Kuolema
Noise Not Music

LA RECENSIONE

Kuolema, a Finnish band, are a legend of '80s crust-punk. During their active years, their productions can be counted on one hand, having participated only in a compilation "Hardcore '83" for Propaganda Records and having produced only one demo tape in a very limited edition, again for Propaganda. This "Noise Not Music" released by Alternative Action in 1997 aims to present again all the gems of ferocity composed in the '80s by the Finns. We are thus facing 36 songs "diluted" in a scarce 34 minutes, shot at the speed of light, with no melodic concession, with frenetic and obsessive rhythms, grindcore, and crust mixed with a repugnant noisecore component, creating a hardly repeatable anti-musical maelstrom of those years.
By playing the CD, one notices that the poor recording technique used to produce these pieces only increases the sense of disorienting confusion in their music, fragmented and furious tracks that follow one another without interruption, a programmatic manifesto made of violence and death, crime and blood. All the recordings from the period date back to the '83-'84 season, when Walde, a former member of M.A.P. and later a part of Terveet Kadet who died accidentally in 1984, was with Kuolema on guitar. His place was later taken by Makinen, a former member of Rutto. The lineup also included Juki on bass, Weke on drums, and Ile on screaming.

I think that back then, very few played as violently as they did. On their website, which I mention in the link, there's also another collection of their pieces that can be downloaded for free, to get an idea. For those who consider Napalm Death's Scum, an immortal masterpiece released in 1986, these Kuolema cannot fail to appeal and shed new light on a band that made their acid and unhealthy proto-grind their banner at the beginning of the '80s.