Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Sotajumala > Teloitus > Reviews > psiguen
Sotajumala - Teloitus

Finest Finnish band - 92%

psiguen, March 5th, 2014

Sotajumala's second full-length, "Teloitus", was a very impressive work for me. Having listened to their debut and the split with Torture Killer, I didn't find on them anything praiseworthy and not even worthy of mention, just standard old school death metal (maybe 'Meidän Maa' or 'Rakkaudesta Sotaan' were interesting enough for me). 'Teloitus' is something completely different. While on their previous releases they sounded quite crazy and fast, here Sotajumala have reached such a level of musical maturity and aggressiveness that now I do find them that outstanding, despite the fact I consider the general sound on this album pretty similar to their debut, but maybe with a clearer production, though. It's not a crystal clear production, but it's clearer than what they got on their debut. Anyway, I find here some similarities with Morbid Angel or old Malevolent Creation, but mostly with European bands like Vader, Bloodbath, Thorium, their country mates Adramelech or the aforementioned Torture Killer.

The guitar work here is quite varied and the result is crushing and brutal. There is plenty of catchy and original riffs that are aggressive, but not twisted or too technical, with an extensive use of pinch harmonics on riffs. There are some simpler power chords as well and nice soloing in almost every song, but as usual in the genre, the bass guitar is nearly unnoticeable, yet it gives the band a pretty thick and powerful sound. Maybe it could have been recorded a bit louder or have been given some more presence since it would be nice to hear the bass in a death metal release at last.

The drums seem a very important part in "Teloitus" results. The aggressiveness this album has comes mainly from the drum performance and keeping the fast pace they had in previous releases. Here we can find a wide and varied range of structures, drum patterns, and fills with very interesting bass/drum work, especially in the title track where drummer Timo Häkkinen plays some nice double bass tempo changes while keeping a different tempo with the snare and cymbals. Just astonishing.

Vocalist Mynni Luukkainen (a.k.a. Infection) is a good example of how a death metal vocalist should sound. His growls are strong and deep, yet quite understandable even though the lyrics are written in Finnish. There's no trace of pig squeals, low-pitched barking, or distorted, indecipherable guttural gurgling, just powerful and nearly screamed deep growls. There is also a higher backing growling voice scattered here and there as is also usual in death metal. Lyrics talk about the topics of the style - war, death, torture and so on, but I can't say whether they are original or not as long as I don't speak Finnish at all.

The cover artwork is pretty simple, even simplistic. It shows a human standing silhouette in red, the band's name and album title over an all white background. It's just not appealing, so if you don't know the band, this album can be unnoticed if found in a record store or on the web without references to it.

All in all, it's a very interesting full-length for me (I have listened to it some hundreds of times now) from a very fine band coming out of a country whose bands I usually don't like much, so I can't help recommending this piece of classical, yet aggressive death metal to all deathsters out there.