Another Svart Records release, and yet another shot of great retro-tasting music!
You see, Seremonia (consisting of lead singer Noora Federley, guitarist/ synth handler/ backing singer Ville Pirinen, second guitarist/ synth handler/ backing singer Teemu Markkula, bassist/ synth handler/ backing singer and main lyricist Ilkka Vekka, and drummer/ flutist/ third guitarist Erno Taipale) take the influences for their Psychedelic Hard Rock concoction from the muddy sounds of Anglo-American Proto-Metal, the weirdly fuzzy grooves of Latin Psychedelic Rock, the experimental ideas of Finnish Progressive Rock (I was personally somehow reminded of Kimo Kuusniemi), and the universal D.I.Y. ethics of Punk Rock. All of them are relatively seasoned musicians within the Finnish underground scene, with Federley also active in Digitäällimiehet; which also houses Pirinen, whom is also active in Garfield Steel, Steel Mammoth, and Black Audio (and has played with Les Felinesz and The Deepspace Sexchange in the past); Markkula, by the way, is also of Death Hawks (of which I recently reviewed an album); Vekka is also active in Steel Mammoth, and serves tenures with Gatha, Golden Vomit, Haere, Heavy Smoke, Satan's Claw, Sutra, and Ufotutkimus Neuvostolitossa; and Taipale is also a member of Garden Of Worm and Blueprint Human Being (past activities were with Develish Decibels).
In spite of all their other activities, the band still got together on a common penchant for the retro type of music they play today, and soon attracted the attention of Svart Records, who preceded the release of the band's self-titled September 2012 released debut album (issued both on CD and on limited 12-inch vinyl, the latter later re-pressed) with a one-track single two months prior. These events were followed by interest from different fronts, and resulted in the band playing at quite diverse events, ranging from gigs at small Punk dives to bigger festivals like Finland's Tuska, Denmark's Heavy Days in Doomtown, and Holland's Roadburn!
Now there's the sophomore album, said to expand the band's trademark sound into more epic directions. While Seremonia's influences still come from the most psyched-out acid vinyls of the '60s, '70 and '80s, they have now let the influence of old Finnish Punk Rock and Prog Rock come through more audibly. A preview of what the full-length had in store was already sent out into the world in April of last, with the release of the vinyl single “Ovi” b/w “Vastäus Rukousksiisi” (both tracks also on the album), of which the title track can be found for a listening session at (http://) soundcloud.com/svart-records (also found there are album closer “Hallava Hevonen” and the debut album's “Antikristus 666”). As there's no music posted at (www.) facebook.com/seremonia, nor any info on touring, I'd say...rather go to (www.) youtube.com/watch?v=YlmqgsXegGM for a viewing of the debut album's “Uhrijuhla”, or to (http://) soundcloud.com/brooklynvegan/seremonia-lusiferin-kaarmeet for a listening session of that same album's “Lusiferin Kaarmeet”. You might, of course, always make your due with the 30-second samples usually provided by your trusted online sales websites (iTunes , Amazon , etc...), provides always, that they carry the album! Which reminds me...if you've noticed, the song titles are all in the Finnish language, and that's of course due to the lyrics being in that tongue too! Well-brought by a very diverse (female) lead singer, by the way! Another influence not talked about in the above paragraph, is the Doom flavouring which comes through in most of the songs. Highly delectable, this Seremonia, and I had to afflict inhumane restrain on myself as to not adding Ihminen (Finnish for “human”) to my 2013 year-lists!