Kürøishi Sound the Alarm LP
This LP was released in 2019 by KÜRØISHI (Japanese name translates to “Black Death”) from Oulu, Finland. At first glance, with Akihito Sugimoto’s artwork, people will assume it’s something along the lines of ’80s/’90s-era Japanese hardcore worship like SELFISH, but KÜRØISHI has an early-’00s melodic crust approach along the lines of WOLFPACK/WOLFBRIGADE and TRAGEDY. Quite often dismissed but perhaps this sound was pioneered by Absolut Country of Sweden-era ANTI-CIMEX in 1990, later progressing to WOLFPACK/WOLFBRIGADE or HIS HERO IS GONE touring Japan in the ’90s and getting influenced by bands like JUDGEMENT with some melodic harmonic elements—yielding a “Japanese HC influenced” style a.k.a. TRAGEDY. In reality, the sounds are influenced by not only the aforementioned bands but also Sweden’s and Norway’s extreme metal scenes from the mid- ’90s… So, with many people already having knowledge and a sense of what Japanese hardcore sounds like, this might not cater to punks with a preference for that approach, but those who’ve seen the “Japanese hardcore” references thrown around at crust shows in 2002 will definitely be able to identify. It’s easy to talk trash on a release for how inaccurately it represents the ’90s Japanese hardcore approach, but it’s also something that we might need more in this age of easy replication and overload of resources. Sound the Alarm sounds like it’s an honest output from what they grew up with but still having an appreciation of something they truly love. They’re from Scandnavia and the influences of that region’s hardcore and metal makes more sense than sounding like they’re from Tokyo in the late ’80s. The record also contains this great sense of imagination (perhaps it can be taken as a misinterpretation?) whether intentionally or not, creating something unique with wide possibilities. Guest appearances by members of PARANOID, VIVISEKTO, SYSTEMATIC DEATH, THINK AGAIN and others.