TERVEET KADET

 

If you described to me all of the things that make quintessentially Finnish hardcore so distinctly Finnish, you'd probably be describing many of the qualities I seek and enjoy in a hardcore band. So it doesn't make sense that when I first started hearing the Finnish classics....I wasn't moved. It seems unaccessible in a way that's difficult to articulate, but it was also a long ass time ago (and honestly I think that fans of Finnish hardcore might even be pleased to hear that someone heard 'their' music for the first time/s and thought "nah...this isn't for me"). The spell was broken in 2003 when Markku suggested that I guy a copy of The Horse and that record didn't just make TERVEET KADET click, it made the whole damn thing make sense. Anyway, I got this bootleg that says it has tracks from 1983 + 1984 demos plus a 1983 gig in Syke and the tape fukkn rips start to fin(n)ish. So song titles, but your listening device must have a volume control toggle or knob or button so use that instead and think of the years I lost by not "getting it."

DEOMOS (83, 84)

KIVIRANTA

 

Nothing sounds like KIVIRANTA. No one sounds like KIVIRANTA. Hell, even KIVIRANTA doesn't sound like KIVIRANTA, because they clearly do what the fuck ever they want. I shared 2018's Dolce Vita a few years ago and yammered about the modern-indie-by-way-of-primitive-post-punk vibes and now I'm trying to wrap my head around this masterpiece from 2020. Antipsykootti is a master class in confidence - the was KIVIRANTA execute dark and minimal synths and then casually morph into tracks that land somewhere between ESPLENDOR GEOMÉTRICO and Russian rap after flirting with techno for a couple of tracks. "Kipa Ja Nautinto" is the star, a hard, drum machine driven dance floor punk smasher that stares straight in the face of most of the more subdued material on Antipsykootti, but it makes the whole release feel more cohesive at the same time....until the title track closes things down and reminds you that KIVIRANTA doesn not, in fact, sound like KIVIRANTA. 

ANTIPSYKOOTTI

FORCED HUMILITY

 

More heat from the folks at No Fuss Tapes - feel like I could have just dedicated a week to this label but I don't really do that....and also that would have required forethought which is one of the many other things I do not excel at. I make up for these deficiencies in other ways though - take my ability to blast the fuck out of cro-magnon Finnish hardcore first thing in the morning, for example. I'm really good at it, and FORCED REALITY makes me even better. Tough as nails, bloody knuckle breakdowns, the solo/s in "Ultimate Concern" will stop you dead in your tracks, and the riffs.....my people, these riffs are the embodiment of straight fire. What if ignorant NYHC were incarnated as forward thinking DIY hardcore punk....? Think about how much better off we would all be. Thinking impossible things...I'm good at that too. 

TRI-CITY WEREWOLVES 23

•••••

DART

 

A few months ago my dude Spencer came back from a trip to Austria with a stack of heat from No Fuss Tapes and, in true TE better-late-than-never fashion, I've been digging through these jams hard lately. And these jams are on fire. For all of the blunt force object we heard in yesterday's GG ALIEN tape (also on No Fuss), Finland's DART are like a spear through the skull. I never knew I needed a through line to connect SPAZM 151 and ANNIHILATION TIME but I fukkn swear it arrived in Spencer's carryon luggage last fall - just an absolute no bullshit screamer from start to Finnish. See what I did there?

DART

VALTATYHJIÖ

 

Holy shit what a monster this tape is; just complete Scan-DBeat mania crammed into four relentless bursts. I feel like it might have slipped under most radars if the folks at Sorry State hadn't given the tracks another round last year, and we owe them (the band and the Sorry Staters) a debt of gratitude. Absolute fukkn masterpiece - "Panst Nanmot" on repeat all day. 

LUKKO

VASTUSTA

I'm just not really sure what more you could want this morning than.....than this. Fierce, brutal Finnish hardcore with buzzsaw guitars and a tinge of Burning Spirits in the vocals. Absolutely fucking relentless, and the perfect prequel to 2015's also perfect though slightly more advanced Kohti Lohdutonta Huomista. Karoline just walked by me and commented "Who's this? Sounds like a ripper." Listen to that woman, folks, she's a smart one. 

DEMO 15/12/2014

RAAMATTU

 

Classic Finnish hardcore sounds on a steady diet of DROPDEAD and broken glass, every second of RAAMATTU's 2018 debut sounds like it's about to implode. The lone DBeat number "Tradition," which would be the "obligatory mid-paced track in the middle of the record" for any normal band....descends into madness before the band tries desperately to reign it back in. "Ei Oikeutta" does manage to stay slow (or slower) and the result is a dark and damaged COC vibe that burles its way into "Hyväsyntä" and then it's just....over. This is the ugliest seven minutes of your day even, or especially, if you're on your way to work just so you can get fired. 

RAAMATTU

KAUPUNGIN VALOT

 

Maybe this is like looking so far through yesterday's post that you can see the an alternate realm where everything sounds different. Or maybe Huomiseen is just an example of a sonic mission realized, much like Spread Plague Hell before it. To say that the first full length from Tampere's KAUPUNGIN VALOT is infectious would be a supreme disservice to the recording - these are MARKED MEN and GENERACIÓN SUICIDA caliber hooks and you'll want to (or wish you could) sing along to every song. At once gloomy and pleasantly resigned, this is a band who know what they're doing and what they're trying to do...and there's no reason why you should feel uncomfortable moving from "Perverted Lunacy" straight into the dreamy "Tän Kadun Päässä" - because you (also) know exactly what you're doing and exactly what you want. 

HUOMISEEN

VIVISEKTIO

 

Steel yourself young punk, because this one is hard work. There's a line that separates "primitive and raw" punk from "inept punk," and for the first few years of their existence, Finland's VIVISEKTIO blurred that line until it was as irrelevant as the tuning pegs on their guitars. Compiled from six rehearsals and two demo recordings, this collection of tracks features the same songs over and over (and over), but if you can stick it out through the first twenty (or so) songs you're treated to a couple of real nasty mid paced punk stomps that were apparently recorded in junior high school music class (maybe I'm wring here, but I'm going to roll with it). There's a second incarnation of the band that started in the 2010s, but this shit? This is for tue heads only...the rest of you don't have what it takes. 

TOTALLINEN KAMOS: 1984-1986

GREENEARTH VOL.6

 

This was an impulse grab with an overseas purchase of an Acts Of Defiance comp, and I can't seem to put the motherfukkr away. Absolutely killer collection of turn of the decade punk and hardcore from Europe, US and Mexico - some you should already know (SVART SNÖ, VALSE TRISTE, AUTODESTRUCCIÓN) and plenty of new faces for your ears. Feast upon SHATTER, REAKTION, ROLANDS GOSSAR, and a track from 23 TILL that is the fukkn summer jam for the summer that I always wish I had lived. 

GREENEARTH VOL.6

JONI EKMAN

 

If you have a soul, then Joni Ekman hits you hard and hits you fast. If your party bone isn't broken, then Joni Ekman gonna make you swing. Didn't know you had a party bone? Then Joni Ekman will help you find it. This proto-Best Of collection was my first introduction and I was instantly sold - flawless Finnish glam punk/power pop. He's clearly studied the classics (HOT RODS, T REX, SLAUGHTER, FANTASY, CUDDLY TOYS), and it's dripping with '80s pop hooks - the keys in "Sä Pidät Jäätelöstä" are just....well, second only to the guitar leads that open "Tiedän Että Valehtelet." Remember the first time you heard Permission to Land? Well...what if that record were kinda punk and also kinda J-Pop? Sold, not ashamed. 

TOTAALINEN EKMAN

LEATHER WEAPONS

A couple of veterans of the Finnish black/doom/thrash scene apparently set their sights on raw mötorpunk and the result is absolutely disgusting. Leads hastily dropped in where they don't belong then the high end guitar rushes to fall back into the riff, cracking and breaking like a 14 year old kid pushing themself to the absolute limit trying to conjure Araya vocals. Steel Freak is piercing, forceful, pissed black metalpunk - a future world punk's warped copies of Black Metal and City Weapons pulled back through the portal. 

STEEL FREAK
Eyes on the line

Eyes on the line

Eyes on the fucking line. 

RATTEX PRIEST

 

Kinda makes you wonder what would have happened if BUTTHOLES and KILLDOZER had been exposed to raw Colombian noisecore like HERPES or CONFUSION, but recruited an inept Scandinavian black metal guitarist from 1988. People (including myself) say things rhetorically (too) often, but this is what actual destruction sounds like. There are only five cuts on this tape, but ask yourself how much more you think you can you swallow....because there's another recording after this one. But first...

RATTEX PRIEST

CLOAMA

CLOAMA's dizzying, oppressive masterpiece from 2006. Blood Illumination listens like a soundtrack, and though the sounds come from the past, it could easily be the soundtrack for all of the dismal chaos of the current reality. Meat grinder drones and synths trudging through a dense mental fog...as if that moment the world ended happened a long time ago and we are just here. Somewhere. 

BLOOD ILLUMINATION 

BASTARDS

 

There is a reason that this 1982 recording has kept resurfacing as subsequent punk generations dig deeper. The 23 studio tracks are pure high tension destruction. Relentless. "Turvallista Huomista" is one of my favorite hardcore songs ever - any era, any region. The live recording on the flip is just insane. 

HARHAA

CATALEPSY RIDERS

Somewhere between ominous improvisation, oppressive ambiance and objective manipulation lies Finland's CATALEPSY RIDERS, dragging the listener through an hour long mindfuck. The Paska Alttari label has amassed a small but formidable mound of freak sounds, but the 6+ minute slog of "Ensimmäinen Tuomio" might sit alone atop the heap.

CATLEPSY RIDERS

VOMIT PINT

Before the 0:50 of "Ketamine Kindergarten" is half over, you should know what awaits you. Madness awaits you. Twenty one tracks of Finnish noisecore with a vocal attack that bizarrely reminds me of Break Down The Walls-era Cappo (hell, "Syrjüytyminen On Min Mainstream" kinda reminds me of the whole band until they start blasting at the end). This recording is completely disgusting, and should be enjoyed with extreme caution. Well, "enjoyed." You've got a quarter hour to spare....right?

III - LET HOMO SAPIENS DIE

TOTAL LOSERS

This one hit the spot the second I slapped it in, and I can't even guess how many times I've listened since. TOTAL LOSERS are what I want to think when someone talks about pop punk, or "poppy" punk or melodic hardcore or whatever...because they are fast and they are punk and they are poppy as fuck. There are early SoCal hooks, even a touch of MISFITS, doing time with 1980 Scandi punk, but there's also these little tastes of 1990s USDIY pop punk and that makes it even catchier...and ugh they are fast. A dozen burners in fourteen short minutes - "With Punk Rock I'm Not Alone," "Checkpoint For Your Love," "You're Gonna Need Your God," and the list goes on and on. Repeat listening is encouraged, and I hope there are more burners in my future. 

(DO YOU REMEMBER) YOUTH ENERGY?

KIVIRANTA

What is this? I mean.....incredible, obviously - but how does one describe Finland's KIVIRANTA? Stark, cold, sharp punk that lands somewhere between 1982 CHAOS Z and 2002 FRANZ FERDINAND, but also kinda like a primitive JOY DIVISION. The duo is backed by a drum machine, and everything is fronted in midrange nasal Finnish, which just makes it all sound more...well, just more. Only five tracks here....but folks, I am completely sold. 

DOLCE VITA

KERETIK

Talk about a band who grabs a sonic vibe and refuses to release it, Finland's KERETIK are a raw, dark, ominous churn from start to finish. Mid tempo euro stench with pained leads, shouted vocals, and a cacophonous chug that is worthy of the highest possible praise. Songs like "Must We Suffer?" come from a past planet , and they sound more present than ever - all I want from this demo is more tracks.

TERRA MATER