Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Oranssi Pazuzu - Kosmonument CD (album) cover

KOSMONUMENT

Oranssi Pazuzu

Experimental/Post Metal


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Bookmark and Share
UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars "Kosmonument" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Finnish post/psychadelic black metal act Oranssi Pazuzu. The album was released in October 2011 by Spinefarm Records. "Muukalainen puhuu (2009)" proved to be a mighty fine debut album mixing equal parts krautrock psychadelia with post black metal. "Muukalainen puhuu" was released on the small label Violent Journey Records while "Kosmonument" has been picked up for release by the larger Finnish label Spinefarm Records, which should help the album's availability to the fans.

The music on "Kosmonument" is filthy, dark, atmospheric, repetitive, psychadelic and at times quite intriguing. Oranssi Pazuzu have an organic sound that brings a lot to the music. It would be wrong to call this lo-fi or chaotic but it definitely isn't clean nor pretty either. The vocals are raspy which is one of the most obvious black metal traits on the album, but other than that, and a couple of blast beats, you won't find much on "Kosmonument" that fall under the catagory of "regular" sounding black metal. This is tripped out and obscure. The kind of music style that makes you uncertain of what to call it.

Compared to the debut album, "Kosmonument" is slightly more psychadelic, chaotic and organic. But Oranssi Pazuzu already had a pretty original style carved on "Muukalainen puhuu" and I'd call "Kosmonument" a continuation of that style rather than a development. The album is a bit long with it's 66:13 minutes playing time and if you ask me some tracks overstay their welcome by a couple of minutes, but if you don't mind your music featuring repetitive hypnotic beats/basslines and equally repetitive song structures, I'm not sure it'll pose a problem to you. Most of the time it doesn't pose a problem to me either. In fact most of the time those features bring a cool, laid back effect to the music that's greatly enjoyable. I guess I liked the debut sligthly better than this album, but "Kosmonument" is definitely a worthy purchase too if you enjoy your post-black/extreme metal with a psychadelic twist. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is deserved.

Report this review (#587587)
Posted Wednesday, December 14, 2011 | Review Permalink
Conor Fynes
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars 'Kosmonument' - Oranssi Pazuzu (81/100)

It was relatively easy to get obsessive over Oranssi Pazuzu. Even years into their career, they've retained a monopoly on a style fusion that's as striking in practice as it was promising on paper. If too much talk is spent on the band's genre, it's only because Oranssi Pazuzu stand in a world of their own. not that psychedaelia and black metal haven't been fused in the past, but only here does it sound like a blended, balanced marriage. They are host to a surreal, hazy real. Is this what the Norwegian Second Wave would have sounded like if they had been raised in 1970s West Germany?

I still remember when I was showed Muukalainen puhuu back in 2009. The sheer authenticity they gave to the psychedelic nd was enough to set them apart from virtually every other psych-black band I'd heard at the time. Oranssi Pazuzu's debut still stands as one of the most singular experiences I've come across in music. Even then, the material itself left room for improvement. While they had practically nailed the execution from the beginning, Muukalainen puhuu's atmosphere may have been just a bit too campy for their own good. The dark fuzzy turn they took on the follow-up Kosmonument saw fit to legitimize their style even further.

It's sometimes debatable to me whether Kosmonument may actually be Oranssi Pazuzu's best album. It's easily the most bloated thing they've done, lacking the focus of Valonielu or concentration of Värähtelijä. Regardless, of any album they've done to date, I find Kosmonument is the easiest to get lost in. Oranssi Pazuzu also arguably plunged to their darkest depths here. where Muukalainen puhuu may have sounded playful, it's hard to make the same argument about Kosmonument's fuzzy nightmare aura. Even if the album could have used trimming in places, the sheer excess is what sets the album apart from others in the band's discography.

Oranssi Pazuzu opted for a more album-centered approach on Kosmonument than the song-by- song impression of the debut. Although this resulted in fewer standout pieces than other albums, the choice to approach the album as a single piece of work served the end result well. Each track flows from one to another in an intuitive stream. At the potential cost of melodic hooks, they placed more emphasis on texture and fuzzy effects. Though not to the spaced out extent of Värähtelijä, Kosmonument never rushes to get anywhere. The hazy flow of the album definitely draws from the psychedelic end of Oranssi's sound; I think it served the band well to align themselves so closely with disciplines not often heard otherwise within a black metal context. The way things are done here, the atmosphere and timbre are made more important than the songwriting itself. Not that the composition ever slacks, but it's seldom been the reason why they've stood out as much as they do.

The fact that I've seen Kosmonument lauded and decried as the best and worst Oranssi Pazuzu album in different places should testify to its significance in their career. A more reliable album like Valonielu may hit closer to the mark more of the time, but the purpose of experimental music should be to rile and divide. While the debut still has great charm, this is the album where I think Oranssi Pazuzu really legitimized themselves as a "serious" act-- whatever that means. Where the vibe of Muukalainen puhuu could have been brushed off as a well-made gimmick on a jaded day, Kosmonument pushed it so much further.

Report this review (#1592638)
Posted Friday, July 29, 2016 | Review Permalink

ORANSSI PAZUZU Kosmonument ratings only


chronological order | showing rating only

Post a review of ORANSSI PAZUZU Kosmonument


You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.