“Sammale—not to be confused with Sammal, which I also reviewed—is the brainchild of Zannibal, the guy behind Paisaunt and the guitarist, and primary songwriter, for Marrasmieli.” Sam’s club.
Finnish Metal
![Brymir – Voices in the Sky [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Brymir-Voices-in-the-Sky-01-768x768.jpg)
Brymir – Voices in the Sky [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]
“Sometimes, the music doesn’t click. On paper, it should be halfway up your alley before the first song is over. It’s the right genre, right ideas, right pace, but the shit thrown against the wall still slides off into the ooze of a thousand less-deserving records. Heretofore, that was Brymir. I wanted to like them; I should have worshiped them. But their first three entries of symphonic melodic death escaped me like self-awareness from your favorite black metal band. So why, oh why, should a tired wvrm limp out of the doldrums of exile to dump on a band he doesn’t really like?” Early Brymir gets the wvrm.
Green King – Hidden Beyond Time Review
“With pickings slim to threadbare in the nearly drained promo sump, Yours Steely skulked through the muck, kicking aside one-man basement black metal projects, re-releases from 2020, and several of Holdeneye‘s lost retainers looking for something worthy of attention. Eventually, I scraped up a debut by unknown Finnish traditional metallers, Green King to be my (likely) final review of 2022. Originally formed as a stoner rock outfit, Green King came to be much more a traditional heavy metal vehicle, borrowing a great deal from the earliest days of the NWoBHM.” Green but eager.
Sede Vacante – Conium Review
“Certain assumptions will be made about gothic/symphonic metal bands. They will be fronted by a woman. They will prioritize strings as the most important melodic instrument. They will be Finnish. In the case of Sede Vacante and their sophomore release entitled Conium, these are at least partly right. You’ll note the female singer centralized in the band photo below. Strings do indeed feature. But the one sheet informs me that the band is both Finnish and Greek. What a revelation! Dusk aspiration.
Devenial Verdict – Ash Blind Review
“Atmospheric and dissonant death metal was my gateway into death more broadly. I missed entirely the blood-and-guts-strewn pathway of Cannibal Corpse, and instead fell head-over-heels for Ulcerate. If I’d come across Finland’s Devenial Verdict in my younger years, I might have passed over them, for their former output has been primarily in the brutal death metal vein. Although they’ve been lurking around since 2009, Ash Blind is their first full-length, representing thirteen years of evolution. A transformation from bludgeoning brutality into darkly melodic, eerily atmospheric dissonance that hasn’t forgotten how to be horrically heavy.” Death in development.
Morbific – Squirm Beyond the Mortal Realm Review
“Finland’s Morbific returns with their second offering of music(?) in as many years, and it’s the sonic equivalent of a message written using scabs that have been arranged on the killing floor of an abandoned slaughterhouse. Here are ten tracks of caveman death metal that fetishize the pursuit of ugliness to a borderline-absurd degree.” Squirming in absurdity.
Celestial Grave – Vitriolic Atonement Review
“Three years ago, I covered Finnish black metal mourners Celestial Grave’s debut record, Secular Flesh. At that time, the album was released under a label which today gives me pause. That label isn’t a friendly place, for several reasons upon which I won’t elaborate here. However, Celestial Grave is now releasing their sophomore album, Vitriolic Atonement, under the much smaller and less problematic (for now, anyway) The Sinister Flame. And thus, I picked it up to give it the full treatment. I’m glad I did, too.” Welcome is a grave.
Spiritus Mortis – The Great Seal Review
“In the darkness I lurk, watching from a distance for that first glimpse of what I know must eventually arrive. But how long must I languish in this grim limbo? My hunger grows exponentially as weeks stretch into months without succor. In anguish, I raise my fists to the Heavens and cry out. Where oh where are the great doom albums of 2022? Where are the classic doom-inspired platters designed to crush me ‘neath oceans of despair and mammoth riffs? Aside from the winning debut by Early Moods (God, I hate that name), there’s been little to slake my unhealthy doom desires. Thus I pinned a great deal of miserable hope on the return of Finland’s Spiritus Mortis.” High spirits.
Bad Baron – Ace of Hearts Review
“Bad Baron pay tribute to the B and C list artists who littered 80s movie soundtracks with vapid rock anthems and forgettable saccharine power ballads. It was a strange and wonderous time for those of us who lived through it. While artists like Peter Cetera, Phil Collins and Kenny Loggins found renewed popularity on the silver screen, countless unknown artists tested their metal on the soundtracks to the endless VHS atrocities that littered the local mini mart’s back corner. What attracted Finnish masochists Bad Baron to the bottom of the barrel in one of music’s most terrible eras? Who knows?” Baron of the 80s Wastelands.
Morbid Evils – Supernaturals Review
“Loudness is a weapon. Many great sludge bands know that. Amplified judiciously, altered maliciously, sludge has the potential to be gargantuan, overwhelming—the thick ooze of a proper harmonized rumble can leave your innards sufficiently massaged with low-end pleasure. Morbid Evils knows this well, with previous encounters showering us with growling guitars moving at a funeral pace against a drowned-out, stoner backdrop. While changes across their previous outings arrived at a tectonic pace, Supernaturals erupts this mighty Finnish trio into a form that is far more visceral.” Are you loud and morbid?
