Review by Felix on November 28, 2023.

I confess. It's an utterly peaceful and extremely intelligent headline, but I don't have the copyright. Shame on me, it is adopted from a statement of Mika Luttinen from 1993. Well, the full-length of this year, "Ugra Karma", really developed an enormous power that could be compared with that of a nuclear strike, but "Suomi Finland Perkele" was an attack with a poorly adjusted air gun at best.

The here reviewed failure has almost nothing in common with its outstanding predecessor. Yes, there are a few numbers that stand stylistically in the tradition of "Ugra Karma", but in terms of quality, they cannot hold a candle to its songs. "Vitutuksen multihuipennus", for instance, is a flat speed song, dense, but equipped with more or less miserable guitar lines. The only thrilling detail of this tune is its title, a real tongue twister. Whenever I try to say these two words, it sounds like "we two took that multi penis", but that's another (nonsensical) story. Speaking of penises, the "Steelvagina" is not far, but it is nothing else but another faceless high speed track that does not trigger any reaction. I just sit there, do not even shrug my shoulders, but only wait for better songs.

Yet "Suomi Finland Perkele" is skimping on great tracks. "Blood Is Thicker than Water" surprises with a profound melody line and evokes a melancholic feeling, but it has nothing to do with those sometimes chaotic, sometimes well structured, but always relentless attacks of the first two albums. Credit is due to the band for avoiding commercial cheesiness. Nevertheless, this is not really the kind of music that I want to hear when listening to an Impaled Nazarene album, because the roughshod attitude is missing. "Total War - Winter War" is closer to the former outbursts, but it suffers from its both overlong and stupid intro. However, even the pretty good tunes bring one thing to light. "Suomi Finland Perkele" lacks of coherence. The group offers a stylistic mishmash - and downers like the viscous and boring "Quasb / The Burning" or the boozy "Let's F**king Die" are just useless. The latter crosses the border to punk and black' n roll, but this approach does not make sense at all. Despite its simplicity, it is confusing in the context of the band's previous outputs. However, all these disappointing tracks go hand in hand with the mediocre performance of Mika Lutinnen. The guy has seemingly forgotten that he is brilliant whenever his voice conveys an insane touch, but it does not work very well in any other case.

After the game is already lost, "Genocide" recalls the density, pressure and vigour of "Ugra Karma" and the remaining two songs achieve at least a solid level. Too late, too little. Impaled Nazarene seemed to be on the way to create their own niche, "hysteric cyber black metal" or something like that, but instead of sharpening their profile, they decided to play the clowns. I still wonder why they did not reap what they had sown. Okay, "Suomi Finland Perkele" is not the worst album of all times and despite a significant lack of atmosphere, its production is acceptable. Yet this does not mean that it is able to keep its head above water. Hence it follows that this work is rather nothing than an atomic war.

Rating: 4.2 out of 10

Review by JD on December 15, 2010.

I always love hearing some old school metal. From the absurdly cheesy to the great and legendary metallic blasts from the past, it is good to see the history of metal in every form. You can learn a lot, even from a real bad band as you can from a legend, and hopefully totally escape the bad ways to do it in the process.

Cheesiness is a staple in the old school of metal, but I have to say that Crisis takes the cake on this one. One listen to this two CD (two albums on one disk, unreleased stuff on the other) set and you clearly see just how much that metal has evolved from what this release shows. The comparison feels sort of like old school is like an amoeba and today’s version are modern humans. It was a different beast, one that lad the foundations for everything we hold near and dear.

With all of that predicable riffing and severely dated lyrics this is at the same time, the best and worse in 80's metal. Even thought I know that the recordings have been transferred from the older analog system to digital, this is some of the worst recordings ever, and that includes some of the newer stuff that was recorded recently on disk two. Both CD’s boarders on being unlistenable, and made me stop many times through the listening process. Can you smell the rancid cheese curd yet?

Even for old school metal, this is really way over the top cheesy and so fucking horrible all at the same time. Taken into consideration of it being over twenty five years since most of Crisis’s material has seen the light of day, this is really, really bad stuff. It is one dimensional with not a shred of class. Even cheese needs to have a little class.

I take comfort that upon hearing this CD set, Judas Priest and all of the others true metallers would kick their asses. This is as bad as the 80's ever got and I heard Wrathchild America.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 3
Originality: 3 (even back then... no originality)
Overall: 3

Rating: 3.6 out of 10