Oh god, it’s happening again. Time is melting and distorting. Everything’s gone black and white, yet I’m somehow seeing colors I never have before. I can hear smells, and the gaps between solids and liquids are becoming tenuous and imperceptible. Oranssi Pazuzu put out a new album, didn’t they? I guess it’s time to try to describe another fever dream, or rather nightmare, made music.
I’d be hard pressed to pick a band that’s been more fun for me to follow in metal than Oranssi Pazuzu. Ever since a good friend pointed me towards their debut when I was first testing the waters with extreme metal, these Finnish sonic explorers have never let me down, and have even evolved in wild ways. That first album’s lysergic, Floydian spin on black metal almost feels quaint in the wake of the far more unique sound they’ve crafted since. In particular, 2016’s Värähtelijä still melts my mind on every listen with its intense, nightmarishly hallucinogenic approach to blackened krautrock, while 2020’s Mestarin kynsi marked a massive uptick in electronic presence that expanded their unique sonic palette even further.
Given that history, the announcement of Muuntautuja (translating to ‘Shapeshifter’) was a cause of great hype for me. And in Oranssi Pazuzu‘s tradition, the album proves to be another intriguing evolutionary step in several different ways. Of course, listeners will still be blessed with the trippy blend of black metal, hypnotic krautrock, and psychedelia they’ve always given us. Jun-His still delivers his vocals mostly in scathingly harsh tones, guitars and keyboards are still swamped in effects and distortion, and the bass and drums of Ontto and Korjak still lock in for an intense rhythmic undercurrent wherever feasible. The band knows where they came from, and still maintain that personality proudly.
But this time around, Oranssi Pazuzu has tightened their sound up a lot. In stark contrast to the massive tracks on past releases, only “Ikikäärme” even approaches ten minutes in length. Fittingly, individual songs tend to be more focused in approach, making for each song having a distinct personality while also being much more digestible overall. Adding to this, Oranssi Pazuzu has added fresh elements into their sonic landscape by way of more noise, post-rock, and especially trip hop. In execution, all these elements make for a lot of welcome variation track to track. Songs like opener “Bioalkemisti” and “Voitelu” get a lot of mileage out of their warped yet pounding metallic aggression, while “Muuntautuja” and “Hautatuuli” feel creepier and more subdued with their electronic beats and more hushed vocal tones.
Towards the latter half of the Muuntautuja, Oranssi Pazuzu broadens their sound even more. Released as a single, “Valotus” builds from nauseous atmospherics to a heavier rhythm, eventually peaking on crushing slabs of electronic noise before fading out on simulated tinnitus. The shift from that to the almost lounge jazzy intro of “Ikikäärme” is just outstanding, with that song building through distorted samples to an emotional peak that’s almost beautiful by the band’s own bizarre standards. Wrapping up the album with the post-rock-meets-synthwave drone of “Vierivä usva” ensures that Muuntautuja ends on a note that’s shockingly emotional and affecting within Oranssi Pazuzu‘s discography. More than a decade and a half into their career, the band still surprises me every damn time.
Even as dense as it is, Muuntautuja may well be the shortest album Oranssi Pazuzu has crafted so far. It’s a very concise listen by their standards, and with the addition of new elements and excellent production standards, it feels like this could be an album that earns the band a lot of new fans. Even with the move to Nuclear Blast, Oranssi Pazuzu clearly isn’t aiming to be a band for everyone, but Muuntautuja is about as approachable as the band has been since their earliest work. It’s a cool evolution, and I’m hoping it earns them more listeners, and maybe even some more US shows (as they’re also one of the best live bands I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing).
Increased accessibility and new influences aside, is Muuntautuja the best album thus far from Oranssi Pazuzu? I’m not so sure about that. Their previous two albums are absolute monoliths with nary a dull moment, and Muuntautuja‘s smaller scale and quieter approach does give it a little less wow factor than previous works. But that said, this newest album only suffers due to the footsteps it follows in. Oranssi Pazuzu is still a dazzlingly unique band in metal, and it would be hard to imagine any other band pulling off the sound better. Muuntautuja is an outstanding trip of an album, and even if it falls shy of the last two, it’s still one of the cooler things I’ve heard this year. Turn on, tune in, drop out, enjoy!
