The Finnish death metal band Saasta are following up their critically acclaimed 2022 album with the release of this EP, out tomorrow! I remember having checked out a track or two from the band before, so am excited to dive right in and see what this is like!
The EP begins with an atmosphere setting intro track, ‘Stygian Grey’. You immediately get a sense for all three genres and styles just from the brief 1:17 track. That alone should speak volumes about the bands impressive songwriting talents, and what sort of awesomeness is to come.
And it leads perfectly into the title track. A HUGE, brutal riff and scream makes it all feel almost hardcore as well as deathy and doomy. Especially with the song structure; short verses and call-and-response choruses. Though, having said that, we also get a brutal second half of the second verse. It’s almost a breakdown and fuck does it go hard. It somehow makes the following chorus feel even heavier, too. There are definite elements of black metal throughout too, though. Little atmospheric riffs to make everything just sound more evil. It’s an amazing track, short, sweet and contains everything you’d want from the band. And that scream at the end, *chef’s kiss*. It easily makes our playlist!
There’s no rest for the wicked, as we head straight into more brutality from ‘Sickness’. Another huge, but more groove/doom paced, riff kicks you in the face. Surprisingly though it drops down to a clean guitar part after, feeling the perfect mixture of black metal and Slayer. The pace and distortion picks back up before the verse, but it all does have a rather modern thrash feel to it. The vocals are straight up death still, though. It kinda gives off Amon Amarth vibes, which is great. I love the dynamics of the track, keeping it constantly interesting. It’s another awesome track to make it onto the playlist!
We then reach the final track of this all too short EP, ‘Murhattu’. It opens very dark and black metally, before picking the pace up into more death metal. The track goes hard throughout, the chorus being somehow both heavy and catchy in equal measure. The alternating between the two styles was a lot of fun, and made for a really awesome track. I love the final twenty seconds or so too. I feel like it would go down an absolute storm live.
Overall: This was awesome! As I said above, my only complaint is that it was over far too soon. I’m going to have to go back and give the album another listen, because if it’s anything like this I’ll love it. I’m really hoping this EP was something to keep the fans going until another album, because I need to hear more of this immediately! The band are phenomenal performers and songwriters, and have crafted one hell of an EP here. I’ll be listening to it a lot in the coming weeks and months, I’m sure!
The Score: 9/10