Rotten Sound – Apocalypse

2023-04-012023-04-01 Klaudia Weber

Label: Season of Mist Release date: March 31, 2023

Finland’s leading grindcore machine are back with their eight full-length album, the aptly titled Apocalypse, after a not quite voluntary, partly pandemic-related 7-year hiatus. Well, full-length in a way… their apocalyptic output barely reaches 21 minutes. According to the band, they discussed it “but we all agreed that relatively short running time makes the album even more compact. Besides, it has a faster pace and more
rhythm changes than any of our previous albums.” Btw, it’s also their new bass player Matti Raappana first recording with the band. He replaced Kristian Toivainen who left in 2020.

And indeed, there is a lot of variety, although the start is a brutal full-speed attack – Pacify my ass… There are some tracks with a groove a la Entombed (eg. Sharing, Suburban Bliss, Newsflash), you can detect a certain Punk attitude (eg Empowered) und Denialist surprises with some dose of Doom. Despite being almost melodig on occasion, shouter Keijo has no mercy for the wicked, just listen to Digital Bliss, that’s what I call brutal.

I’m no genre expert, but this album is just wicked fun – as enjoyable as the gigs of this band.

Track-list:
1. Pacify (0:42)
2. Equality (0:46)
3. Sharing (1:46)
4. Apocalypse (1:05)
5. Suburban Bliss (1:41)
6. Renewables (0:55)
7. Newsflash (1:21)
8. Digital Bliss (1:17)
9. True and False (0:19)
10. Denialist (1:46)
11. Nothingness (0:28)
12. Fight Back (1:04)
13. Patriots (1:15)
14. Ownership (0:47)
15. Science (0:49)
16. Empowered (1:57)
17. Breach (1:20)
18. Inflation (1:24)