UHRIRISTI
Haudankylmä
Mortis Humanae Productions (2015)
Rating: 8.5/10
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With a moniker that translates as “sacrificial cross”, Finland’s Uhriristi come marching out of the tundra frost-bitten and ready to chill the bones with their violent brand of icy black metal.
Formed in 2011, the band consists of Rutto (vocals), Samael (guitar / backing vocals), Räyhähenki (bass), Synti (drums) and Kauna (synths), and Haudankylmä (which means “cold grave”) is their second full-length release. As I expected, it’s another bracing effort featuring the seething black metal strategy we’ve become accustomed to with most acts, but there’s also some killer melodies contained within this frosty glade.
I’ve always been happy to submit myself to the frost-bitten battering rams provided by certain black metal acts, but every now and then one seeks something different within the regressive extremity and on this occasion this Finnish troupe deliver the goods.
The album – which comes two years after the 2013 debut Maailma Palaa – brings with it more of those horrendous barking vocals; the sort which dirty and then scrape the ears in their harsh manner. We also get those chilly atmospherics which are evident as a cold piano leads us into opener ‘Kaivo’, before the breakneck speed lashes us across the face like a set of unseen brambles on a bitter night. It’s black metal as we know it; harsh but with its roots embedded in stark melody, and the shifts are riveting as the track evolves into an all-out churning thrash assault laced with those nasty vocal barks, but then the next minute we have a killer riff and haunting theme.
This is classy stuff, and not just black metal played for the sake of shock and horror. Uhriristi offers up a marrying of the primordial and serene, even with the more brutal gallops served up. ‘Kaivo’ is instantly catchy and features a superb segment of Gothic orchestration before its close, but it’s also proof that black metal bands can still offer up accessible yet vicious noise without simply relying on primal grit, and for me these guys are becoming masters of their trade.
‘Routahauta’ emerges as a mid-paced ice-breaker but still has that same venomous slant in the vocal, and there are some hints of Emperor too; the arrogant structures giving way to rich, prickly textures as the guitar bristles with ominous aplomb.
Where so many black metal acts end up thin on the ground with material though, Uhriristi just gets stronger and stronger as they march on. ‘Kaamokseen’ is rich with thorny melody but lives up to its translation of “The Polar Night” as the glacial percussion coats the ears. But for me, the most epic and gargantuan of all tracks is ‘Rukous Kuolevan’; a black metal equivalent to power metal to some extent as the band traipses into battle full of swagger and well-armoured as the guitars strike out with menace and the vocals snarl in nightmarish fashion.
Throughout the harshness of the riffs, the overall unorthodox manner in which the songs are delivered means that this eight-track affair (including a cover of Verjnuarmu’s ‘Varjvala’) is one to truly savour as the darker nights start to fade.
While very much delivered as an anti-Christian message, Uhriristi’s sophomore effort is a behemoth on its musical qualities alone. And because it continually surprises with its gait and grace I can’t help but fall also for those vile throaty yelps of Rutto, who just adds that extra coating of hatred to this already formidable and gnarly beast of a record. Haudankylmä is an excellent addition to the black metal genre, and an album that should appeal to anyone with tastes ranging from Horna to Old Man’s Child.
Neil Arnold
