ORANSSI PAZUZU — Muukalainen puhuu (review)

ORANSSI PAZUZU — Muukalainen puhuu album cover

Album · 2009 · Black Metal

4/5 · 2011-12-28
UMUR

"Muukalainen Puhuu" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish experimental/psychadelic black metal act Oranssi Pazuzu. The album was released through Violent Journey Records in April 2009. Translated from Finnish to English the title of the album means "Alien Speaks".

The music on "Muukalainen Puhuu" is quite unique IMO. The basis in the music is raw and simple black metal in the vein of Darkthrone, but with an experimental and psychadelic twist. The early seventies Krautrock scene and especially Can is a big influence. The vocals are raspy, extreme and delivered in a quite convincing manner. The tempo is mostly mid-paced and there are only very few faster sections on the album. The atmosphere is tripped out and spacy and the use of vintage keyboards (lots of organ) really give the music an organic feel. Some of the songs like "Dub Kuolleen Porton Muistolle" ("Dub for a Memory of a Dead Whore (of Babylon)") and "Kerettiläinen Vuohi" ("Heretic Goat") have some lengthy and rather noisy krautrock styled repetitive parts. The title track is a bit different from the rest of the songs with it´s ambient (no drums on this one) atmospheric experimental sound. "Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien Teatterin Rukoilijasirkka" ("The Praying Mantis of the Theathre of Latter-day Saints") is in the other end of the spectra as it is probably the track on the album that´s closest to traditional raw black metal. It´s also the track that features the fastest tempo. Even in this song there are twists and turns that keeps it from being "regular" black metal though. The lyrics are in the Finnish language and it´s something I hope Oranssi Pazuzu will continue with on future releases because it gives the album a mystical aura and quite frankly it just sounds really charming. The meaning of the words are of course lost on me but this is one of those cases where it´s a minor issue.

The musicianship on the album is excellent. The vocals may be extreme but they are full of expression, the rythm section create that repetitive hypnotic krautrock atmosphere to perfection and the guitars and keyboards bring some texture and memorability into the mix. This is of course not your average commercial pop tunes, but still there are melodic content enough to satify those who can´t live without memorable hooks.

The production is really succesful. It´s raw enough to satisfy the metal head yet very organic which should appeal to the psych fans. The marriage between the genres is completed by the sound production.

"Muukalainen Puhuu" is an excellent and quite unigue album by Oranssi Pazuzu and personally I´m really happy that I discovered their music. They definitely stick out from the crowd with their original style and innovative approach. I find "Muukalainen Puhuu" to be a very recommendable album to people who think that a blend of raw and simple black metal and experimental/psychadelic rock sounds interesting. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is well deserved. One of the best releases for me in 2009.

* On a sidenote. Feast on that beautiful cover artwork. One of the most intriguing covers I´ve seen in a while.