Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu & Farmakologinen

By Karen A. Mann. For most North Americans, their introduction to Finland’s otherworldly Oranssi Pazuzu came with the 2013 release Valonielu, an engaging head-scratcher of an album that seemed like a missive from another world.

By Karen A. Mann.

For most North Americans, their introduction to Finland’s otherworldly Oranssi Pazuzu came with the 2013 release Valonielu, an engaging head-scratcher of an album that seemed like a missive from another world. The band followed up with 2016’s Värähtelijä, which launched the band’s free-form blackened psychedelia into the sonic cosmos -- and landed them on a lot of year-end best-of lists. While the band seemingly appeared out of nowhere with Valonielu, they actually had been recording and releasing albums in Europe for several years. Now, thanks to the band’s higher profile, 20 Buck Spin is re-releasing two previous albums and the band’s half of a split EP with Candy Cane, another band from Tampere, Finland.


The first, Muukalainen Puhuu, was originally released in 2009, and shows that Oranssi Pazuzu had a solid vision for their sound from the very beginning. As with every Oranssi Pazuzu release, the only constants here are singer/guitarist Jun-His’ corrosive, almost mechanical sounding vocals, and a sense that you just never quite know where the music is going to take you. Tribal drumming, discordant guitars and droning ambience all make an appearance. The organ does have a more prominent role in this release, and as a result, the music is a bit warmer than the band’s other releases.

Farmokologinen, which is Oranssi Pazuzu’s four-song half of the the split with Candy Cane, is much colder, bleaker and more dramatic. It’s short, but powerful, and shows the band fully diving into a more blackened sound. Perhaps because it’s so short, it’s also the most cohesive, least otherworldly of these re-releases.

The last re-release is 2012’s Kosmonument, a double album , which is unfortunately not on Bandcamp. The band returns to a spacey, rhythmic sound, at time veering into trance and blackgaze. Kosmonument was originally released in a very small quantity with detailed artwork, which 20 Buck Spin is replicating in this re-release.

There’s a lot to explore in all three of these Oranssi Pazuzu re-releases. Each offers a new musical ocean on which they seem to be the only qualified ship captain. Oranssi Pazuzu doesn’t defy genres as much as sail along unencumbered by them. The upshot: If you loved Valonielu and Värähtelijä, you will not be disappointed in any of these releases.

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

By Karen A. Mann. Finland’s experimental black metalists Oranssi Pazuzu have always reveled in defying genres and expectations. On their fourth album, Värähtelijä, they take their expansive, avant garde creations and send them into the sonic stratosphere

By Karen A. Mann


Finland’s experimental black metalists Oranssi Pazuzu have always reveled in defying genres and expectations. On their fourth album, Värähtelijä, they take their expansive, avant garde creations and send them into the sonic stratosphere. The result is a harrowing and darkly psychedelic journey to the center of your mind.

The first song, “Saturaatio,” is takeoff, beginning with ambient noise and rolling drums that explode into buzzing sound effects, horror show organ and wacky wah guitar. After a frenzy of blackened guitar, you settle in for a steady cruise over a devastated landscape.

Oranssi Pazuzu 2012. Photos by Webzine Chuul.

Each song is like a new, unexplored planet where terrifyingly strange and beautiful noises await, and Oranssi Pazuzu is happy to inject you into a pod and hurtle you off into the atmosphere to experience them.

The album hums along, winding its way -- and often doubling back on itself -- through tribal drumbeats, odd time structures, blackened freak-outs and soothing sounds. Throughout, Singer Jun-His’ trademark angry, inhuman vocal sound especially unholy on Värähtelijä, like a demon who is deeply disturbed by your visit, and is going to hover behind you, wailing and pleading, for the remainder of your journey. The album finally spirals back down to earth on “Valveavaruus,” which ends the album on a quiet, reflective note.

Oranssi Pazuzu - Valonielu

By Ulla Roschat. Oranssi is the Finnish word for ‘orange’, Pazuzu is an Assyrian/Babylonian evil demon who personifies the chilling winds bringing fever and disease…., or the colorful psychedelic space rock and

By Ulla Roschat.

Cover art by Costin Chioreanu

Oranssi is the Finnish word for ‘orange’, Pazuzu is an Assyrian/Babylonian evil demon who personifies the chilling winds bringing fever and disease…., or the colorful psychedelic space rock and the cold, dark, bleak black metal which are the main and most dominant musical styles Oranssi Pazuzu use in their music to create an atmospheric soundscape that is pretty unique…, no not pretty..., it is unique!

Two mood settings that are millions of miles apart from one another, one should think, but once again and more convincing than ever the five Finns show us that they not only get on well together, but that they can create completely new atmospheres and pictures. Already their first two albums Muukalainen Puhuu (2009) and Kosmonument (2011) had been intriguing and well done attempts. Valonielu now appears like a huge step the band made in their development, but also sheds a different light upon both earlier releases.

Photo by Jo T.

Like two (or more) diafilm photographs, one in a broad range of colors, the other one in black, white and gray, laid on top of each other in varying extent and positions can show us different pictures and pieces of reality that would remain hidden, when we looked at each photo separately, Valonielu seems to work with different styles and elements. Laid upon each other in varying manners, intertwining and merging, every space that’s left free by one is conquered and filled by another, thus creating depth, density, dimensions and motion.

Driving repetitive krautrock rhythms with floating, wafting melodies get pierced by harsh, bleak black metal vocals, industrial, dark wave, doom sounds and noise rock… all melt into a spacey, eerie atmosphere that feels strange and disturbing, but is amazingly organic and natural at the same time.

Once the opener “Vino Verso” has entranced and sucked you in (and this will inevitably happen), it spits you out again into a foreign universe to begin an exciting trip.