MUSTASUO - Katharsis [Off Records, 2020]

K: Fresh new hardcore wind from the cold city of Oulu in Finland. D-beat, some blasts, and a lot of slow parts with painful echoing black metal vocals (also, Keijo Niinimaa from Rotten Sound appears in the album as the guest vocalist!). Much more serious and sad towards the second part of the album, but I somehow still see it as a hardcore record. No uplifting riffs in major key to be found here and this kind of music always talks to me. Would love to see these guys live someday when this bullshit pandemic finally goes away.

L: Their second full-length album Katharsis is a nice mixture of hardcore, crust and black metal. Instant tempo changes in between tracks from a slow and atmospheric black metal track to a hard and fast crust tune always surprises you. Melodic, but still chaotic riffs set the dark tone quite perfectly. Although In the beginning, I thought that there are too many slow black metal tracks and the album seemed too long, after a few listening sessions the album started making perfect sense. Everything they did, all the elements are like perfectly fitting puzzle pieces creating one amazing album. Cannot wait to hear what they will do in the future!

Favourite track: Turhuuksia

And here is their Bandcamp page! https://mustasuo.bandcamp.com/