ALBUM REVIEW: Crucial To None – Saasta

Vomited forth from the Southern reaches of Finland, SAASTA dwell within a dank pit of despair that deeply influences their acerbic brand of death-doom. For their debut full-length album Crucial To None, the trio focus in on “the inner struggles of a world gone mad and suffering through violence”. Indeed, the result is befitting of a tumultuous and maddening existence, rifling through tried and tested genre tropes with frightening efficiency to paint a bleak, desolate and confronting picture of the modern world.

Tremor rolls out of the gates as a chugging, lurching beast interwoven with technical fills and neat riffs, all delivered with a thick, rich tone that seeks to deconstruct your surroundings. Vocalist Topias Jokipii gives a commanding performance that evokes everything from CONJURER to MY DYING BRIDE, while his swirling guitar work pulls you in deeper until all there is is SAASTA. It’s an enveloping and arresting introduction to the band that tees up expectations going into the rest of the album.

The Rift keeps things running terrifyingly well, with the rhythm section of Jimi Lahtinen’s drums and Janne Hietanen’s bass seemingly higher in the mix and delivering a spectacular sense of dread under yet more deranged vocals from Jokipii. The range on offer lends texture and circumstance to a track that feels as if you’ve probably heard it somewhere before. 

Toward the back half of the album, SAASTA remove some of the blunt force trauma, opting instead for a more layered and considered approach. The vocal brutality is still front and centre but the instrumentation tones it down, very much to the benefit of Crucial To None. The closing trio of Absence, Excellency and Discord slow things down and makes a far clearer divide between doom instrumentation and death metal vocals. As a result, it saves the album from becoming too repetitive or cookie cutter. 

But it’s Outré that shows SAASTA at their virulent best. By far the longest song on offer, it’s a grand centrepiece that rumbles and roars for the best part of nine minutes. Laced with an organic progression that visits everything from HOODED MENACE to AUTOPSY, it’s a staggering track that manages to both linger for an eternity, and not overstay its welcome. As bleak and cold as this track may seem, you won’t want to leave it.

All told, Crucial To None does nothing new, but it does deliver established characteristics in solid fashion. With the death-doom genre becoming more prevalent year on year, and becoming more broad in scope, SAASTA’s entry perhaps falls on the safer side of what’s available. That’s not to say though that this should be discounted or ignored, as fans of the genre will find a lot to enjoy here. With a new dedicated vocalist having been hired since Crucial To None was recorded, we wait with bated breath to see what SAASTA 2.0 is capable of.

Rating: 7/10

Crucial To None is out now via self-release.

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