Hebosagil may be the angriest-sounding band in Finland right now. Their third album, Lähtö, is 26 minutes of pure abrasive punk sludge. Over all too quickly, it’s the dirty rock and roll album for a drunken brawl.
The five-piece, made up of vocalist Tatu Junno, Remi Rousselle & Antti Karjalainen on guitars, bassist Oskari Kähkönen and Pete Miettunen on Drums, channel Hardcore punk through the swampy grime of acts such as Superjoint Ritual and EyeHateGod.
The noise these guys create is frantic, unhinged. Swinging from dirty, grimy stoner riffs to all out furious punk shredding. From opener ‘Ei ole mitään mihin palata’ to closer ‘Juippi’, frontman Junno’s vocals often take center-stage. Though speaking in his native Finnish, his gravelly barks suite the chaos the rest of the band creates, the rage is on show for all to hear.
It’s hard not to enjoy Hebosagil. The album is full of short sharp shocks to they system, each one brimming with whiplash-inducing riffs. One of the later highlights, ‘Valmis Mihin Vaan’, opens with a hypnotically headbanging before letting loose and shifting up the gears for some extra aggression. But despite how noise some and abrasive the music is, it retains the rock and roll quality that makes it fun.
In many ways, Hebosagil are Finland’s answer to Orange Goblin; plenty of dirty rock grooves, gravelly vocalist, and it all sounds great fun. At 26 minutes, Lähtö doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. It arrives, makes a lot of noise, and leaves. A brilliant dose of grimy, jagged rock and roll.
8/10
Dan Swinhoe