, this Finnish duo finally breaks a rather long silence with this latest offering, a 4-track EP (including intro) clocking a combined 20 minutes of the harshest and most primitive Black Metal that Finland has to offer.
This is the sort of Black Metal that hardly has anything to do with the refined and often well-balanced affairs that we call Finnish Black Metal nowadays. This goes back to the late 80’s, even before the earliest unrefined outings of Finnish bands like Barathrum or Archgoat. A time in which Black Metal could be as ugly as the haircuts of the Glamrock bands at the time. With a pummelling pace, throaty hoarse sort of “vocals” and hardly audible guitars Viharukous mixes all elements of these primal stages of the genre into something that I am sure for most people is really a bridge too far in terms of primitive simplicity. You have to be able to stand it that the drummer deliberately or not doesn’t keep the beat and that the whole thing sounds more than chaotic. Especially when the pace drops to slow Doom-like tempos, that’s when the true nature of the music (and the possibly limited musical abilities of the musicians) comes out. However, the Punk/Garage vibe of the music is something that has a certain charm that I find quite irresistible, but it is safe to say that it is what you could call an acquired taste.
Straight up comparisons or musical parallels are not all too easy to draw, but it might hold the middle between the earliest work of Countess, Necroschizma, Bestial Summoning, Bathory and Megiddo. For sure those who have a weak spot for the crudest offerings of bands like Akitsa, Bone Awl or the more recent bands like Nihil Invocation and Vengeance Sorcery will find something to enjoy in these savage tunes of the Finns.
Rat Covenant
- Country: Germany
- Style: Death Metal, Other
- Links: Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
