Sotujamala -Teloitus

Sotujamala - “Teloitus”, 2007
(Woodcut Records)

The lexicon of death metal appears to an outsider to consist of words gathered from medical textbooks and horror movies although the two most used keywords by insiders are crushing and  brutal.  Listening to Finnish death metal band Sotujamala's’s latest offering you know the two keywords once again will be bandied about.

I stuck this CD in the player after listening to the atrocious Balls CD and immediately heard good musicianship.   These guys are tighter than Scrooge McDuck.  The vocals are death grunts and whether or not the lyrics can be clearly heard is irrelevant for a lot of us since they are all in Finnish.

What really stands out on this album is the drumming because drummer Timo Häkkinen is capable of making tempo changes seem effortless and never bores.  He often goes from a blastbeat to slowing right down and blending in with the other musicians as a drummer should.  The guitar players are no slouches either and there are more than tasteful satisfying leads all over the place but still fitting in with the band‘s music which often goes from slow mode to fast for a bit then back.   The emphasis here is on power rather than just speed.

The final track “Teloitus” clocking in at seven minutes drags a little but other than that “Teloitus” is a very fine death metal album or in death metal dialect, this is a brutal crushing album.  .

3.5/5


http://www.sotajumala.com/