Pekka Formed after the break up of Lyijykomppania, Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus spent their first years in the underground scene of Finnish metal. Much like the first disastrous attempts at making hip hop with Finnish rapping a decade earlier, making heavy metal with Finnish lyrics seemed very odd an idea at first, but luckily like Lyijykomppania before them Niskalaukaus managed to pull it off wonderfully with their bleak visions of natural disasters and other cheerful topics.

With this EP and especially the opening track "Nyt on mies!" the band started to get their first bits of mainstream recognition. My first touch with the band was seeing the "Nyt on mies!" music video on TV, and very accordingly it featured grave men and bodybuilding scenes, as this song might really be the ultimate soundtrack for pumping iron. Massively thunderous heavy as lead riffs set to a slow tempo and crowned by a tale about facing physical pain like a man. This was the only new original number on the EP, the other songs being a fine live recording of "Rajatila", one of the highlights of their previous album "Itku pitkästä ilosta", and the other two displaying their fondness for cover songs. The Tuomari Nurmio (an iconic Finnish songwriter) cover, the apocalypse anthem "On aika soittaa sinfonia" is given a typically massive guitar wall treatment, but the other cover by Marja Mattlar (an obscure Finnish songwriter whom they often covered), "Kehtolaulu" is one of the most beautiful things they ever recorded. Oh, it's undoubtedly heavy as 98 % of their discography, but the soaring melodies and tender lyrics are accordingly delivered.

With their next album "Rajaportti" they'd launch to the top of the charts spearheading the Finn Metal fad, this transitional release is a great little taster of the band featuring some of their finest material.