ORANSSI PAZUZU — Värähtelijä (review)

ORANSSI PAZUZU — Värähtelijä album cover Album · 2016 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Oranssi Pazuzu, of Finland, are a rare breed of black metal act. They play what can only be described as psychedelic black metal. Psychedelic black metal as a genre is not something I don't see used to describe bands or anything, but actually finding an artist that genuinely plays it, at least to the level of what Oranssi Pazuzu do, is much more rare. Apart from these guys the only other band I'd say genuinely plays it is Greek act Hail Spirit Noir, who gave me my first taste of what this style could offer.

Oranssi Pazuzu actually predate Hail Spirit Noir, having released their first two studio albums before Hail Spirit Noir put out their first, so they could well be the originators of this style. At the very least I haven't managed to find a third genuine psychedelic black metal band yet. That's definitely a shame as between them the two bands are producing some really interesting black metal and do things completely different to each other. Värähtelijä (2016) is Oranssi Pazuzu's fourth full-length album.

If Värähtelijä didn't have such a harshness to it the album would probably be considered to belong to the atmospheric black metal genre as the band very much focus on building an atmosphere here, compared to the more direct song-writing approach used on their previous album Valonielu (2013). It definitely has elements of it though. I'd say that their influence from psychedelic music also draws on the space rock sub-genre. At least its a spacey kind of vibe that I get from this album. Their song-writing tends to focus on longer compositions with the notable exceptions of Lahja and Hypnotisoitu viharukous. Three of the seven tracks pass the ten minute barrier including the 17:39 long Vasemman käden hierarkia.

I do find the individual compositions on the album to blend together somewhat though, as the band's style has a hypnotic quality to it. I'd say that's the main appeal of the album, though for me their style proves to be less immediate in terms of enjoyment compared to what Hail Spirit Noir play, or indeed prior album Valonielu, which I instantly found to be more accessible than this one, though I would say this one is ultimately the more interesting release. Värähtelijä has proven a very rewarding album to keep coming back to though, but at the same time it's not an album I've felt that I'd want to play that often, only when the mood strikes. For what it does, it's very good stuff and makes me want to hear more black metal acts adding such strong psychedelic influences into their music. There's a wealth of potential for this stuff if this album is anything to go by.
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