Sculpted from oozing wires and engineered flesh, slicked with black oil and anointed with lysergic diabolism these seven frames captured of the shapeshifter mid-dilemma represent avant-garde psychedelic black metal quintet ORANSSI PAZUZU pressing their bodies against the gears of invention and merging into their roles as bio-mechanic antagonist cinematographers, challenging the psyche of the listener with each unconventionally set scene. Directing the lazing, normative ear away from comfort into grotesque existential horror this sixth full-length album from the band, ‘Muuntautuja‘, greys out the will of the individual in smearing shades of black noise and electro-obsessive craft which produces signature detail and texture without the need for wild coloration. Challenging and avant-garde by design this record is these folks still have a knack for dynamic experiential works and despite how crooked their lines are drawn here there is some considerable pleasure to be derived within the chaotically spiraling, beat-stricken haunt of it all.

Oranssi Pazuzu found their collective muse circa 2007 between folks who’d built some experience playing in both experimental, psychedelic and alternative rock groups in the early 2000’s. Vocalist/guitarist Jun-His (Kuolleet Intiaanit, Grave Pleasures) and Toni Hietamäki (Atomikylä, Dust Mountain) incited a group of folks intent on combining interest in space rock, psychedelic rock and black metal without intending to every rest in one place. The first ten years of the band’s undertaking yielded a legendary procession of four underground records that’d steadily breached obscurity by way of incredible live performances and an increasingly challenging approach to black metal abstraction, headier than Hell stuff. I wasn’t a fan right away from what I recall, their first record circa 2009 was a mind-bender that hadn’t sunk in until ‘Kosmonument‘ hit a few years later in 2011 and ensured it’d all clicked for me. Their records have hit my Best of the Year lists with some consistency since and to this day I count ‘V​ä​r​ä​htelijä‘ (2016) and the aforementioned second LP among my favorites of all time.

That fourth LP was a pivot point for the band with one key member being swapped out for another, a number of EP releases landing, and several side projects taking up some interstitial time as tours began to last a bit longer and some involvement with the Roadburn Festival meant a few big projects in the making, including Waste of Space Orchestra, finally coming to fruition. The way that I’d seen this transition and eventual signing to Nuclear Blast was the band having created an expectation of subversion, a sort of escalation of actions that’d emphasized free-form modus for creation and collectivist input with broader artistic strokes outside of the lines already happening in live spaces. The result was the unexpectedly unsafe brilliance of ‘Mestarin Kynsi‘ (2020) hit at the least convenient time possible, a few months after the global pandemic hit. The hyper-production of the era where hobbyists and restless artists unable to tour filled the market to the brim meant many folks moved far too quickly past the genius of that record and its greater breakthrough. Having given it an extremely favorable review and stuck it at #50 on my Top 100 Albums of 2020 even I’d felt like I did not given that record its absolute due. As a result I have overcompensated my time with ‘Muuntautuja‘ and as such it begins to merge with my psyche, damaging vital connections with each successive pass-thru.

Needless to say I am a fan of Oranssi Pazuzu and make a point to follow each of their related projects, this only sometimes lends some insight into other worlds entirely, such as the brilliant ‘gaze of Kairon; IRSE!, and related experimentation that offers something almost in-parity of its generation of fusion and fluxion a la Jun-His‘ recent side-project Haunted Plasma which you should absolutely dig deeply of if ‘Muuntautuja‘ tickles your skull at its most abstract and psychedelic leanings. I mention this because it helps to illustrate the vision of this band as a priority. As I’d sat with this record and mused upon its fractal yet brackish layers of wildly-set dementia the impression was that it wasn’t frivolously chosen in construction, only growing more challenging when thinking rather than feeling my way through its cosmic-horrified grinding.

From the vacuum strikes a hissing din, repetitious waves carrying the propulsive elektro-trip and creep of ‘The Fragile‘-era Reznor as the air leaves this ravaged space station per the cold-clicked out opening strum of “Bioalkemisti”. What we hear is the soul leaving the suit, the skull bursting within, as the dark radiation of bleak blackened atmospheres desiccate and spray distortion upon the scene. There are guitars somewhere in there and even the rhythms relate to work that stretches back to 2011 even but we are clearly experiencing work a league removed from the previous album from the start. Dark EDM fades and vocoder-esque emulation introduce the trip-hop steam of the title track, “Muuntautuja”, an unsettling wheeze through broken chords left adrift and shuddering synth ’til the big bass drop-pulses and carefully placed piano taps provide an outline that contains the beast of Oranssi Pazuzu‘s work behind well-scratched up plexiglass. In confronting the beat-hypnotic pump of those first two songs and their sinister noise shredding dankness it might be natural to approach with trepidation as these jammed feeling collages of beat, bopping space-bass, and scarifying dread don’t have the taut and intelligible structures of the already wildly abstracted ‘Mestarin Kynsi‘.

In the past Oranssi Pazuzu‘d held fast to some “rock” hooks, or, heinous loops that’d taken over for the black metal structures early on per the space rock loose-necked psychedelia of it all. Now that even this is subverted in some sense the curious listener should begin asking, is this album as “serious” as the last? From my perspective it is just as, if not more, considered and developed by embracing emergent creation. Gaining an even more idiosyncratic set of skills through practiced avant-garde deviation, jammed extensions which’d arisen from free-wheeling live performances of past work only adds to the alien personae of their collective; If you are too lost and cannot find control within the chaotic airlock bursting nox of those first two pieces I’d suggest “Voitelu” should please the canonically shaped expectations of those less prone to embrace extreme change. There is of course a through-way to be felt here in terms of the vocals coming into familiar focus per their black metal phrasing/tone and the cyclonic burn of the piece otherwise, containing a distant ancestor to the spiraling dread of ‘V​ä​r​ä​htelijä‘. Though the sensation of a logical step taken starts to root then and there I’d curb the expectations of the listener and point to the use of distorted, harsh noise as an indicator that this album will only become more of a mass of irrevocable hissing dread as we continue.

Since 2011 one of my favorite aspects of Oranssi Pazuzu‘s sound is the rhythm section’s willingness to embrace a beat-centric form, touching upon tripped space rock and hip-hop steps which allow the basslines of Hietamäki to bring an attitude and groove which is completely unique in the heavy/extreme metal space, often building toward mountainous cosmic horror cinema depending on the piece. While the title track felt like a retention of that aspect “Hautatuuli” almost wears it outright as a feature and focal point as Side A concludes with a strangely balanced set of hills-and-valleys split between blackened, barking psychotic whorls of noise and steadier creeping dread-beats. While the typical black metal/noise conception simply creates a wall and holds the volume at eleven these folks illustrate every biomechanical tendril, embody the possession of the machine, and come out the other end of this depiction feeling profoundly experiential without outright demanding the direct focus or accost of the listener. In fact, they almost appear to be actively discouraging focus at this point and, this only becomes more painful from that point.

Our fusion with the god-snake ah via devourment. — “Valotus” was the limit to reach in terms of the band’s use of noise, a feat which to me recalled the first time I’d heard “Lexicon” from the fourth Neurosis LP and had to consider exactly what the intent of the artist was in creating that level of dissonant, ear-crushing resolve for a jammed-out piece as they continued to lean into the nox of the piece, layering it deeper. I don’t know if that moment was groundbreaking, or that this one is either, but it is a point where the line was crossed into an extreme and unwelcoming headspace which only appears to exist to shock and debilitate the knowing mindset. The brainworms are thriving at this point on my part, of course, but Oranssi Pazuzu only just reach for that limit in order to test it as the song escalates, something to grab and strangle the ear loose before the nearly ~10 minute “Ikikäärme” provides the final major highlight on the full listen, stumbling into a jazz-fueled tunnel of creeping-wet reverbed clean leads and multi-layered, room haunting vocals to start. To my ear this is almost an exaggeration of something you’d find on an early Atomikylä record but, different from what Waste of Space Orchestra did with sludgier meter and multiple vocal characters. At any rate this should serve the transcendent, tunneling dirge worth repeating the longtime fan might’ve been anticipating after ‘Mestarin Kynsi‘ had found so many restless avenues in avoidance of such a mountainous showing.

There are limits to my exploration, of course, and without the lyrics in hand the suggestion is that Hietamäki‘s lyrics center around both personal existential dilemma, confrontation with dread in mind, as often as they touch upon disintegration of the changeling as all life inevitably erodes. This seems to fit and the lyrics are not particularly wordy or extensive for this band, often two or three stanzas are provided at most, so the impact is largely felt in the listeners interpretation and general aesthetic of their work. Oranssi Pazuzu have worked with graphic designer/artist Jenna Haapaharju for layouts on previous albums as well as some work for other projects but in this case her approach to the album artwork echoes the black, grey and estranged modulation of tone felt throughout the album. The layout itself reads like the ashes of flowers, dead and carbonized forms which bear a glowing photocopied bloom and molten-black textures cut into abstract shapes. The whole of it reads almost like a unique photography/art zine at a glance, though the band have suggested that each format will have a unique layout. While I’d enjoyed the more traditional high-detail illustrations that’d covered the band’s 2010’s recordings artwork like this better suits where they are at today as a hyper-avant entity outside of time and in this case devoid of any too wild coloration.

The best possible outcome from an avant-garde metal album is that I didn’t get what I’d wanted, or expected, and instead found value in the experimental wiles and curiosities of the artist at peak exaggerative stroke. In this case ‘Muuntautuja‘ has the effect of a particularly vexing Lovecraft piece where all of the detail, the build and the ultimate implication of off-camera tragedy and/or transformation leaves at least a few more questions to consider while enjoying the residual awe of the experience. Yes, the grooves and beats of this record give it a certain appeal that is entirely outside of heavy rock/extreme metal boundaries, and that is enough to sustain the core personae of Oranssi Pazuzu via their rhythmic voicing, but at no point does it feel like this album panders or refers to itself beyond the subject at hand and as creation in the moment. In this way the experience has some great value in bouts of repetition though the better you know its demanding breadth the sooner it becomes daunting as an unskippable thread. The recommendation is then made awkward, or, dependent on the desires of the listener. On one hand I think everyone should at least skim the surface here, though it might take an inquisitive masochistic soul to meld with the carbonization of the senses within. On the other hand I don’t think we’ll hear anything else like this this year, or, potentially again as these folks continue to tour the possibilities of abstraction at an extreme level. A very high recommendation.

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