Reviews list for Impaled Nazarene - Suomi Finland perkele (1994)

Finnish black metallers Impaled Nazarene & I got off to a rip-roaring start to our relationship back in 1993. I'd been recommended their debut album "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." by a close associate of mine who worked at a Sydney metal record store by the name of Rock 'n' Roll Warehouse & had subsequently purchased it blind, culminating in a very positive & enjoyable few months of beer-drinking blasphemy. The follow-up album "Ugra-Karma" achieved almost as enthusiastic a response ten months later & saw Impaled Nazarene being confidently carved into my preferred band list. It also resulted in me religiously checking out the band's work for the rest of eternity, initially through their 1991 "Taog Eht Fo Htao Eht" demo tape & 1992 "Goat Perversion" E.P., both of which I quite liked. So, needless to say that I was feeling pretty hopeful when I returned home from the shops with Impaled Nazarene's third full-length CD in two years "Suomi Finland perkele" in October 1994 but my first few listens left me a little cold if I'm being honest. I would give the album a red-hot crack over the next month or so but it failed to capture me like the first two albums did & I'd soon cast it aside as a decent but inessential inclusion in the band's back catalogue. Yesterday's revisit is the first time I've returned to "Suomi Finland perkele" since the mid-1990's & I was hopeful that my reduced level of expectation might allow me to connect with the album on a deeper level.

July 1994 would see Impaled Nazarene returning to the same recording studio that had been so successful for them with their first two records in Kemi's Tico Tico studio. The strong production job on those two releases was certainly a selling point for me & "Suomi Finland perkele" doesn't disappoint in that department either with legendary Finnish metal producer Ahti Kortelainen once again affording Impaled Nazarene a clear yet powerful black metal sound with a huge snare drum. In fact, I feel like Kortelainen's contributions to the early Impaled Nazarene records were almost as important as that of the instrumentalists to be honest as he gave the band an accessibility that they may not otherwise have achieved. There had been no lineup changes between debut album "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." & third album "Suomi Finland perkele" & I feel that this could only have had a positive effect on the Impaled Nazarene's ability to naturally evolve from the battering war metal-inspired sound of their early works to a more traditional & slightly more melodic black metal sound over the course of those first few releases. The tongue-in-cheek element that was so obvious on those early releases is still very much at play on "Suomi Finland perkele" though & it once again feels like it's not intended to be taken all that seriously.

Critics of the band will likely refer to Impaled Nazarene as simplistic, one-dimensional &... well... a bit dumb... & I can certainly understand that point of view as there's not a lot of depth to a lot of their back catalogue. There is a level of creative integrity here though with the Luttinen brothers branching out from flat-chat black metal a little here & there. The melodic "Blood is Thicker Than Water" sees them taking a crack at a more atmospheric black metal sound while "Let's Fucking Die" gets its Motorhead on big-time with a pure black 'n' roll approach. Neither appeal to me much though which is fairly telling as I've always preferred the more intense & often grindcore-influenced end of the Impaled Nazarene spectrum. You get a bit of that here too but not nearly as much as we'd seen on the first two albums. With the exception of those two songs I already mentioned, the majority of the tracklisting is quite enjoyable with the fairly straight-forward "Ghettoblaster" being the only other dud. There aren't any certified classics here though & that's a major flaw with "Suomi Finland perkele". Hell, there isn't even anything that I'd suggest is crying out for playlist inclusion either to tell you the truth with the band failing to break out of the third tier on this occasion. "Steelvagina" (my personal favourite) & "Genocide" come the closest but even they only seem to achieve a mild amusement as opposed to an emphatic fist in my musical face. I dunno.... I certainly find "Suomi Finland perkele" to be a predominantly enjoyable experience but I can't say that it compares well with Impaled Nazarene's first two albums & I can completely understand why I haven't returned to it in so long as there has been a clear step down taken from past glories.

Perhaps it's simply a matter of taste as I've always favoured a darker & more intense form of extreme metal than your average metalhead but "Suami Finland perkele" seems like a slightly watered down version of the Impaled Nazarene that I so enjoyed during their early days. There's no doubt some enjoyment to be found in it if you allow yourself to overcome the tongue-in-cheek elements of the Nazarene approach but the added touch of melody doesn't work as well with these very straight forward song structures in my opinion. The blackened doom track "Quasb/The Burning" was an interesting inclusion but even then it stops short of commanding repeat listens which kinda sums up the appeal of an album like "Suomi Finland perkele". I see it as more of a supporting cast member in the feature film of Impaled Nazarene's early albums which is a bit of a shame but it's still a fun listen for those members of The North who can see past the mystical shadows of their maces & candelabras for a while.

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Impiety & Belial.

Another overrated Impaled Nazarene album that has very little to enjoy.

I'm sorry to poo-poo all over everyone’s party but Impaled Nazarene are hugely overrated. I simply can't get over how highly these albums are rated. For starters, these guys obviously never really gave a crap about what they were releasing. The first two albums were filled with idiotic moments and despite what many seem to think out there, don't remotely approach anything resembling darkness or evil for a second. On every Impaled Nazarene album there are tracks they showcase what the band can do when this tired formula kind of clicks (particularly on Ugra-Karma). They occasionally come up with a decent riff and hold it for a few minutes while the drummer goes nuts and Mika screams over the top to create mildly entertaining pieces of work. But the rest of their albums are filled with either entirely repetitive, boring black metal or atrocious attempts to branch out into electronica or rock n roll.

Suomi Finland Perkele does nothing to change my mind. While Steelvagina (yes, more immaturity on display) is perfectly decent and Blood is Thicker Than Water manages to work, despite its total lack of black metal, there is nothing else on the album worth remembering. Total War - Winter War has a couple of minutes of the band shouting "do you want fucking war, yes we want fucking war". Let's Fucking Die is terrible rock n roll with lyrics as stupid as the title suggests. With so much incredible black metal out there to listen to, why would anyone want to keep listening to albums like this one. The only truly great thing I can say about Suomi Finland Perkele is that it only runs for around thirty minutes. But that's half an hour more than I'm willing to waste on this album ever again.