What a band name, try saying it without your teeth in and your jaw will lock and you will be eating through a straw for the next couple of months. Jokes aside these 2 Finns and a Swiss man consist of a usurper, a redeemer and a harbinger from a plethora of other acts, all equally obscure (Napoleon Skullfukk anyone?) and having only been around since 2020 are releasing their debut album here. Thankfully they dispense of the Finnish and give us a few clues with song titles but that is not going to make them any easier to fathom.

However. we quickly see the trees through the woods as the opening title-track takes form with skewed rhythmic harmonics and lurching grooves that take straight back to the weird and avant-garde forms of Scandinavian black metal as experimentation within the art-form set in. Yep, it’s very much written in the waters and Ved Buens Ende are certainly the go to act when wrapping your head around things here. Nothing however will quite prepare you for the vocals that come in courtesy of J Usurper who is also responsible for the hypnotic and other-wordly guitar and bass work. He at first sounds like a NekroGoblin (no other description quite fits) and you may find it all a bit on the comedic side and hard to swallow. This is certainly not the only style he adopts as there are plenty of hoary and theatrical clean parts sounding quite austere as well as spoken dictation and croaks, gasps and sighs. On one track he even manages to get away with a “la la la” singalong which is utterly preposterous but somehow works. Hearing him suddenly belch out the word “sunshine” from amidst the gloomiest passage of verse and music really is quite something else and once you get your head around it all, one can only applause him as it really sounds like he is treading the boards here.

The music keeps you on your toes as well over the 7 songs, they take a while to penetrate but if you like the music by the aforementioned along with early Virus and Fleurety you will find understanding and indeed comfort all the more quickly. We are told that the album is “an introspective journey deep into the depths of the human mind, the spirit, the self”, this goes very well with the painting of what looks like a philosophical chap deep in thought. The lyrics are no doubt all the more intriguing and add to this but have not unveiled themselves to me here. The expressive nature of the rich croon amidst songs such as ‘Ocean Of Senses’ makes this perhaps somewhat superfluous besides you will be trying to keep up with the sudden motion of stabby guitar-work, juddering riffs and drum lurches anyway. One thing that should also be noted is the beguiling presence of the keyboards subtly tinging a song such as ‘Harbinger (Of The Fallen Hearts)’ before the vocals go pure Hamlet and really send the listener’s skull off on a weird trip.

You may well find this album bordering on the edge of pretension but you cannot deny its intellectual slant or its quest for musical nostalgia. After the first confounded listen I have grown to quite love this one and hope others find and similarly get it (or as close to getting it as is possible). One for the dreamers, the deranged and the delirious.

(8/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/alkuharmoniankantaja

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shadowy-peripherals