If twenty year old me could see me now, sitting here about to review a Terveet Kädet album. You see back pre-internet at Uni a mate of a mate had this jackets with hand scrawled band names on it, all hugely underground noisy, fast as fuck punk. And top of the jacket was Terveet Kädet. I got to listen to some then, back in maybe 84 and they had already been going five years then… No I can’t say I’ve kept up with the band at all but having listened to older stuff back in the day and noting they split in 2016 I kinda had to do this.
Reactivated by main man Läjä Äijälä, Kaikki Kaikkia Vastaan is almost exactly what you’d expect. Almost. Its fast, absolutely furious and committed speedpunk with thrash and hardcore for its engine room. I guess the only additional input from older times is a better studio than the early days and just here and there is a little more of a metal slant to the odd riff like on the ‘KKV’ (PR tells me this stems from their more metal alter ego Lapin Helvetti)
With sixteen songs on display in just a.little over twenty minutes, most around the one minute to one and a half minute mark this is brutal, furious stuff with (PR help again) themes of the dark and twisted aspects of Finnish society, or ‘reduced angst’ as the band put it. But without a translation that’s yer lot… The playing and the vocals just scream utter commitment though. And somehow in the space of ninety seconds, tracks like ‘Kiertokulku’ manage to fling a nailbomb’s worth of hooks at you. It’s just all kinds of incredible to me, a talent that is also shared by the greatest grindcore bands too. Except Terveet Kädet alsi have a fantastic, angry punk ‘groove’ too. Well if groove can feel like an angry ferret ripping your face off that is.
Despite the small metal elements this is still, as they say, punk as fuck. It rages with integrity, it blisters, it has energy to power a small town and is uncompromising.
Stick yer head in the Terveet Kädet wind tunnel. It’s perfect for what ails you.
(8.5/10 Gizmo)
https://terveet-kadet.bandcamp.com/album/kaikki-kaikkia-vastaan
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