“Synnyin tappamaan/Aiheuttamaan tuhoa/Tuottamaan tuskaa/moderni messias”

So begins Vitutuksen multihuipennus, the first track proper of Finnish black metal act Impaled Nazarene’s third album Suomi Finland Perkele from 1994. And to me, like many kids of my age, it was my introduction to extreme metal.

Not only did they sing in Finnish – something virtually unheard of until then – the over-the-top graphic provocation of the lyrics was just the thing for a zit-faced teenaged metalhead. “Haudattuani teidät vedin käteen ja huusin että olen jumala” (translating roughly to “After burying you I wanked and shouted I am god” – but this quick translation in no way conveys the aggressive provocation of the Finnish original) guaranteed notoriety and consternation from teachers if scribbled in a notebook or shouted out loud in the hallway. Ah yes: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and even poster boy of shock rock satanism Marilyn Manson, then emerging into the mainstream with a bang, felt so quaint and safe after having heard Impaled Nazarene.

Never you mind that I didn’t necessarily like the music a whole lot at first. Testament to this is that it took me a while to seriously start digging into extreme metal, and then via death metal bands such as Deicide and Morbid Angel.

I was introduced to Impaled Nazarene via a classmate, who in turn had been turned on to the band by his cousin. For the first five years or so, I had the album only on a home-dubbed tape with a hand-drawn cover (of a Finnish flag drawn to be an inverted cross, obviously). It must have been in late 1995 or early 1996 that I got this tape. At some point, most of the extreme metal I had was on dubbed tapes: as a kid, I of course had little money – and no idea where to get my hands on underground music. So I copied whatever albums aforementioned friend had, or some of my other metalhead friends happened to have, or I managed to find in the local library (which, by the way, had an impressive collection: I first got to know acts such as Immortal, Ildjarn, early Sepultura, Obituary and Death from there).

So, I had Suomi Finland Perkele on tape, and listened to it every now and then and didn’t really like it at first. But it planted a seed. And eventually, via the already mentioned detour of US death metal, I circled back to black metal – and found Impaled Nazarene waiting there for me. By then, in the mid-to-late 90’s, they were one of the few non-Norwegian acts you saw mentioned, and of course had a bit of a cult status in Finland, being a Finnish prominent name in the scene. I guess you could say they were already one foot out of the underground, on their way to becoming a far more recognized name within metal. At least in Finland.

And with my newfound appreciation of dark, extreme and satanic metal, Suomi Finland Perkele served as an entryway into the more serious side of black metal. Impaled Nazarene weren’t just about over-the-top shock value: a track like The Oath Of The Goat had a menacing seriousness about it – something that felt like genuine darkness.

Before long, I got acquainted with the first albums of Impaled Nazarene (I first heard Ugra Karma because aforementioned local library had it!), and Suomi Finland Perkele was relegated to gathering dust. The dementedly satanic chaos and perversion of the first two albums had started to disappear by the third album, and for me, ever since first hearing Ugra Karma and debut Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, that’s the magic in Impaled Nazarene.

Revisiting Suomi Finland Perkele now, I can safely say it’s one of those albums where memories have grown sweeter with time. Sure, a few tracks still sound pretty damn good, but on the whole, the album is just… well, it’s a rung below the two first albums. It’s not as unpredictably chaotic and violent, not as permeated by a genuine darkness. And whilst the rocking riffing of Let’s Fucking Die is pretty rad, this is not the Impaled Nazarene that’s dearest to me. No, that’s the rabid and boneheaded satanism of In The Name Of Satan from the debut.

Not to mention the lyrics. Of course, there was always a skewed sense of humour in Impaled Nazarene, but it took a wrong turn (as far as correlation to my preferences go) on Suomi Finland Perkele. From possibly booze-fuelled but still real invocations to the devil to flicking the finger whilst shouting “Let’s fucking die” – the contrast was significant.

These are all reasons why, after getting deeper into extreme metal, Suomi Finland Perkele no longer held its charm for me. And time hasn’t changed that. To be perfectly honest, it’s an album I could possibly do without in my collection. So rarely do I feel an urge to listen to it. But on the other hand, in terms of personal significance – in the musical path it pointed out for me – the album deserves a venerated place in my collection. This is where it started.

Shown in the top image are the two versions of the album I own. The vinyl is the 2019 Osmose Productions re-release of the album; a stylish gatefold with gold-colored cover artwork. The vinyl itself is colored with black/gold swirl. The CD is the 2001 re-release/compilation (also on Osmose) which also includes the Motörpenis EP.

By the turn of the millennium, Suomi Finland Perkele had gone on to become a rather popular album amongst Finnish metalheads of all stripes. “Do you want total war? Yes we want total war!” was a war cry for budding longhairs – imagine my surprise when, a long time later, I discovered it had actually been appropriated and adapted from NON!

But of course, I can’t say this would have served as any kind of introduction to industrial music to me. Except in a very roundabout way: without getting into extreme metal, most likely I would never have gotten into industrial of any kind.

It’s funny how life goes. I never was a particularly good friend with the aforementioned classmate who almost forced a dubbed copy of Suomi Finland Perkele on me. But all the same, it’s thanks to him (and Suomi Finland Perkele) that I’m sitting here, writing this text. So, you know, I guess I ought to say: thanks Löffe.

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In From The Vaults we take a dive into the record collection at Only Death Is Real HQ and write about about items of iconic stature or personal significance; rarities and oddities from the archives; obscure gems that deserve more attention; classics of yore deserving of a moment in the limelight; and so on.