When creating music some bands blur genre boundaries, and while difficult to pigeonhole, they can still be rather safely said to operate within a particular genre or two. Mitochondrion is a great example of this. There's a lot going on in their songs, but you can rather accurately label them a death/black band. Others completely smash genre boundaries, making simple descriptions of their music impossible. Oranssi Pazuzu is of the latter variety.
If I absolutely had to adhere to the two genre maximum when describing Oranssi Pazuzu, I suppose I would go with something along the lines of "blackened space rock." Which, in and of itself, should sound unique and interesting enough to warrant a download, but that's missing part of the picture. These dudes are obviously big fans of 70's psychedelic and prog rock, the Floyd and Crimson influence comes through loud and clear. I also hear some krautrock, Neurosis and the thundering bass-heavy industrial metal of Godflesh. Droning ambient sections are littered throughout the record. The track "Luhistuva Aikahäkk" starts out with a minimalist groove that almost reminds me of Portishead. "Maavaltimo" breaks out into a driving hardcore riff that nearly gets buried by a host of spacey guitar. "Komeetta" is astonishingly danceable. All of the vocals throughout the album are done in a black metal style and somehow manage not to completely clash with everything else that's going on. Then there are the actual black metal parts. Which, I'm assuming by now you could guess aren't very straightforward. They bend and twist and mutate in a way that reminds me of Deathspell Omega.
Honestly, I have no idea what the hells this is. It completely defies categorization. I do know that it's one of the most interesting albums I've heard in a long, long time. It's going to take a while to digest, but somehow I know that I'll still be listening to this album years from now.
Oranssi Pazuzu on last.fm
The most "black metal" track on the album.
Might be my favorite song on the album. It's like Godflesh on LSD.
Get it here.
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