[photo by Pauliina Lindell]
In 2013, Finland’s ORANSSI PAZUZU issued their Valonielu LP, an album of timeless creative immensity that was met with ubiquitous praise throughout the world, and solidified the band’s position as one of the most forward-thinking and interesting metal bands. Now, in the early months of 2016, ORANSSI PAZUZU returns with the follow-up album and fourth overall, the mind-bending masterwork Värähtelijä.
Since birth, ORANSSI PAZUZU has never been satisfied to stick with a formula. Each album has seen the band expand upon its previous incarnation and then, like a supernova, blow it up and transform again into something recognizable but completely new. Värähtelijä continues in this vein, giving the band much more room to diverge and explore the vast regions of hypnotic progressive psychedelia and the nebulous outer limits of Scandinavian black metal. Songs explode with radiant ultraviolet color and plunge into the deep black darkness of innermost consciousness. If Valonielu was the creation of a universe, Värähtelijä is the magnification and expansion of its infinite boundaries.
A more than seventy-minute sprawling voyage, Värähtelijä more accurately represents the stunning live presence of the band where the songs often span new and previously unheard dimensions of form and structure. Not meant for genre purists, ORANSSI PAZUZU is on a trip all their own; modern electric pioneers on an expedition to unlock the keys to the hidden spaces all around and inside us.
Issues the band of their newest opus, “Värähtelijä is continuing where we left off with Valonielu, but it plunges deeper into the pitch black hypnosis, combines progressive song structures to more free and flowing parts. At the same time, it’s the heaviest and the most atmospheric album we`ve done so far. The fusion between different ends of spectrum reveals new realities we`ve never discovered before. We really wanted this album to go to new places and to be the crossover album of genres we always wanted to do. To further boost the idea, the album was done with Julius Mauranen who had previously done lots of Finnish shoegaze and indie pop albums. I think it’s safe to say that this is by far the heaviest stuff he has done and for us, working with a guy like him stretched our sound to much more dynamic and trippy horizons. Lyrics-wise, the songs revolve around tripping in a psyche-space, with each song representing a vision or mirage that will be revealed to the listener. They are individual, but contain common elements with themes of unknown, sacrifice, transcendence, hate, hierarchy of power and, in the end, becoming a part of the cosmos through death.”
The fourth explorative chapter in the lineage of ORANSSI PAZUZU, Värähtelijä, is being finalized for worldwide release on February 26th, 2016, with 20 Buck Spin handling the album for North America and Svart handling international territories on CD, 2xLP and digital platforms. Seekers of hypnotic and mind-expanding alloys citing Ved Buens Ende, Magma, Hawkwind, Circle, Thorns, Killing Joke, Abigor, Neurosis, Aluk Todolo, Grave Pleasures and the like pay heed.
Audio transmissions from the realms of Värähtelijä will be issued in the forthcoming weeks.
Värähtelijä Track Listing:
1. Saturaatio
2. Lahja
3. Värähtelijä
4. Hypnotisoitu Viharukous
5. Vasemman Käden Hierarkia
6. Havuluu
7. Valveavaruus
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