Perkeleen luoma / Kyy

Finnish black metal always gets my blood boiling as long as we speak about the "trve" variant of this style. Azaghal, no doubt about it, have sold their souls to the never ending darkness. In particular mastermind Narqarth ensures that the Satanic aura is omnipresent. Admittedly, I would not say that each and every album kicks ass and "Perkeleen luoma" holds a few songs that have some regrettable scratches in the paintwork. The acceptable "Käärmeen laulu" ("The Serpent's Song) for example, passes by without evoking great emotions, because its fairly melodic chorus does not surpass a solid level. The title track wants to be an interesting, industrialized sound collage with a gloomy atmosphere. I wonder that Tom Warrior did not put such a number on "Into the Pandemonium", but maybe he thought rightly that "One in Their Pride" is torture enough. Times gone by! Azaghal's outburst of hate from 2004, this much is true, does not suffer from a great number of defects, because a lot of ugly, mega-black bastards guarantee that the full-length crosses the finishing line without problems. This album does not run out of breath, it masters the playtime of more than 50 minutes in a good manner.

In general it can be said that everybody who likes the band's further albums, for example "Nemesis" or "Teraphim", will enjoy big parts of "Perkeleen luoma". Azaghal is Azaghal and nothing else. Songs that embody fanatic hatred are combined with less fierce numbers, but the overdose of misanthropy is reflected by every "regular" song, only the intro and the aforementioned title track send slightly different signals. But let's get back to "Teraphim", the group's work from 2009. Its very good song called "Filosofi" (The Philosopher), a mid-paced lamentation, was originally released on "Perkeleen luoma". But these two versions differ substantially from each other. The here presented variant is less precise during the rather slow part, yet it surprises with a raging end which is completely missing on "Teraphim". A good closer, but not the highlight.

By contrast, "Verenkirous" (Bloodcurse) belongs to the best tracks. A hailstorm of violence is connected with icy leads. In some moments, they give the orgy of chaos a surprisingly melodic touch. The inhuman screaming and nagging of the lead vocalist underlines the brutality of Azaghal's approach. Songs like this one kidnap the inexperienced listeners and send them to hell without warning. Its merciless riffing at the end confirms the impression of the first four minutes of this sonic predator while proving evidence that Narqarth and his evil comrades are not willing to slacken the reins. Further tracks originate from the same womb. The bestial chorus of "Rivaaja" (Demon) can cause nightmares, the restlessly attacking "Perkeleen kitaan" (Into the Devil's Mouth) has a certain groove without showing even the smallest signs of - mostly shitty - black 'n roll and "Rutonkantaja" (Plaguebearer) behaves like a typical opener: wild, insanely fast and equipped with extremely sharp riffs. For me as a fan of the second wave of black metal, it's hardly possible to resist the impact of these diabolic eruptions. The pure essence of black metal reveals its fascinating power of attraction anew.

Of course, the sub genre does not need a clinically clean sound. Given this situation, Azaghal have chosen a rasping, relatively blurred sound. In its best moments, it puts the lacerating guitars in the right light, but sometimes I think it would be interesting to listen to these tracks with a well defined sound. The bass comes of badly, but after all, black metal follows its own rules and therefore this production can be deemed adequate. By the way, I do not really care about the question whether a computer or a human being is responsible for the drums. I enjoy the rapid drumming which includes blast beats and I cannot say that the songs suffer from an industrialized or mechanized approach. From my point of view, it is of greater relevance that Azaghal hold the flag of the black genre high. One can call them headstrong, stubborn or inflexible. But nobody can will dare to claim that "Perkeleen luoma" is a lukewarm work. It mirrors the passion and conviction of the band members. This fact and the big number of hellish hits make it easy for me to recommend this album.

Man, Azaghal keeps getting better and better! The Finnish dark horde has always been close to my heart, cause they produce cold, honest blackmetal. But unholy fuck, this time Azaghal released a vociferous, brutal, intense thrashing blackmetal monster!!
Where past releases always had the right feeling, but couldn’t really stand out from avarage Scandinavian, French and German blackmetal bands, this album is a huge step forward. Definitely Azaghal, together with Behexen, can claim the Finnish black metal throne now, but not only that, these two bands rule the underworld reigns of Satan himself!

Hints of the progression could already be heard on the great split album with Black Death Ritual. I picked that one up a few months before the Perkeleen luoma cd, though it seems that this full-length was released first. That doesn’t change the fact that I like it even better than the split.
The first track “Kutunkantaja” (I don’t understand shit of Finnish, if you want to know what it means try to contact DuskLord who did some great Azaghal reviews elsewhere on these pages, he is from Finland) is a blasting piece of furious hate! It smashes you in the face like a sledgehammer. The guitarsound is harsh and cold, the way it is meant to be. Both the sound and the song remind me of Sorhin’s splendid “Apokalypsens ängel” album sometimes. This is by no way bad! There is so much variation on Perkeleen luoma: Azaghal really developed their songwriting. Tracks like “Kuoleman kylmä ikuisuus” (5) and Riivaaja (7) are epic and long songs that remain very cold and brutal however.
The vocals by Varjoherra are THE perfect blackmetal screams: cold, intense and even frightening sometimes. The title track (8) is an instrumental/electronic interlude but after that “Orja” is a real blast again. The final song “Filosofi” (over 8 minutes!) starts as an epic hymn, then a nice, long and intricate guitarriff sets you up for a brutal attack. However, first the song takes a rest halfway with an easy clean guitarline performed by guitar and bass. Then the expected onslaught follows…

The only thing Azaghal has to do right now is find a real drummer again. Although the programming of the percussions is done very professional and the sound is brutal and pounding, a human drummer can maybe add even more depth to the songs.

The cd contains a video of the “Kyy” track, taken from the mcd with that title. Both the song and the video are not that great. Making a real gloomy and obscure video is hard and of course the budget is always limited. The clip starts out predictably with a camera “walking” low over snowy woodgrounds in the dark. You will see some fire-spitting and silhouettes with a knife in a flashing light. Especially the flashlight is kind of dull. In the end a bloody hand in the snow makes up for that.
More importantly the extra song “Kyy” doesn’t reach the level of the album by far… It is a short epic heavymetal orientated track. It seems like Azaghal wants to show they can outdo fellow countrymates Sentenced (and I do NOT mean the majestic “North from here”!!)… No harsh, cold blackmetal, this track, too bad.

However, this album is mandatory for blackmetal legions around the world! I myself am also gonna order the double vinyl version. This contains all five tracks of the aforementioned Kyy mcd, of which “Orja” and “Perkeleen Kitaan” are also on the full-length. With this raging effort expectations rise very high for the upcoming “Codex antitheus” album!