Alttarimme on luista tehty

Love them or hate them – Azaghal are Azaghal and I am happy that they have returned with “Alttarimme on luista tehty”. If we may trust M-A (and who are we to doubt it), it is the 12th full-length of the Finnish bulwark. Admittedly, a very small number of their albums did not hit the bull’s eye, but their discography also holds some real jewels. The new work joins the ranks of the really good outputs. That’s almost surprising in view of the comparatively broad range of sounds that it houses.

The almost mild “Kultti” delivers unexpected melody lines and nearly rocking guitars. Unfortunately it gets obvious that Azaghal are not in their comfort zone here – the song fails to convince. “Myrkkyä” sounds ambivalent due to its pretty synthetic ending. “Kaaos” is cut out of a different wood. Death metal guitars invite us to a journey into the past when all people in Sweden seemed to walk the left hand path, crossing the point where no life dwells and finally fell into the grave. “Syöpäläinen” hides behind the mask of a pretty generic storm of devastation, but its main riff reminds me of a typical Artillery opening; Azaghal just deliver the Danish thrash approach in a mega-violent black (death) configuration. But even if you do not share my mental link to the long-lasting gunners, you hopefully agree that this song belongs to the highlights of the album with regard to its sheer ferocity.

The technical data of “Alttarimme on luista tehty” is pretty surprising as well. Eleven tracks in only 38 minutes illustrate that Azaghal wanted to come to the point directly. Honestly speaking, black metal songs should have a length of five minutes or more to reveal both their full morbid aroma and infernal depth. But the exception confirms the norm. In particular very intense pieces like “Syvyydestä liekkien takaa“ and the scorched earth leaving title track (great guitar solo, nice brutal vocal intro) have no problem to leave their footprints in less than five minutes. By the way, the fact that a new lead vocalist has entered the line-up does not have any effect. The vocals are still full of hate, misanthropic and demonic. Sometimes the new bawler has to fight hard in order to be heard. The slightly noisy, not inappropriate yet hardly differentiating production gives the guitars a lot of space. The drums fight a losing battle here, but do not get me wrong. The album boasts with a breakneck sound, even though it has some special effects.

I already mentioned three great tracks, but the closer also should not be ignored. It is among the most dynamic songs and due to the nearly opulent length of six minutes it is able to offer more layers than the other songs. Especially the hyper-fast parts with the very strict guitar lines are fascinating. Thus, I cannot say many bad things about this monstrosity of evil called “Alttarimme on luista tehty”, neither in terms of the music nor with regard to the artwork. The latter screams for the vinyl format, but I foolishly bought the CD. However – the musical content justifies the purchase regardless of the specific form. Azaghal stand like few others for quality, stability and durability in Finnish black metal. And now I’m making an altar out of bones.

Azaghal can rightfully be called seniors within the Finnish black metal, although my feeling is that they have always been a bit overshadowed by some of their local peers. The official starting shot for their life as Azaghal was given in 1998, but before that the band had also been active for several years as Belfegor, so adding all together means an impressive time span of nearly three decades in which Narquath has spread his dark magic. In addition to a whole bunch of EPs and split releases, the Finns also have an impressive number of full-length albums to their credit. The brand new "Alttarimme on luista tehty" is full-length number twelve and like the two predecessors kept completely in Finnish when it comes to lyrics.

When "Alttarimme on luista tehty" pops out of the boxes for the first time, I first wondered if I had put in the correct album, because this is not exactly the sound I expect from a Finnish black metal band and certainly not how I remember Azaghal from their outstanding 2018 full length “Valo pohjoisesta”. After all, the guitars have a bit of that typical HM2 Swedish death metal sound, and some songs even remind of bands like Entrails in certain structures. Whether this is due to the arrival of new vocalist Thirteen (Scarecrow) who replaces veteran Niflungr, I do not know. Out of curiosity, I then made a direct comparison with "Valo pohjoisesta" and if listened to closely the heavy bass sound might have already hinted towards death metal, so maybe Narquath has already had this idea in mind and it comes to full bloom on the new work.

The music here is of course good, even great at times, but coming from such a highlight with their last outing overall this album still feels like a small step back. It's not that there isn't enough dynamics or variation, but it's only after several listens that I find that some songs like the angular and catchy song "Kultti", which gradually introduces some firm black metal riffs and that typical almost danceable Finnish melodicism or the melancholic closing "Seitsemän ihmisen irvikuvaa" stand out. Maybe this is partly due to Thirteen's somewhat monotonous rasping throat. Don’t get me wrong, this guy has some powerful pipes and the longer the record goes on the more I enjoy his delivery, but his approach reminds me a bit more of screamers which can be found on modern melodic death metal bands.

From the very beginning of the listening, we find ourselves bombarded by riffs and blast beats without frills or preamble, with good technical and compositional skills and a good dose of sonic assault. The listening proves to be very enjoyable for many stretches as the blood rushes through the veins. The opening staccato on the title tracks gets swept away by almost hysterical rhythms and razor-sharp beats, with some of the trademark melodic runs served in the background. Some fantastic soloing is embedded as well, making this a very promising start. The remaining tracks follow swiftly with some top notch guitar chords and intense shredding as well as hellish blasts and fantastic mid-tempo grooves. The production choices make the whole album ultimately powerful, if not a bit monotonous in the flip side.

Azaghal comes off tremendously powerful and almost on steroids on "Alttarimme on luista tehty" with a sound that is seriously different from what the Finns have shown in the past. As such, the record demands to be absorbed attentively because underneath the onslaught does hide detail and sense of melody. The guitar tone and the sequence of the chords are often addictive to the ears, and the drumming never strays from anchoring the rhythm section. It’s all done so precisely and with enthusiasm that the music - despite its grimness - brings a feeling of euphoria. The riffs build to a crescendo of hyper-speed down-picks and shreds, and the hints of melody shimmer through the blackened madness. So all in all a fantastic genre piece, but I hope that Azaghal bring back more of their freezing cold atmosphere the next time.

"Alttarimme on luista tehty", the twelfth album from Finnish black metal veterans Azaghal, brings a lot of surprises. Let's begin with yet another change in the band's line-up. Well, it isn't as if it changes so often, but all the same. So, the band now has a new vocalist Thirteen – he operates with a microphone only, while previous vocalist Niflungr was also responsible for bass. Now all the instruments (except drums) have been taken over by Narqath, the only member left from the original 1998 line-up. And Lima is still behind the drums.

Analyzing the change of vocalist, it is best to remember the band's next to most recent album "Valo pohjoisesta". Well, Kai's vocals were still more interesting: some abrasive, strained, full of sepulchral greatness and rhythmicity, while Mr. Thirteen's vocals are more typical of the Finnish black metal scene, that sort of, you know, talkative, mostly high-pitched, maybe even with some punkish attitude. However, you've got to hand it to the new vocalist, he screams on point and, as the first title song shows, he also can sing to a tune beautifully. But most likely the point is not at all about whose vocals are/were better – the updated band just needed fresh blood, because the main change took place in music after all.

This is obvious due in no small way to a new approach to production. It looks like Narqath/Azaghal was inspired by Swedish old school death metal, nothing less than "Like an Everflowing Stream" by Dismember with its low pitched "ragged" rhythm guitar. Maybe it was unintentional, maybe, but listen to the second album from Russian death metallers Pyre "Chained to Ossuaries" for example – in their bid to make a tribute to the Swedish death metal bands of the '90s, they generated almost the same sound that Azaghal have now chosen for themselves. If you didn't get it in the first song whose opening riff immediately grates on the ear – the guitar sound is ragged with a lot of "fizz", – then you will definitely understand it at the beginning of the sixth "Kaaos": it seems to be a typical early Gorgoroth-like tremolo-picked riff, but the low-end production does its stuff, so a tremolo picking melody sounds even groovy, reminiscenting of early Dismember. The next "Syöpäläinen" reinforces this "discovery".

The production on the previous album did not contain such anomalies: in simplistic terms, it was handled maybe in the spirit of early Marduk. It was just a classic of the genre and nothing more. By the way, the music on "Valo pohjoisesta" also got a strong Marduk vibe, but this influence was eroded by frequent incursions into other black metal territories, apparently in order to avoid the tremolo picked dictatorship. Nevertheless, there was nothing out of the ordinary on that opus – just typical old-school black metal. If only something took shape on the seventh "AIWASS": on the whole it was, again, a typical black metal piece, but a mindbending groovy riff in the spirit of Bolt Thrower at the beginning and end could make you wonder.

Well, Niflungr broke bad on "Alttarimme on luista tehty". Although a Swedish black metal vibe is still strongly present in Azaghal's music (however, it is more Dark Funeral-esque manner than Marduk-esque one – pay attention to the beginning of "Paholaisen musta kieli" or "Myrkkyä"), the picture has changed in fundamental ways. Now almost every song contains a repeated duel/confrontation of elements that, frankly speaking, are not always compatible, but dutifully follow each other at the behest of the creator.

Let's just go through the songs one by one: "Alttarini on luista tehty" – a heavy metal passage, a slightly dissonant guitar picking and a blasting rampage; "Kuolemanmarssi" – an obvious thrash metal riff and a typical tremolo picked black metal riff; "Kultti" – very groovy alternativism (or something that can be interpreted for it), a typical tremolo picked black metal riff and some kind of punkish passage with piano strumming (or maybe it's just a guitar processor); "Kaaos" – a typical tremolo picked black metal riff and a dissonant passage, completely uncharacteristic of the band, from among the modern black metal attributes; "Syvyydestä liekkien takaa" – piercing tremolo melody and syncopated rhythm with some punkish attitude; "Verivirta" – almost the same, plus a blasting rampage.

If the song does not have an above mentioned confrontation/duel, then it still contains some unusual element that opposes the old Scandinavian black metal school: "Paholaisen musta kieli" – stop-start riffing, well, not in a black metal manner, but in some kind of alternative one; "Myrkkyä" – an almost heavy metal solo with melancholic guitar plucking; "Syöpäläinen" – an almost death metal beginning; "Ei valoa tuonelassa" – death metal elements again.

Oh, you can be sure that "Alttarimme on luista tehty" is a black metal album above all else, but because of the production you can often get the feeling that it was made according to the recipe "to cram black metal elements into old-school Swedish death metal". It's as if Dismember imagined they were playing black metal. While seasonings from other genres enhance the amazement or delight (well, it's each their own) when listening to this album.

The last "Seitsemän ihmisen irvikuvaa" is oversaturated with spices as all get out, obviously excessively, as if it was patched up of incoherent pieces. The passages/moments are interesting on their own, there's no denying, but they aren't harmonized with each other. So it's definitely the worst song on the album. While "Myrkkyä" is the most beautiful and melodic piece. Actually the album is filled with beautiful and touching passages from the very first song, we note the two most noticeable: in the finale of "Kultti", an epic pagan metal-like keyboard part is added as an addition to the "duel", and in its turn the last third of "Paholaisen musta kieli" begins with an epic passage including a melodic almost eastern-tinged lick.

Summary. Needless to say, "Alttarimme on luista tehty" turned out to be unexpectedly diverse, even very diverse. Let's be honest, some innovations in Azaghal's music are debatable, that is, some really catches your ear, while other annoy you. But thanks to the short duration of the songs, no innovation poisons this album. In any case, if Niflungr decided not to be obsessed with the (glorious) past, it is worthy of whole-souled support.

The Metal Observer