Erupting from the speakers with a dirty barrage and a clatter akin to Trap Them, title track and opening number ‘Pelon Juuret’ reaches for the throat, rips it open and roars down the gaping hole. Its successor, ‘Vihan Lapset’ isn’t far behind, swinging gut-punches and sonic upper-cuts with a Wolverine Blues-ramped-to-11 aggression and swagger.
It’s clear that on Pelon Juuret (Relapse) Finland’s Unkind aren’t here to mess around.
Dubbed ‘atmospheric hardcore’, in a tag that doesn’t do them justice, Unkind don’t sit quietly in their, or any, box. ‘Laki’ recalls Entombed at their rawest, while ‘Olemisen Pelko’ channels Kvelertak at their most vitriolic. But when you think you have them pinned as a more-hardcore descendent of the Sunlight sound, they take you down a dark alleyway, and rather than beat you bloody, take their time unnerving and disorienting with the menacing ‘Viallinen’, a glorious slab of ominous post-hardcore, building Neurosis-like to a violent scream. This is no knuckle-dragging neanderthalathon, Unkind have a subtlety and depth to them with expertly layered open guitar chords and top strings jangling and discretely adding melody to the raging waters of the riffs.
Added to the subtlety is a very clever use of album dynamics. Pelon Juuret tells a story, and moves, draws you in, spins you around, then leaves you unnerved, flowing from riotous, furious crustiness to considered discomfort, before picking things up with the anthemic ‘Olemisen Pelko’ and just when you’re up, it lets things out with a tense, brooding instrumental closer (‘Saattokoti’) swirling with synths and plucked stringed instruments. Unkind not only stand out from their peers, but do so without sacrificing their malevolence.
Aided and abetted by a full and unrestrained production, pushed on by vitriolic vocals, Pelon Juuret is an energetic mix of D-Beat with clever atmospheric touches, exercising enough restraint that the ‘post’- touches enhance and don’t take over.
As if anything could take over the fury…
8/10
Steve Tovey