Two Finnish bands from Oulu, Finland, which both formed in 2015, are joining their lovely takes on grindcore on this split 7" vinyl release, out later in 2016.

Napalm Ted strike for third time. And how! They've again doing something different and now they've gone grim and pessimistic as heck, and angry as fuck. The cover shows some kind of a corpse (???) and the music they offer isn't funny at all, like some songs on their previous two releases. Intact are the band's tightness, madness and D-beats. It's getting more intense release by release the band put out. Nasum and Napalm Death can now be mentioned without any kind of exaggeration in that claim. The songs are between a minute and two long, and can still include surprisingly many parts; yep, it's fast, and one can except a lot of blast beating, hellish guitar shredding and pounding bass lines. Some discordance here and there lifts up the ominous feeling in the NT songs. 'Vegagore' actually takes the band to a new territory, as the song has some black metal elements in it. The instrumental performances are fantastic; raw yet technical. Two types of vocals are heard, one reminding of Carcass' Jeff Walker and other is like a madman spitting and shouting out his messages. Raw and explosive work from NT, with organic-sounding production job.

Mustasuo (translates to "black swamp"; also a district in Oulu) mix black metal and hardcore punk together; they hang pretty much in the middle ground between the two, even though getting rather sludgy at times (and definitely not like Impaled Nazarene...). Sound-wise this is pretty thin yet crusty, and also pushes the black metal influence forth. The vocalist sounds like being in distress, such intense and anxious is the voice. The songs are more simple if compared to Napalm Ted, but still do not get boring. Frenzy is there! The feelings go from aggressive to melancholic, and from ominous to callous. Mustasuo have managed to record something primitive yet thoughtful in the same time.

Definitely worth checking out if you want to find out new Northern bands. But hey, you should drop your presumptions, because with this split release you won't get any romantic/gothic stuff, that's known to come from Oulu and Finnish Lapland generally. Cold, hot, brutal, emotional (though not in a sugary way)... Winter is coming, so let's be careful out there!

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/08/2016 21:18