NISTIKKO: Tuhannen pasuunan voimalla
Release year: 2021
Label: Suicide Records
With a past discography steeped in grindcore, it comes as no surprise that Finnish Nistikko continue down a path of furious, dark and extreme punk on their newest album. However, according to the promo sheet, around the time of their previous album, they grew a bit weary of operating within the confines of grindcore and have thus re-evaluated their own sound somewhat.
The result is an interesting album that exists somewhere between crust and grindcore with liberal amounts of extreme metal thrown in for good measure.
From the go, Tuhannen pasuunan voimalla convinces the listener with the sheer power of it’s short, sharp and rabidly frantic, ferocious extreme punk. The tracks, which mostly revolve around the minute-and-a-half mark are filled with fast tempos, violent screaming vocals bordering on the hysterical, and riffs that don’t so much play notes as tear them out with violence.
To be sure, the album does grind. A whole lot. There are plenty of sections that will make friends of grindcore very happy indeed, but still, the overall feel of the album reaches above and beyond. Large parts of the album are quite speedy, but there are also more mid-tempo and rhythmic sections as well, not to mention d-beat, giving the album a decidedly crust edge. With a dry and brittle guitar tone reminding me of the classic swedeath sound and some very metallic riffs, combined with the frantic fury of extreme punk, Tuhannen pasuunan voimalla traverses from crust to grind to extreme metal-esque hardcore.
With a very reasonable running time of about 22 minutes, during which time the band blast through 11 tracks of violence and apocalyptic anger, the album certainly doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Quite the contrary in fact: one or two more tracks of the same quality wouldn’t have bloated the album at all too much.
If there ever was a time when Nistikko felt wearied of their chosen path, there’s definitely not a single iota of that to be heard here. This is a band on top of their game, nothing less.
Summary: Violent, abrasive and thoroughly convincing, Nistikko may have abandoned the trappings of pure grindcore – but not those of angry and extreme punk.
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