Yup. You read right. This death metal/grindcore band from Finland is called Blastanus.

Luckily, their second, self-released album is more impressive than their moniker as Collapse delivers 11 songs and 43 minutes of punchy Euro sounding death/grind that should please the fans of Aborted and maybe newer Cephalic Carnage and such. There’s thick, beefy guitars, a mix of deep and high vocals and a decent sense of varied brutality with just a pinch of experimentation to keep the album interesting and make it yet another impressive self-released effort.

Ranging from chunky grooves to grinding blasts, Blastanus are a modern death metal act with plenty of promise even if they don’t jump out at you. From the blasting opening salvo of “Tomorrow is Better” through the closing saxophone-laced experimental/instrumental ambient title track (where the Cephalic Carnage comparison really shows), Blastanus know their style and make no bones about it. The riffs are razor sharp, the grooves are pummeling and the assault is pretty deadly — though a little unpredictable.

You get short sub 3 minute blasts (“Hegemony”, “Science of Tyranny”, “Decoded”) that lean more towards grindcore. Then you get surprisingly, technical skronky riffage as heard on “Culture of Entitlement” and “Evolutionary Dead End”. And there’s chunky, groovy euro death like “Hammerfist”, “Arctic Despair” and ‘Liberation/Salvation”. Then of course, the aforementioned curve ball  title track.

It may all sound like a bit of a mess, but there’s enough common threads keeping the album together as opposed to a complete jumble with a stout production and a pretty impressive vocal delivery. I’ll be keeping an eye on these guys, as they show enough to warrant some attention — especially for a band from Finland, a county not always known for its straight up brutality. Rotten Sound excluded.

 

 

 

[Visit the band's website]

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