MUUKALAINEN PUHUU

"Muukalainen Puhuu" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish experimental/ psychadelic black metal act Oranssi Pazuzu. The album was released through Violent Journey Records in April 2009. Translated from Finnish to English the title of the album means "Alien Speaks".

The music on "Muukalainen Puhuu" is quite unique IMO. The basis in the music is raw and simple black metal in the vein of Darkthrone, but with an experimental and psychadelic twist. The early seventies Krautrock scene and especially Can is a big influence. The vocals are raspy, extreme and delivered in a quite convincing manner. The tempo is mostly mid-paced and there are only very few faster sections on the album. The atmosphere is tripped out and spacy and the use of vintage keyboards (lots of organ) really give the music an organic feel. Some of the songs like "Dub Kuolleen Porton Muistolle" ("Dub for a Memory of a Dead Whore (of Babylon)") and "Kerettiläinen Vuohi" ("Heretic Goat") have some lengthy and rather noisy krautrock styled repetitive parts. The title track is a bit different from the rest of the songs with it´s ambient (no drums on this one) atmospheric experimental sound. "Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien Teatterin Rukoilijasirkka" ("The Praying Mantis of the Theathre of Latter-day Saints") is in the other end of the spectra as it is probably the track on the album that´s closest to traditional raw black metal. It´s also the track that features the fastest tempo. Even in this song there are twists and turns that keeps it from being "regular" black metal though. The lyrics are in the Finnish language and it´s something I hope Oranssi Pazuzu will continue with on future releases because it gives the album a mystical aura and quite frankly it just sounds really charming. The meaning of the words are of course lost on me but this is one of those cases where it´s a minor issue.

The musicianship on the album is excellent. The vocals may be extreme but they are full of expression, the rythm section create that repetitive hypnotic krautrock atmosphere to perfection and the guitars and keyboards bring some texture and memorability into the mix. This is of course not your average commercial pop tunes, but still there are melodic content enough to satify those who can´t live without memorable hooks.

The production is really succesful. It´s raw enough to satisfy the metal head yet very organic which should appeal to the psych fans. The marriage between the genres is completed by the sound production.

"Muukalainen Puhuu" is an excellent and quite unigue album by Oranssi Pazuzu and personally I´m really happy that I discovered their music. They definitely stick out from the crowd with their original style and innovative approach. I find "Muukalainen Puhuu" to be a very recommendable album to people who think that a blend of raw and simple black metal and experimental/ psychadelic rock sounds interesting. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is well deserved. One of the best releases for me in 2009.

* On a sidenote. Feast on that beautiful cover artwork. One of the most intriguing covers I´ve seen in a while.

'Muukalainen Puhuu' - Oranssi Pazuzu (74/100)

Oranssi Pazuzu are one of the most singular and strangest experiences I've had in black metal. Although four excellent albums have proven their craft many times over, I swear they're the sort of band that might have seemed like a pure gimmick on paper. A fusion of black metal with vintage psychedaelia has been tried before-- most notably in the form of Nachtmystium-- but no one ever attempted a blend as full-bodied and integral as this. I'm sure they'll end up having their would-be copycats at some point, but the fact remains that Oranssi Pazuzu have tread into murky waters no one else explored or even knew existed.

While the dark aural enshrinement of "true" black metal already carries a psychedelic connotation with it, merging the BM aesthetic with trippy 1960s space rock could seem like a conflict of interest. The vintage psychedelic wave was driven by carefree youth and the essential desire to connect with other beings. I shouldn't have to explain how that conflicts with black metal. In any case, it's clear where Oranssi Pazuzu draws the line on Muukalainen puhuu. Summertime free love is replaced with a nightmarishly surreal haze. They're a style-powered band above all, and a large part of what made them great from the start was their obsessive dedication to their fusion.

Oranssi Pazuzu would jump around with their sound a bit on later albums. On Muukalainen puhuu, the split between styles feels almost perfectly balanced. There are times here where it's unclear whether I'm listening to black metal with psychedelic influences or the other way around. That ability to bend genre to the point of sparking debate surprisingly isn't something most experimental metal bands have ever really proved capable of other than a superficial level. Such as it is, Oranssi Pazuzu managed to leave a pretty instantaneous impression on me when I was first introduced to them. Between the off-kilter surf rhythm, blackened rasps and 1950s sci-fi horror theremin, "Korppi" was a [%*!#]ing trip the first time I heard it. It still is. From whatever depths they dredged this sound up, there's no doubt it leaves a pretty indelible impression once it sets in on your ears.

The brilliant concept is fleshed out with an authentic execution. Oranssi Pazuzu sound like they're just as drugged out and misanthropic as they should. As a pure expression of style, Muukalainen puhuu may still be the most striking thing the band has ever done. Appropriately dazzling material is featured here as well; it's doubtful whether they've written another tune as definitive as "Korppi", and some of the slower jams (see: "Kangastus 1968") hit their mark perfectly. In hindsight however, I think Oranssi Pazuzu may have gotten more caught up with their style than they were with writing really substantive material. Compared to albums they've released since, there's always been something about Muukalainen puhuu that held me back from really loving it. They never really let loose here as much as I'd like to have heard from them, and the slower jams, finely tuned as they are, are a bit sleepier than I'd have liked to hear. Nevertheless, every album they've put out since has its roots here, and each of those have made due on the lofty promises they offered up here. Even if Oranssi Pazuzu have gone to even greater heights, this would be a tough experience to ever forget.

If ever there was a band to finally warrant the creation of a fully-fledged subgenre called psychedelic space metal, then this Finnish band, ORANSSI PAZUZU surely must catalyze that process to the breaking point even if a gazillion other spacey metal bands ranging from Arcturus, Smohalla, A Forest Of Stars, Nachmystium, Hail Spirit Noir or even certain aspects of Sigh didn't exactly get it there. It must be that ORANSSI PAZUZU (Finnish for "orange" plus the name of a wind demon from Babylonian mythology) simply has done it so well, that is in mixing psychedelic space rock with black metal that is literally impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins at times despite there being clear cut phases where each dominates the sonic scene. This debut release MUUKALAINEN PUHUU ("The Alien Speaks") pulls off the perfect marriage of psychedelia and space oriented rock with a black metal ugliness. The album cover alone tells exactly what's in store, namely an extraterrestrial journey into the inner and outer recesses of the darkened cosmos above and within. The spacey organs bring early 70s Krautrock bands to mind and the repetitive rhythmic grooves do indeed bring bands like Can and Neu to mind.

The sounds on MUUKALAINEN PUHUU are characterized by long and drawn-out sweeping progressive sonicscapes that establish a darkened and tripped out atmospheric presence with ample use of ambient effects and synthesized avant-garde fixings. Once these psychedelic mood enhancers are fully established, the five musicians who make up this band from Tempere lets loose with some heavy grooves that somehow simultaneously evoke the heavy psych pioneers of the past while still allowing a black metal bleakness to rip through the veneer. Generally speaking, the guitar riffs are groovy in composition but distorted and blackened in tone and intensity. The raspy vocals of Jun-His are what keep the overall sound grounded in a pure black metal feel as do the heavy riffs but when strange lounge lizard type keyboard runs dance around the distorted string section it creates a most peculiar contrast but somehow the crystal clear production has a way of balancing out the opposing forces. Some of the organ and synthesizers sound haunting like lost ghosts on the solar winds.

This isn't the kind of black metal that's vile and vicious. There is no buzz saw feedback wall of sound nor are there angry and hateful temper tantrums. This is a cold and mysterious type of metal with swirling sounds and carefully unleashed aggressiveness that perfectly accompanies the imagery and perhaps the most ideal of space shuttle soundtracks for metal heads. Perhaps one of the reasons this combo effect works so well is the common element that both heavy psych and black metal share and that would be the repetition of grooves that keep the listener hooked and hypnotized. ORANSSI PAZUZU pulls off a double play in this regard as this music both stimulates and mesmerizes simultaneously and always remains spectral while guitar riffs that seem to go slightly in and out of tune provide an underlying tension. While some tracks are heavier and deliver a more raw second wave black metal attack, some parts sound more like they could have been just as comfortable in some 60s club setting minus the raspy vocals of course. ORANSSI PAZUZU's debut is quite the captivating listen as it not only has a totally unique sound already fully established but varies the tracks enough to keep the magic alive for an entire album's worth of material. While they would perfect their fusion techniques on subsequent releases, MUUKALAINEN PUHUU is already an astonishing psych metal album in its own right.