Finnish Crusters are back to us with apocalyptic melodies! I guess not many of you know this band, well today I will try to fix that. Here is a small historical intro. Pelkotila is crust band from Finland (they are based in gloomy Helsinki town). These guys started to reherse about 4 years ago. During all this time these guys have released a few 7” and played a lot of shows. And now the time has come and the guys finally released their first full length album “Pelon Ilmapiiri ”. This album contains 9 songs, and they all emit a sticky and dark atmosphere. This album will immerse you in a gloomy, black place where you will feel oppression, melancholy and doom. I guess I started to feel these emotions when I saw the cover of “Pelon Ilmapiiri ”. Maybe someone would call this art primitive, but personally I find this cover art pretty emotional. Broken glass, smoke and fire, dark figures… this is fucking dark end. Sakke Vinko (the artist) did a terrific job, I'm sure that he fully felt and conveyed the atmosphere of this album, which is very important (in my opinion of course).
Obviously Pelkotila are newcomers, but I can't include them into the list with mainstream punk bands. I know that the guys are big fans of Tragedy and From Ashes Rise (I'm really feeling an influences from these bands in their music), but I like the fact that guys are trying to be not just stupid clones. I guess this album is not for everyone, you should be in right the mood to be able to feel that dark atmosphere in these tunes. Guys made a mane accent of these things. There are just tons of gloomy melodies and badass apocalyptical solos. But let's not forget about great rhythms and song structures. Also there is a lot of kick ass d-beat, bass pieces and fast crazy riffs. Classical yelling brings to this album some sort of oldschool spirit.
Well in the end I only can say that if you are in love with dark crust, you definitely should check this album.
Rating: 8.5/10 Pelkotila bc Pelkotila fb
The new album is out! For all questions write directly to the Procrastinate!
I'd like to start with some information about the band Pelkotila. It started from drink party at one of Helsinki's bar in 2013. They mix d-beat, neocrust, old school hardcore, with addition of Scandinavian sound. Songs from this self-titled EP was already released on tapes in 2014, but it sold out pretty quickly, and they decided to make a vinyl version too. I got 57th copy out of 100-limited transparent print of this.
Slow and harmonic beginning of the first track "Seuraukset" proceeds into upbeat crust/d-beat part. I liked grim and sludgy atmosphere of "Ei Koskaan", this kind of songs is nothing new for neocrust, but it sounds really pleasant. And moving on with the side B, which also contains only 2 songs. "Ne Toiset" is somehow dark, but very short, I couldn't catch the atmosphere, so it's the least favorite track on this EP for me. "Uuteen Aikaan", on the contrary, plays for a whole 5 minutes. Simple crust riffs and d-beat drums supporting them didn't fool me, and I've waited patiently for the gloominess of Finnish winter finally come out from these guitars, and in the middle of the song we can hear great slow and dreary solos, and it builds up until the very end.
Overall, I can say that Pelkotila's debut EP turned out quite good and solid.
Rating: 7.5/10 Pelkotila fb Pelkotila bc
