ALBUM REVIEW: iihtallan – Festerday

Some thirty years after their original inception, FESTERDAY finally have a full length LP to call their own. Releasing three demos in the early 90s and then disbanding in 1993; the Finnish death metallers’ return is also, in a sense, their beginning. While spending nearly three decades outside the walls of the band may well have done harm beneath the surface, iihtallan is an uncompromising venomous spit of pure death metal.

Listening to the album, it’s both interesting and obvious that the five piece made their split in the early 90s, this record is straight up classic death metal. Segments of black metal and punk get sprinkled on occasionally, but for the most part – iihtallan is out for your throat. Classic, full throttle death rhythms shoot their way through tracks like Control Not Your Soul and Flowers Of Bones while Into The Void and Tongues For Rotten Kisses have the odd welcome hint of groove and doom.

With song titles like Edible Excrement and Your Saliva My Vagina, FESTERDAY often flirt with the concept of over exposing their gimmick, though musically this never becomes an issue. The band remain tight knit throughout, and there’s nothing here that feels out of date. Perhaps the greatest compliment you could pay iihtallan is that it doesn’t sound like it’s playing catch up on modern death metal.

Gravelove sounds like it’s been shot out of a cannon, with an opening grunt from vocalist Kena Stromsholm followed by fury tempo riffs. And Vomiting Pestilence sludges its way to blast beats and flickering guitar lines. Admittedly there’s little here that you should expect to conquer the death metal genre, but if you’re heading into this record hoping for entertainment within the confines brutal metal, you’ll find it.

When FESTERDAY originally split their contemporaries were the likes of CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, and PUNGENT STENCH. Truth be told, iihtallan doesn’t get near any of these bands classic efforts in terms creativity, or ingenuity. But it does find its way into the current zenith of modern death metal nicely. While few will be blown away by this record, you can’t help but wonder what might have been if this album came out in 1994.

Rating: 6/10

iihtallan is set for release on January 4th via Season of Mist.

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