Ydinaseeton Pohjola: Enää Meille Ei Riitä Kuolema
(Distroy)
LP
Out Now
Ydinaseeton Pohjola’s new album is a ferocious beast that stands spikey head and studded shoulders over the many bands throwing out D-beat and thrash, says Nathan Brown.
The D-beat phenomenon may have originated with Stoke-on-Trent’s Discharge but Scandinavia has always provided some of the finest takes on the theme. Truth be told, there is so much D-beat about that these days it takes an awful lot to get me motivated or interested. Enää Meille Ei Riitä Kuolema by Ydinaseeton Pohjola is a record that hooked me straight away but it has a magic ingredient – it is from Finland. While we had Discharge, the Varukers, Chaos UK and Disorder, the Finns had Rattus and Terveet Kadet. Ydinaseeton Pohjola have been about since 2008 and have a string of releases under their belt.
From the first few seconds after the needle hit the groove the fuzzy guitar and battering drums grabbed my attention, and then the singing kicked in. I can honestly say this album, whose title translates as Death Is Not Enough For Us Anymore, is truly ferocious.
Fuzz is up to the max on the guitar, making me think of the greats of 80’s Japanese thrash. Punchy drums batter out the D-beat and other straight-up hardcore patterns. The throaty vocals are so raw they sound like the singer is swallowing razor blades. Something about a band singing in Finnish makes music like this better, more guttural. There are split-second gaps between songs and no need for drawn-out intros. Any solos are restricted to a few seconds or one string keeping with the whole aesthetic. This is exactly how I expect, and want, a hardcore band from Finland to sound. The album is mostly a fast, straight ahead, charge into oblivion but a couple of slower head nodding numbers change the pace. The Finns have a reputation to keep. Fans of Finnish hardcore punk and fast raw Swedish punk like Mob 47 and Skitkids will not be disappointed.
A translation of the lyrics reveals concerns about the fur trade (still huge in Finland), corrupt officials and politicians, hypocrisy and the whole damned class and capitalist system.
Ydinaseeton Pohjola are not doing anything groundbreaking or new but they are doing it like they really mean it. I don’t know if it’s the ferocity of the vocals or drumming, or that fuzz guitar but their sound stands out among many bands I’ve heard in recent years aiming for something similar. Maybe it’s because they have kept it stripped back to its essence and relied upon brutal effort rather than gimmicks. This record energised me instantly – it grabs you by the lapels and throws you around the room. I mentioned this to Alex at Distroy who responded that he knew he wanted to help release it “after two songs”.
Enää Meille Ei Riitä Kuolema was recorded in 2021 but released this June on an international roster of labels including Distroy, Death Trap Records, Little Jan’s Hammer, Gafoni, Nightstick Justice Records, Nunchakupunk, Puukotus-levyt and Urealis-Tuotanto.
Enää Meille Ei Riitä Kuolema is available from Distroy’s website
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Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive.
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