The psychedelic shamans of Tampere, Finland are at it again, this time taking their name from an abandoned village populated by junkies and outcasts.
Atomikylä contains members of the multi-coloured black metal menagerie that is Oranssi Pazuzu and transcendental doom evangelists Dark Buddha Rising, their shared rehearsal space bearing musical fruits that continue to prove how fecund a music scene Tampere really has.
Anyone familiar with either band will spot their hallmarks early on into Keräily, its 33 minutes spread across three tracks. At over 17 minutes long, opener Katkos hogs most of the attention. Drawing you in with the sultry hypnosis of a winding bassline amidst orcish howls, it builds to something big, descending in a chaotic fizz before emerging with a Herculean stomp, the riff’s giant boots attempting to stamp on snare rolls that scatter skittishly out of the way as the hulk careers forwards, ever threatening to lose control and topple over under its own weight. While sounding more confident than on their previous release, 2014’s Erkale album, the following Risteily and Pakoputki follow overly similar sonic pathways, ultimately limiting the avant-garde scope of the experience. Keräily often sounds more like a rehearsal-space jam than an accomplished piece of conceptual abstraction.
