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THRASH! - 90%
In the current Finnish metal scene, biggest things are the everlasting power metal, black metal, heavy metal and death metal, but thrash has recently joined back in with names such as Mokoma etc. but none of those really possesses the raw energy and aggression of the glory days of thrash of the Eighties f.ex. Kreator, Slayer...
From a small Finnish town called Harjavalta hails a thrash-trio called Wounds consisting of Joakim Soldehed - bass/vocals, Jouni Hertell - guitars/backing vocals and Arto Ovaskainen - drums. These three guys are aged between 19-22, but they have been smashing and thrashing and recording for at least five years! The experience is very audible. On record and live! Joakim´s vokills screech and tear the lyrics apart while the growls bury you six feet under. Jouni´s guitarwork is solid to the bone and he does some great alcohol-fueled solos! Arto...he´s a friggin´ machine behind the drum kit. He hits those blastbeats and fills with such power that you feel dizzy.
On to the actual material...
This compilation is about their demo material. It features their latest masterpiece-mcd called Holocaust Reich, Nuclear Devastation-demo, Barbarizing The Death-demo, Brutal Mutilations-demo and the unreleased demo called Brown In Sight. There are 19 songs so there´s plenty to enjoy!
First - Holocaust Reich:
This has to be the fastest, most brutal and most straight-to-the-point kind of material on a mcd! The sound is quite light, but I think it suits this mother very well. The only flaw is the lack of length! It doesn´t really bother on this compilation, but hell, I would be starving for more if it would be Holocaust Reich only! 9/10
Second - Nuclear Devastation
The material on this demo is a bit tamer than on HR, but doesn´t really get trampled. The sound is getting rawer as we drift back a few years. Joakim´s vocals are mostly growls and Mille Petrozza-like screeches, but in a few places he does some screeeeeeeams that sound like a thrash metal version of Halford or rawer King Diamond! The tamer side of this demo is that there aren´t really any blastbeat parts around, but the speed and aggression is there and the guitars rip and slash.
Third - Barbarizing The Death
Oh yeah! Getting rawer and rawer as we are taken into the year 2000.
King Diamond-like screams, more death metal growling and a bit less complex drumming on this one. I really can´t decide what are the main musical influences on this one, but this baby sounds like a crossbreed of Cannibal Corpse´s Eaten Back To Life and Metallica´s Kill ´Em All...and solos are definately Petrozza with an early Hammet-twist!
Fourth - Brutal Mutilations
Okay...this is getting raw with a capital R! The year is 1999 and there are only three songs on this piece. Joakim´s high-pitched Diamond-screams are getting higher and higher as he is getting younger and younger. The drums are pretty straight on this one and no complex fills are heard. The sounds are heavy and pounding and the riffs have some of the groove that Metallica was known on Kill ´Em All! And finally...
Fifth and last - Brown In Sight (unreleased)
The three-track demo from August of 1999. The sounds on this remind me of Beherit´s Demonomancy-demo. This is rawest thrash I have heard! Joakim´s vocals are straight forward screams with some aggression and snot. Songwriting is simple but effective. This demo could be from the era when they were still a four-piece band. There is something audible during the guitar solos that sound like a second guitar, but it could be a bass distortion-pedal.
The last track on this compilation is a song called 'Rautakirves' which is a cover of Jouni´s former band called Kiduttava Hengenveto (Engl. Torturing Inhalation...?).
The party is over and Harjavalta-crew is triumphant!
The standouts: All of Holocaust Reich, Gas Mutations, Brown Inside, Alien Abduction, Wounded, Rautakirves-cover.
