You ever come across a band whose name is just perfect? One that perfectly encapsulates their sound in a couple words, and you couldn’t think up a better moniker if you tried? Concrete Winds, to me, is one of those bands. By that, I mean their sound is akin to being battered by torn highway fragments thrown blindly around by a violent tornado. A fairly young Finnish band having formed around 2019, Concrete Winds first caught my attention with their absolutely savage 2021 sophomore album Nerve Butcherer, which still stands as a benchmark for metal intensity for me, while leaving me wanting far more than the 27 minutes it offered. But now, after three quiet years, Concrete Winds has arrived!
Defining the sound of Concrete Winds is a little tricky, but I did see a term thrown around online that suits them extremely well: technical war metal. Sitting somewhere in the nexus of black metal, death metal, and grindcore, Concrete Winds predominantly trades in savage riffs and pummeling grooves. Where they stand out from the crowd is in their integration of fretboard-hopping dissonance in their riffs and the odd detour into less conventional time signatures. Often rendered at extremely high tempos, the band’s sound is as wildly disorienting as it is punishingly heavy. Add in some moments of more synthetic noise, and the band has set itself up with a sound that is positively excoriating.
Fittingly for the band’s approach, Concrete Winds wastes absolutely no time in kicking itself into full intensity with opener “Permanent Dissonance”. Blasts, twisting riffs, and harsh mid-range growls meet the listener from go, only slowing down for a dizzying midsection before closing out on sliding chords that bleed into the bludgeoning one-two of “Virulent Glow” and “Daylight Amputations”. Within around 5 minutes, Concrete Winds lays out their mission statement in brutal terms, before allowing their songwriting to broaden for the rest of the album.
Indeed, the songwriting does become more varied and complex beyond that opening salvo, with lead single “Infernal Repeater” featuring a groovy breakdown that called to mind bands like Pig Destroyer. “Subterranean Persuasion” bears a more stomping tempo, while “Systematic Distortion” almost takes on a Morbid Angel-esque churn to its riffing, only to be interrupted later by higher-pitched tremolo lines. “Hell Trance” and “Pounding Devotion” both feature distorted drum machine outros that break up the pacing tastefully, while any song is liable to spill into screaming atonal shred solos at a moment’s notice. As samey as war metal and grindcore can be as genres, Concrete Winds’ approach is one that keeps listeners guessing constantly. All that condensed into a tight 25-minute runtime, and Concrete Winds is sheer devastation front to back.
I would say this album is more conventionally listenable than its predecessor by way of a denser, more balanced production, but only by a bit. The riffs across Concrete Winds are off-kilter and wild whether they’re leaning into chugging mutes or their lacerating higher lines, over chaotic (but expertly performed) drumming. A typical song structure is nowhere to be found, and in the wrong head space the album can be fairly overwhelming. Par for the course for the rougher end of grind or extreme metal, but any prospective listener should be warned that you best not approach Concrete Winds if you’re not seeking an absolute sonic maelstrom.
But if chaos is what you seek, Concrete Winds is a band well worth your time. They are absolute masters at crafting blindingly technical music that is so wild that it almost feels like sheer pandemonium. The sound is devastating in its intensity, but it’s a hell of an exhilarating listen. Some may balk at the brevity of Concrete Winds, but I’d argue it’s a perfect dose of chaos performed perfectly. Throw it on, watch your head, and let those winds carry you away.
