Haavat Myrsky Nousee CD
This is one band I somehow totally missed until recently, although they have been going since 2019. I should have my punk radar looked at by a specialist; too much Japanese distortion might have damaged it, or there are just so many new bands to check that it has become humanly impossible to know them all, even with a radar as sensitive as mine. So I keep it simple and just pretend to know all the bands and nod confidently whenever an unknown band is mentioned in public, like everyone else. I don’t want to lose punk points. I was curious about this band since Mid from DEVIATED INSTINCT drew the cover (his style is very distinctive) and I was expecting some heavy metallic sludgy crust, but wrong I was. Mid also plays the guitar in the band, but HAVAAT plays heavy hardcore punk with brilliant energetic female vocals in Finnish (she used to sing in RAKKAUS) and a dash of crust. It is a rather straightforward affair, which is the whole point I assume, and I am reminded of ’90s and ’00s anarcho hardcore bands like OPERATION, PARAGRAF 119, or DETESTATION, and crustier British bands such as EXCREMENT OF WAR or RUIN also come to mind. There are a couple of mid-paced numbers reminiscent of old school Finnish hardcore, and even some slower dirty metal punk ones to bring some diversity, but overall the songs are beefy and fast-paced. There are seventeen tracks on the CD, and to be honest, it does feel a little long at times, because this kind of direct hardcore punk works better on a shorter format. HAAVAT could have easily gone for an album with the ten songs highlighting best of the several tricks the band has up their sleeves and it would have made for a more solid record. Less would have been more here. Not a bad album, the vocalist is an amazing singer, but a little long.