Ääniä yössä

...........album from this fantastic Finnish black metal band. This is a concept album dealing with the Black Plague that decimated Europe's population in the Middle Ages. Lyrics are sung in Finnish, but the incredibly oppressive atmosphere this album conveys is more than enough to portrait the desperation suffered by the victims; the album starts out with a brief sample of rat sounds and the vocalist's screams as if in agony throughout the whole album. The overall pace is similar to that of the depressive suicidal BM style, but with a unique sound to it, the Horna sound, punkier, dirtier, fuzzier.

The album is 43' long and it's divided into 4 parts or songs. A long one, followed by a shorter one, a mid-duration faster/heavier one that ensues, and a 20' opus of a closer track, which is where the real treat resides IMHO. More on that later.

The sound is simply mind-numbing; it's been a while since I heard such a well-recorded album. And it's not that it's a clean and sterile recording, or a thin, muddy or dirty lo-fi record. Mind you, I'm an audiophile and will take a hi-fi recording over something like Transilvanian Hunger on any given day, only this is.....both !!! I mean it sounds raw, but every instrument has incredible presence; it's a safe bet to define it as a raw-sounding hi-fi CD.

The guitar sound is purposely opaque, fuzzy and crunchy, unlike the barbed-wire thin sound of more conventional BM bands; nothing is conventional here !! Vocals, courtesy of the then-new vocalist Corvus (my favorite) are another instrument since they're high in the mix, but never grating. Another peculiarity is.....there's an audible bass guitar !!! . This is more patent on the last song, where it clearly follows the guitar lines, only just as loud as them. Since this album was recorded by just Corvus and Shatraugh, the drums are programmed, not that I could tell, mind you, and they're incredibly good to boot, with just one , highly mixed-in kick drum for great punch and bottom end.

And then it hits you.....the 20' album closer, which tries (and succeeds IMO) to convey the sensation a victim of the plague experimented during their last minutes of agony and consequent death. The mix changes drastically respecting the first half of the album; louder drums and bass, with two quieter, distant-sounding guitars. It indeed beleongs to a later-in-that-year recording session, but the end result is simply perfect, like a different-sounding side B of a record. The songs may be too repetitive for a non-fan, but the percussion and bass alone, along with the scarce, agonic shrieking vocals made my day. Plus, there are subtle variations in the intertwining guitar parts that are a delight to detect; nothing boring about this song, or album for that matter.

This was my entrance point to the Horna world, closely followed by the excellent Sotahuuto and Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne, another two albums with Corvus on vocals.

Get it for your first or only Horna taste, which together with Beherit are Finland's finest.


(originally written for Amazon by yours truly)

What could be more metal then a concept album about the black plague? Nothing.
Horna, the most grueling Finnish black metal band this side of Beherit, seems to have caught onto this in their album Ääniä Yössä.

The album opens with the incredibly unpronounceable Raiskattu Saastaisessa Valossa with a crushing riff- foreshadowing the songs to follow. It sounds somehow drowned and sets an eerie mood of sorrow. It is raw, redundant, black metal at its purist. Corvus’ voice is raw, it’s horrendous, and it’s sinister. The guitars and bass are static and redundant, yet maintain a level of interest and innovation in a sense. I never thought I could be so amazed by the same 3 or 4 riffs played over and over again. The drums are slower then you’ll find on many albums, but fit the music very well, thus it isn’t an issue. Raiskattu Saastaisessa Valossa very well establishes the mood for the album to come.

The second track, Noutajan Kutsu seems more uplifting then the first track, and has more of a dynamic feel, the track doesn’t sound at all like the first, making the album dynamic, which is always a good thing. Noutajan Kutsu flows right into Mustan Surman Rukous, and reestablishes the depressing, sorrowful atmosphere from the tiny “high” found in Noutajan Kutsu. Overall, its probably the weakest song on the album, but still a good song nonetheless.

Finally comes the 21 minute 19 second beast of a song that is Ääniä Yössä, the title track of the album. It instantly initiates the redundant, everlasting, as well as faster guitar and drum riffs that will occur for the rest of the song. Corvus’s voice dominats the music in some of my favorite vocals I’ve ever heard. The tone culminates in this song in an unrelenting torrent of drum beats. It drags on, in a good way. This song, as Shatraug has put it as “much like the last moments of a person dying of the plague: fevered, sick, hurting. Surely hallucinating,” a description I could not possibly best. It is raw, it is ongoing, it is redundant and best of all; it is fucking awesome.

Horna has done something on Ääniä Yössä that very few bands are able to do- create atmosphere. What they, and even fewer groups have done, is create atmosphere without the aid of keyboards or effects- it is raw, unadulterated black metal about the plague, it is done in a perfect way. Buy this fucking album.

Horna have been one of the few Finnish black metal bands that were either give or take with me. Most of their releases are straight-forward BM which is good, but considering how much of a prolific dischography they have, you would think they would be running out of ideas/steam etc. I remember picking-up "Hiidentorni" back in the day ('98...'99) along with a handful of other BM albums. That one struck me the most as the ugliest definately most rawest which was uneasy for my brain to comprehend even then. Fast-foward to 2006 where Horna is but a vauge memory in my damaged mind and all of a sudden Metal Maniacs and other publications are giving good reviews to them, along with advertisements by Moribund Records. I figure I would give them another shot seeing by now my cranium has been hardened through many nights drinking heavily.

A concept album about the black plague? Cool. Better than some other concept albums I have listened too. Horna does manage to really grab the sickness and absolute rotting feel of that time with an opening sample of rats scurrying about in the opening of "Raiskattu Saastaisessa Valossa" starts off with a really excellent melodic riffing and for the most part this song kicks major ass. I'm all for blastbeats and whatnot, but some mid-tempo riffing is also healthy for the possessed metalhead. Most of what is shown on "Anni Yossa" is constant alternation between mid-tempo riffing, to slow melodic doomy/depressing breaks. At times this may seem extremely monotonous, but for some reason works. "Noutajan Kutsu" continues the riff-worship momentum and foot-tapping(yes, Shatraug's riffs are fucking catchy). By the time you hit the mid-point of "Mustan Surman Rukous" your might catch yourself thinking..."Ok, are we we going to spice shit up here guys? Good so far but we are hitting the point where monotony becomes annoying. We are hitting Marduck territory here"...then the title track actually starts out completely different. First thing you notice is the sound production. Second thing is that there are blastbeats. Third thing is that this is Horna making ugly Finnish BM. Nothing catchy, nothing melodic....just ugliness. For and ending to an album of only 4 songs, it works.

The major downside to this album is that you really hoped for a little bit more, because Shatraug and Corvus managed to really pull together as a team and create some killer stuff. The downside to Horna is that they have released so much material over the years maybe only 1 or 2 releases (including this) really shine through. Those who want a good introduction to Horna should start with this release.