Dachau Tuomiopäivä EP
Russia Bombs Finland is an essential compilation of Finnish hardcore, and DACHAU was one of my favorite sleeper hits from it. I was bummed that there wasn’t anything else from them accessible, even in the contemporary digitally archived world—“everything” was actually two tapes. I was glad when Finnish Hardcore, the great archival reissue label, put out their Ballaadeja tape with a ton of songs, while this 7” contains the previously mentioned comp tracks along two other ragers, which is basically their demo tape from ’82. The record itself is one-sided and includes a booklet with a lot of information and brief interviews, although in Finnish. It does look cool and fun to flip through, even if you don’t speak the language. If you are not familiar with DACHAU’s music, it’s great manic Finnish hard beat with guitars as interesting as amateurish teens could get in 1982 after being possessed by hardcore. The vocals are the best, capturing a strange mix of emotions between feeling lost and yelling cynically. Sometimes it even gets idiotically playful with group chanting. There is a mid-tempo rager that could easily be a star of a killer mixtape, as well. It’s a great record, the songs are exceptional, and Finnish Hardcore is doing a solid job as always. On the other hand, creating nostalgia-based relics is a bit weird. I wonder when 3D printers will be able to shit out records that will fill our empty shelves during a long weekend? What will it do with such labels and records? Until then, buy or die!
