This is kind of a “six degrees of separation” story. Last December, we heard about The Finnish Metal Tour, which was scheduled to roll through North America in April, with a stop in in our home base of Seattle. The line-up included three bands we would have killed relatives to see — Finntroll, Swallow the Sun, and Moonsorrow — plus a band we hadn’t heard of — Survivors Zero.

We scarfed up tickets but didn’t immediately investigate Survivors Zero. And then in late March, we saw an announcement that Survivors Zero ran into some kind of problem getting a visa to enter the U.S. and had to cancel out of the entire tour. We had a shitload of fun seeing those other three bands (you can see our review and photos here) but kinda lost our motivation for checking out Survivors Zero.

Fast forward to mid-May. We check out an album from yet another Finnish band called Sotajumala and decide we ought to write about them — which we did (here). And in sniffing around the web in an effort to learn more about that band, we discovered that Cobra Records had released a “split DVD” called Slaughter at Lutakko, which for a brief time occupied the No. 1 spot on the official Finnish music video charts. That DVD featured live performances by Sotajumala and — guess who — Survivors Zero.

So, we thought it was time to take the cosmic hint and track down Survivors Zero’s September ’09 debut album, CMXCIX. We shouldn’t have waited so fucking long, because it’s an ass-kicking delight.  (more after the jump, including a song and a video . . .)

In the main, Survivors Zero dishes up a mix of fast-paced and mid-tempo death metal with massive grooves and a big helping of melodic riffs and guitar solos.

Tommi “Rotten” Virranta‘s vocals are impressive in their range and variety. He howls and shrieks and opens up his throat into yawning black pits of cavernous depth.

Sami Jämsén‘s and Jani Luttinen‘s guitars churn out one convulsive riff after another, and Jämsén’s leads and solos blaze in fiery fury. They can also play inexorable, tank-like chugging rhythms with as much infectious flair as the more pyrotechnical passages.

Bassist Tapio Wilska (ex-Finntroll) and drummer Reima Kellokoski are also excellent on CMXCIX — fast and sharp as carving knives. (Reima left the band earlier this spring to devote more time with his main band, Impaled Nazarene, and has been replaced with Seppo Tarvainen).

The production of the songs is over on the clean and crisp end of the range, which works just fine with this kind of all-headbang-all-the-time music.

If you need an injection of modern death metal designed to put a jolt of alternating current through you until your head starts to smoke, this will do the job nicely. We’re having tons of fun listening to it.

Survivors Zero’s debut album, CMXCIX, is available from CM Distro and iTunes. Here’s a track for you to stream, and then below that is a video for another song.

Survivors Zero: Armageddon Cult

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“Death metal. That’s what’s on the menu today. In fact, that’s all we’ve got on the menu today. No fancy sauces, no creative side dishes, just a big slab of red meat, charred on the outside and bloody on the inside. But it’s Grade A prime, and it do taste good!”

OK, those words are the notes I made to myself as I listened to the first 4 songs on the new album from a Finnish band called Sotajumala (which in English means “Wargod”). And what I wrote to myself continued to hold true until I reached the 8th and final song on the album — the title track, called “Kuolemanpalvelus”.  (Unless you’re Finnish, don’t try to say that out loud because you’ll hurt yourself.)

And that song fucked up my nice, neat encapsulation of this album. Why? Well, I’ll get to that.

On Tuesday, we promised that in the next two days we’d tell you about two new albums that would make your heads explode. Yesterday, it was MAFIA by Fleshgod Apocalypse. If you’re reading this post today, it means that some part of your head is still intact. Today ought to Finnish the job.  (more after the jump, including a track for you to sample, and a new video . . .)

Like my starting note said, Sotajumala’s new album serves up death metal for serious gourmands. The songs thrive on mid-tempo inexorability — the almost hypnotic hammering of remorseless riffs, the satisfying sound of classic blasts and double bass, deep sandpaper vocals that sound like they’re bubbling up from the center of the Earth or an even darker place, evil guitar leads that swirl and screech.

And if that weren’t enough to sate a serious death-metal hunger, the band has a knack for grinding out headbanging chugs and minor-chord melodic jolts that will put a current through a serious metalhead like a dinner bell in a kennel of pit bulls that haven’t been fed for way too long.

Like we said, most of this isn’t flashy, no novelty for the sake of novelty, but these are songs that capture the special visceral appeal of unadulterated death metal.

And then there’s that title track. All of the eight songs on the album are longer than usual, but “Kuolemanpalvelus” clocks in at 15 minutes. When’s the last time you heard a serious death-metal band play a song anywhere close to that length?

Is it any good? Well fuck yes, it absolutely is. It starts with a sound like clanging bells, the beat of a heart, and the solitary patter of a snare, which eventually are joined by a methodical grinding riff that establishes the recurring melodic theme. That riff alternates, in a verse-chorus-verse structure, with the kind of pulsing drone I’ve come to associate with Gojira.

As the song progresses, the guitars ring variations on the basic thematic riff and eventually begin quivering in an increasingly feverish intensity until the music eventually dissolves again into the fading sound of bells.

The song is in many ways very simple, but only on the surface; it resonates in a deep place. I’ve listened to it repeatedly, and so far, when I come to the end, I think it’s 15 minutes too short.

Sotajumala was founded in 1998, and they do sound like they’ve been playing long enough to leave childish things behind and settle in behind what matters to them about this music, and what matters to listeners like me. All the lyrics are in their native language.

Kuolemanpalvelus was released on June 2 on the Finnish label Cobra Records. You can buy a digital download of the whole album at the Record Shop X web site. To give you a taste of the music, we’ve got a double-serving — one song to stream, and then after that, a new video of another one.

Sotajumala: Sinun virtesi

Paratiisin kutsu (The Call of Paradise)