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Vuohivasara is a very new Finnish black metal band. Having formed only 18 months prior, this is their second demo already, and it's a fucking doozy. While the band hasn't quite yet found its true identity – large amounts of obvious influence from Darkthrone, Beherit and Satanic Warmaster are fairly obvious in their sound – this 4-track effort is definitely a mature, immensely enjoyable release from such a young band.

I swear I've heard the movie sample used as an intro before, but for the life of me I can't remember where it's from, but it's cool anyway.. "You tell 'em I'm coming.. and Hell's coming with me!". The sound here is a nice balance between the very raw and professional – it's neither a chaotic sludge or an overproduced plastic annoyance. The drums have a very natural timbre, so there's obviously no triggers here, and they're obviously being abused a lot, given the tortured clatter of the snare and toms on display. The guitars alternate between punkish power chord bashing and a more measured sense of streaming melody (as for bass, I'm not hearing much, but there's a subsonic rumble there which tends to blend with the guitar), while the vocals are a multilayered rasp backed up with a deeper demonic roar. Of the four songs, the standout is easily the last one "Tempus Eversionis" since it builds up to a very satisfying epic conclusion with one of those riffs which continues to echo in your brain after the disc has stopped spinning.

No doubt this band will be picked up by a label soon enough. The professionalism of this demo is quite far above the norm, with some excellent cover design work, a CD-ROM video from their first demo, and a sound which is already starting to show signs of originality amidst the obvious influences. Horns up!