Hiisi, Suden Hetki, Patologian Laboratorio Productions, CD PL2015-4 (2015)
There have been three Finnish BM bands that were / are called Hiisi (meaning “goblin” in English), one from Tampere in central Finland, and who performed in Finnish, the second from the Åland islands performing its songs in Swedish, and the third a duo whose members include drummer VRTX who has spent time in various other bands. The Hiisi featured here is the third band and “Suden Hetki” is its second release, a compilation of seven songs recorded in two separate sessions.
Hiisi’s style is minimal technical black metal of a type recognisable to most fans of Finnish BM: this is raw melodic music, performed with consistency and technical flair, sticking to a basic guitars-n-drums set-up, and all very no-nonsense straightforward stuff with no tricky special effects or deliberate attempts to create atmosphere. Song structures are not complicated to follow and rely on repeated riff and melody loops, of which there can be several in the one song. Lyrics are important to the point where the music merely coasts along in support and actually bogs down because the vocalist is so busy having to spit out the words. The production is usually clear and the raw music, always constant and dense in texture, is sharp and hard-edged.
Most of the songs here have a good rhythm that can be bouncy at the start, at least before the musicians start digging away in earnest. The music has a constant whining chainsaw tone and the drums are not so much hit as thumped each and every time. Where the duo have the most fun is in the singing: songs feature duelling sets of vocals, one high and screeching, the other much gruffer, deeper and shrouded in shadows, and both screaming and howling in their fight to be heard over the busy music.
The first four songs pass without much change from one to the next but the instrumental track that concludes their section is quite an eye-opener: the crumbly noise guitar goes solo over a repeating loop of dreamy synth and quavering cold tone ambience. Had this been slower, this could have been a very good dream trance piece. The compilation finishes off with two songs that were originally released as part of a split album back in 2013: these show Hiisi as more garage / punk-influenced band with jagged metal rhythms, a grimy sound and shouty vocals.
While I wish that Hiisi could have been more than another generic purveyor of Finnish minimal technical BM, this compilation is a good example of that style when done well. The guys show some creative potential with the one instrumental track and I’m hoping they can do better than that on future recordings.