Album Review: Surut - Surut
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Although it contains just four tracks, this self-titled release from Finnish five-piece, Surut, doesn’t shy and at no stage does it avoid being confrontational. Sitting somewhere between post-hardcore and post-metal, the band are able to use these structures to create an engrossing and thoroughly devastating listen.
It all starts off quite sedately. Bass guitar and cymbal washes with easy guitar lines intersecting as a post-metal vocal begins. Even in this state, Vilhollen feels as though it’s withholding its sense of urgency, which is finally unleashed as the song becomes a cacophony of angry riffs and spirally guitars.
There doesn’t feel as though there is any less than their All being given by the band and ideas are explored through the likes of Hapea and Palo. The former opens with an atmospheric sound and some drum and guitar fills before getting right up in your grill. An eye of the storm moment settles things down until the frenzy returns and the track plays out in a frenzied blitzkrieg.
Similarly, Palo is a track of many colours, feeling more sedate and post-rock and having the feel of being huge in scope as the guitars soar.
There’s only Nousen, with its big opening statement and somewhat dissonant delivery, that feels like the most straight-forward song on Surut, but that is not meant as a negative, rather when placed against the other three songs on offer, Nousen seems the most instantly accessible.
Although only four-songs long Surut is a collection that is brimming with ideas and scope and you’ll find yourself coming back to it time and again.
