Band: Vuohi (FIN) Album: The Rising Era Of Goat (2011) Genre: Blackened Grindcore Creating a clusterbomb of genres with their second demo The Rising Era Of Goat, Finnish Grindcore quartet Vuohi (apparently Finnish for goat) mix in Black, Death and Thrash Metal to create a chaotic blend for 10 blistering songs, 21 minutes all in all. Since forming in 2002, they’ve been moving away from their Deathgrind roots; now we see a larger incorporation of Black Metal, in both music and vocals, an interesting contrast to the Grindcore raging underneath and creating something quite unique to my ears.

Since Total Noise Chaos, it’s clear the band have taken time with their songwriting, especially balancing such different genres; Luoti’s riffs and chords can be distinguished beneath the demo-production fuzz, and there are several headbang-worthy moments, such as on “(In The Name Of) Ultimate Humanity”, although Raaka’s bass could do with a little boosting. The drums, after initially thinking they were a machine, turned out to be Veri, who machine-guns his way through songs but offers little else except some toms on closer “Obituary”. Still, the band work in unison, and this pays off with very tight material.

Vuohi do an incredible job in switching things up to engage the listener, but not to the point of forcing it. From the purely grinding “The Name Of The Newborn God/Grave Down Again” to the 2nd-wave Black riffing in “Flame”, and old-school Death in “Blood On All”, they have incorporated many styles which the keen ear can discern, but strangely they never jar at any point. Even in “The Last Ride Of Falling?”, where the tempo halves, the song still fits in with the rest of the demo.

And now to the most confusing aspect: the vocals, provided by Saha, Luoti and Veri. Between them, they cover high-pitched screams and shrieks, a mid-range rasp and guttural lows, all delivered in varying amounts throughout. Not much is comprehensible, but it sounds convincing in any case. The lows are my personal favorite, especially in “The Name Of…”, although none of the styles are particularly grating, even after multiple listens.

“The Diary Of A Necrophile” and “Flame” are my personal favorites, but the demo overall is a fairly solid package. For anybody into Grindcore or Black Metal, this warrants checking out, and with a jump that big from Total Noise Chaos to The Rising Era Of Goat, who knows which musical direction Vuohi will take.

My Grade: 8.75/10
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Tags: black, death, deathgrind, Finnish, grindcore

This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.