Kristillis-kansallis-konservatiivinen Suur-Suomi - Rakas seurakunta... (Sacrificial Dance)
In the early nineties, Finland suddenly erupted with a more sophisticated strain of death metal (DM) that demonstrated the extent to which the genre had outgrown the campy B-movie horror aesthetics and juvenile angst that defined its sometimes awkward adolescence. War metal (WM) is currently experiencing a similar renaissance, although it's not localized to a particular region. We'll be curating a more comprehensive prix fixe menu of WM's modern vanguard in a forthcoming Mutant Breakfast piece, but suffice it to say that Kristillis-kansallis-konservatiivinen Suur-Suomi's (KKKSS) debut Rakas seurakunta... serves as more compelling evidence for this emergent trend.
KKKSS is a side-project from Finnish musician Kalle Koskivirta, who records stripped-back and outlandish psych-DM as Oksennus while singlehandedly managing the Sacrificial Dance imprint. On Rakas, he combines his unique brand of bughouse histrionics with a disgust for bigoted conservative politics (the project's name is a parody of the gobbledygook labels these nationalistic parties often assign themselves) in a loose WM template. Similar to his approach in Oksennus, Koskivirta's unhinged harshes take center stage, alternating between and sometimes blending exasperated caterwauls (think The Body or Black Death Cult) and lava-gargling dragon roars. Underneath this vocal hullabaloo roils a viscid churn of guitars, bass, and drums, occasionally pierced by cathedral organs as decorous as the valiant knight that guards the cover. Still, even these airy tones come across as crooked fanfare for something terrible and profane. While the project's name is almost certainly tongue-in-cheek (even the acronym looks like a fascist mishmash), Koskivirta isn't just trolling his fans with KKKSS. Their topsy-turvy production and goblin-like psychedelia are sure to please fans of debauched and forward-thinking WM.