It doesn’t get much weirder than ORANSSI PAZUZU. The eccentric Finns left their black metal roots in the dust long ago and have boldly steered full speed ahead into the land of “WTF”. Their 2020 album, Mestarin Kynsi, didn’t do a heck of a lot for me, as they seemed to reject any form of memorability in their quest for strangeness. 2024 brings us Muuntautuja…how does this one fare?

This record is more batshit than anything they’ve done so far. Sheer noise has never played such an important role as it does here. In the press, the vocalist/guitarist Jun-His describes the album as being “black electric ooze” and for the first 2/3 of it, that description is as good as any. I don’t know how much repeatability this sucker has, but the initial listen is so bizarre that you can’t help but get sucked into the vortex.

The black metal elements are almost completely gone except for some rasping vocal shrieks, but the psychedelic and industrial aspects are here and very strong. This is probably the most “industrial” sounding album ORANSSI PAZUZU have done. The opener ‘Bioalkemisti’ is made of layers upon layers of sound, starting with simple key notes, then moving to HUGE bass riffs and then a surging mass of deep synth and guitar noise. It’s disorienting yet gripping…noisier, yet much more compelling than the last OP album. The title track is much more subtle and creepy, like something you’d hear in a haunted house run by Nivek Ohgr. Or maybe music made by a malfunctioning member of the Borg Collective.

Each song is different, an OP trademark. ‘Voitelu’ is HEAVY with both synth and guitar noise and is maybe the most metallic track here.’Hautatuuli’ starts much more laid back and diffuse but gets loud and epic in the last half. The same can be said for ‘Vaiotus’, which kind of a NINE INCH NAILS feel to it. Then the album loses its way with the long, meandering and not that intense ‘Ikikäärme’, which is just dull psychedelic/ambient slop. When it picks up in the last minute, it’s too late. Last song, ‘Vierivä Usva’, starts out with memorable tones but just drags out and gets flat. With these last two tracks, it’s like ORANSSI PAZUZU ran out of energy and just decided to throw leftovers from Mestarin Kynsi onto the album.

On the whole, this is a more interesting album than their previous effort. Today’s metal scene is so full of boilerplate death metal and power metal stuff, anything weird is a relief. Muuntautuja is plenty weird, that’s for sure.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality

ORANSSI PAZUZU
Muuntautuja
Nuclear Blast Records