Jumalhämärä "Slaughter The Messenger" CD

Now here is an interesting mini-album of what sounds like black metal mixed up with what to me seems like prog rock at times and post-rock as well. There are just three songs for a total playing time of under 20 minutes but "Slaughter the Messenger" is a good introduction to the work of the Finnish band Jumalhamara which is quite unlike anything I've heard so far in the way of Finnish BM. Jumalhamara's music is very moody and suggests emotional complexity though the short format used here doesn't allow the band to demonstrate its full potential.

The first song "The Swing" starts off as a weird mix of full-on grinding metal and washed-out mood music with spasms of something more sinister in the background: the moody bass and clean electric guitar tones win over the aggression for much of the track but we still have menacing vocals and rough guitar-generated washes behind the clean music. This gradually builds up to a more spaceyrealm which explodes into a proggy-sounding black metal storm with something like a Hammond organ playing in the storm's throes and plenty of echo-laden vocals and a washed-out feel as well.

Without pause we go straight into "Discover the Pigtail", a more aggressive and beefy song with light death metal-styled vocals and laser beam guitar riffs slashing across the rhythms and alternating with quieter moments of clean guitar tones. Surprisingly there's a "brass band" instrumental section with horns blaring over the abrasive guitars but it's very short. Much of the rest of the song is distinguished by clean-toned lead guitar tones that appear to fall like raindrops over the music which also features two sets of vocals and fairly choppy, almost stop-start rhythms.

"Dawn Saturnine" is a big slab of thundering guitar riffs zooming over complex rolling drum rhythms and constant clashing of cymbals. Deep vocals growl beneath motorcycle rumbling bass. As with the previous song there are two sets of vocals, one clean, the other distorted. The monolithic guitar delivery combined with clean melodic guitar licks reminds me a little of Isis about the time that band recorded "Panopticon" (in 2003 - 2004) so people interested in Isis and similar bands may be drawn to this kind of BM if they are interested in investigating the genre.

All too soon the EP is over but not before listeners are introduced to wide spacious vistas of light together with darker, aggressive and raw music that suggests a world of pain, anguish and torment. One interesting thing here is that no matter how harsh the songs sound, they always ends very quietly on a lone melody or drops of guitar tone. This is one recording that could have been sustained over another three songs at least as Jumalhamara's music has considerable potential to go in a more hardcore / metal style or into a post-rock direction, and there is also the potential for the band to go trancey and immerse the listener into a complex universe of wide light space, washed-out dreamscapes and dark abrasive BM soundscapes. The use of duelling sets of vocals adds an emotional aspect to the music that could be capitalised on further to bring out anger and grief as well as pain.

As it is the EP seems rather cramped for Jumalhamara's style of music and so we only get a glimpse of its complexity and potential.

Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=4ljJcaZAPaI