Music Banter - View Single Post

Mondo Bungle · 02-09-2016, 04:27 PM

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä (Feb 26)

As **** yeah as it gets. With just a handful of psychedelic black metal bands out there, only good things can come from more releases. We need more of it.

Quote:

In terms of continuity, for Oranssi Pazuzu Värähtelijä very much feels like the logical "next step" after Valonielu, in that it continues its predecessor's formula of overall being far more inclined towards psychedelic music than towards black metal. Yet where Valonielu struck this reviewer as something close to "blackened space rock," with the remaining BM elements simply thrown on top of the trippy, krautrock-ish core, Värähtelijä feels like much more of a seamless fusion of the two. Although once again being dominated by a psychedelic/krautrock sound, the black metal elements that remain here aren't so much a nice little lid on top of the jar, so to speak, but more so the veins and arteries that run throughout the album's body. The infusion is much more noticeable, and this could be the closest that the band have come to a true "psychedelic black metal" album yet. "Havuluu" and "Hypnotisoitu Viharukous" are probably the finest examples of this new approach, and it's quite tasty.

At the same time, there is also an extremely catchy, almost stoner-ish sound that runs all throughout the composition of Värähtelijä. This is really no new news for Oranssi Pazuzu, as they've always written stuff that's easy to bob your head and latch onto, and Valonielu flirted with a bit of a stoner sound as well, but here this technique someone feels.... much more developed in full. The main, opening riff on the monstrous "Vasemman Käden Hierarkia" is what really gets this action going, and the whole 18 minute track is a triumph from start to Finnish (see what I did there?). Perhaps collaborating with some of the drone doom giants in Dark Buddha Rising for Atomikylä left a bit of an influence on Oranssi for this new record. Perhaps it didn't. But whatever the case, this crunchy, riff heavy sound that listeners are treated to here is simply marvelous.