ORANSSI PAZUZU — Valonielu (review)

ORANSSI PAZUZU — Valonielu album cover Album · 2013 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Valonielu" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Finnish atmospheric/psychadelic black metal act Oranssi Pazuzu. The album was released in Europe through Svart Records and in the US through 20 Buck Spin in October 2013.

Stylistically the music on "Valonielu" is a mix of 60s/70s psychadelic rock like Pink Floyd (think "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" performed with fierce aggression), krautrock like Can and Faust, 70s space rock like Hawkwind, and some distorted heavy riffing and raspy black metal type vocals. It´s like listening to the mean and deranged twin of an LSD trippin hippie trying to sing a duet with his sibling. It´s ugly, raw, repetitive and noisy but at the same time it´s psychadelic and spacy sounding. The music is grounded in a strong rythmic foundation that either pounds away relentlessly or trips in a hypnotic way with the use of percussion. On top of that layers of guitars, feedback, twang guitars, spacy sound effects created by keyboards and those raspy Finnish language vocals fill out the rest of the soundscape.

"Valonielu" features 6 tracks and a full playing time of 46:14 minutes. "Vino verso", "Tyhjä temppeli" and "Olen aukaissut uuden silmän" are fairly standard length tracks and the most catchy tracks on the album. Especially the two latter mentioned stand as highlights to me. "Reikä maisemassa" is an ambient atmospheric track and "Uraanisula" and the closing 15 minutes long "Ympyrä on viiva tomussa" (which features a repeated melody, that actually sounds a bit like the above mentioned "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"), are longer and more jam packed tracks. The diverse yet consistent in the style music provides "Valonielu" with a great flow and it´s an album that´s entertaining throughout.

To my ears "Valonielu" doesn´t quite reach the heights of Oranssi Pazuzu´s debut album "Muukalainen puhuu (2009)" and quality wise it´s more in line with "Kosmonument (2011)", which of course doesn´t mean it´s a bad album, just that "Muukalainen puhuu (2009)" really set some high standards for the band, and that Oranssi Pazuzu haven´t really been able to follow up on those incredibly high standards yet. "Valonielu" is more than worth a listen though and overall it´s still a very strong album deserving a 3.5 - 4 star star (75%) rating.
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