Ugra-Karma

The 1st of February 1993 Impaled Nazarene would publish a horrible debut that could have meant a whole career marked by that certain style, nevertheless the 1st of December of that same year, exactly 10 months later, the finnish group would release a musical masterpiece that would show its best facet at the time by offering a balanced work, crafty and with an outstanding talent.

Ugra-Karma corrects many negative aspects, everything related to the terrible atmospheric sounds that were very prominent in the previous work here have disappeared, in their place we find the use of samples, that although they do not contribute much, at least their use is lower and does not become a problem. The aesthetics are also better, the whole religious theme of Southeast Asia seems to me interesting and original, besides also affecting the sound as the outro of "Kali-Yuga" shows, also this change of aesthetics is done way more elegant as most of the song titles do not sound ridiculous ("Under a Golden Shower eh...) so it does not arise in me the urge of digging too much in the lyrics as if it happened to me with the previous album, so my subjective perception is better in this case.

But there is also a big step forward with regards to the music, here Kimmo Luttinen comes out as the writer of the music, I don't know if this role was already exercised but in this album he really marks it, we are not simply finding in the songs a fluid interpretation of black metal with a lot of external elements belonging to a diverse amount of subgenres that go from crust punk to death metal, but also they are able to create some outstanding and beautiful harmonic passages that really work incredibly well when it comes to make a song stand out. Most of the songs have enough personality with the quality of their structure and riffs to be memorable, but in case this doesn't work they have these moments of extreme melody that for me is what buys this album. And the best part is that the few songs that don't get to add this and don't shine in musical aspects on their own happen to be the shortest songs on the album, so it's win after win.

And I have spoken before of Kimmo Luttinen, but the truth is that his brother also makes an impeccable performance on this album, his screaming songs at vertiginous speed are already shown to us very early on, but his level does not decline, giving us a multitude of memorable moments thanks to his vocal work that adapts to the different modes in which the music develops, from the more paused and asperous in "Hate" or "Gott ist tot" to the more brutal and piercing in "The horny and the horned" or "Cyberchrist".

Ugra-Karma takes to its maximum splendor a creative formula that very few have carried out, this is not a simple fusion of genres, it is to show how to mix musical pieces that in theory are totally impossible to put together simply because of how different and antagonistic they are as if it were Ying and Yang, thus giving shape to Karma, or in this case giving shape to Ugra-Karma.

It’s easy to play up the rivalries of by gone years as if they still hold significance. Norwegian bands hated Swedish death metal. Profanatica in the US hated Norwegian black metal. Impaled Nazarene in Finland hated Norwegian black metal. Norwegians hated Norwegian black metal. It’s all terribly groundskeeper Willie. Was it a coincidence that many of these haters’ best work was produced in this climate of grudges and jealousy? Maybe. Aside from some very broad similarities of genre, the works forged in the fires of youth and resentment all had their own distinct hew. But what is more remarkable about the black metal canon of the early 90s is how ambitious the music became considering its origins as an antithesis. It was a reaction to the mainstream carnival that death metal (and before it thrash metal) had become. A reassertion of the underground ethos. But it was also an antithesis to itself. With bands and scenes mouthing each other off at every opportunity, and we all know how that turned out. Through this creative self-limitation sparked by rivalry, lasting works were put to record. But nowhere is this idea of artistry forged in the crucible of an all-encompassing “no” more apparent than that small strain of grindcore enriched black metal that appeared in Finland. By making virtues of primitivism, limited by the rigours of the grind philosophy, new creative spaces were forced open.

Impaled Nazarene were easily the loudest voice to emerge from this scene. Their debut ‘Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz…’ released in 1993 is a one-of-a-kind disjointed carnival of melodrama and farse in equal measure. But on the polished follow up ‘Ugra Karma’ the untamed energy of TCNNN was channelled into a more focused and relentless beast. This is characterised by harnessing intense blast and d-beats in service of a basic but pronounced melodic structure of sorts, and colliding this with moments of romantic beauty and amoral ear bashing in equal measure. Guiding us through this is a bizarre array of vocal techniques employed by Mika Luttinen, from animalistic barks, to death growls, to banshee wails. This music thrives on intensity. Whatever nods to melody or phrasing that can be found are compressed through the filter of lightning fast tempos and energetic rhythms. It’s as if each riff is trying to outdo its predecessor for bombast.

But as we know, intensity is a relative concept. Somewhere between pure noise and one note ambience, before things go full circle, a balance awaits discovery. A measure of restraint and discipline is needed to actually say something of lasting value. On their debut, Impaled Nazarene got around this by breaking up the album with surreal interludes and bizarre outbursts from Mika. But on ‘Ugra Karma’ the game changed, the ante was upped, and the album flows more intuitively, yet leaves one even more exhausted somehow. In this context, whatever rhythmic variations they deployed are somewhat by the by. The real reason can be found in the substrata of narratives that the guitars carve out over the course of the album. These work as a longform cycle when compared to the microstructures at the level of each collision of riffs, each battery of noise, and each vocal ejaculation. It’s a deeper current working beneath this album’s immediate flamboyance. It operates covertly, but its effects can be felt across the rest of the music and ultimately dictate all the surface level decorations that adorn the music like wrapping paper.

It’s worth pausing to shine a torch in this idea’s face for a minute. Because ‘Ugra Karma’ is one of those albums that remains uniquely compelling. In the quest to discover reasons for this, it’s not enough to say it’s just ‘extreme’ in this or that regard. Many albums before and since have got this beat for their sheer bestiality. Maybe we could look to our old friend Nietzsche in ‘The Birth of Tragedy’ to provide some illumination. Because prima facie this album is Dionysus all over; a balls out riot of passion, emotion, and disorder. But there is an underlying Apollonian order to this. One that dictates the ebbs and flows of energy as they swirl across the music like geysers (or geezers for that matter). The sharp guitar tone unravels tracks in under a minute, made up of basic two-chord riffs. But with hindsight we see these brief flashes of energy in their wider context, sandwiched between longer, fleshed out pieces that are still dirt simple, but somehow convey an underlying logic and progression from start to finish. They give us a sense of purpose, of a journey, despite being constantly thwarted by these projectiles of noise.

This is a style that has been much imitated over the years, but little understood. Sure, you can smack some primitive black metal against a heavy streak of grindcore, write some edgy lyrics about bondage and nuclear war, and lace the whole thing in ill-advised mastering choices. But this is only a superficial understanding of what these Finnish artists where achieving at the time, and of how it really differed from Norway, Greece, the US, or France. Setting aside the elaborate explanations above, we could simply say that 'Ugra Karma' (and the exhibitionist debut) is one of the pillars of European extreme metal of this era, and has deservedly stood the test of time.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

This black metal band's album, which I don't need to mention, but will anyways, entitled "Ugra-Karma", is an explosion of amazement. It's nearly perfect, but for me, it's the little things that took away from that perfect score. Normally I can bypass certain flaws, but this time...nah, I felt this is just a better, and more accurate rating for me, personally. It's not far from perfect though, just worth noting. But then again, if you're here, know about the band, then you could have probably figured out by now that this record is practically a masterpiece, unless you're literally an idiot, who needs mental help. And if that's the case, you're better off taking pills and killing yourself the "easy" way. Well, enough of the "obvious" nonsense. Let's just dig a little bit and see where we go from here.

You have your average, foggy-like audio manufacturing quality here. Not at-all surprising, considering the fact this was recorded in the "olden" days, you know? The leveling was alright. But still generally blurry all-round. Not enough to physical hamper the audio at least, thankfully. I meant to review this album a long time ago, but I guess I never got around to it. Plus, I ended up forgetting about the record for sometime. And, of course, the name of the band is hard to remember since I'm not a "huge" fan of the band. But I do give them a listen. And I try giving credit, where it is due. Though, I can't say for bands that obviously blow-ass. In this case, the band and their record I'm currently reviewing, does not do that. Great thing. Otherwise, I'd be picking on this thing like your typical bully.

A lot of expression and outer-hatred in the band's playing style here. Really emotional, passionate and murderous strength. It's like forcefully absorbing the air from others around you, causing the victims to die to death... That was supposed to be funny. Hoped you laughed. Anyways, the guitars seem heavily-related to "thrash metal" more than anything to me. Really quick, speedy-fingered aggression. The bass is pretty standard, nothing overly exciting about that. I'm just glad it's mastering doesn't suck, that would have been a problem, obviously... I shouldn't even have to say stupid shit like that. Or stupid shit in general, I just do...simply because I am stupid. Understand, bitch?! I'm a total retard! But I can admit it at least. See, there I go again...being totally stupid. The drums are aggressive, fast and technical. A lot of cymbal-hitting, too. Though, in the mix, they're a little bit obscured and quiet. Not mastered good enough, honestly. A shame, because the drumming itself is pretty delightful.

The vocals are traditionally "black metal", but with "high" screams...though, I don't think the screams are from fry screaming. I think it's the same style that Anal Vomit uses in there songs, at least "some" of there songs. Also, the vocalist from Slayer, Tom Araya, likely shares the same vocal style for his "highs" as well. I'm almost certain it's the same style screaming as to who I have mentioned. So, seriously, fuck off. I don't even care now. The vocals, just in general, sound so "angry", I love it. This record sure is something else. It's hard to explain, but it's a worthy piece itself. The artwork is amazingly detailed. I think of it highly. As anyone should, it's got good colouring, detail and expression. Something a lot of bands don't use in their artworks anymore... Photoshop has made creativity lazy...technology in general has made everyone lazy. We're all losers... Great album, listen to it, worship it...and especially...love it!

A vocalist who produces every type of sound men normally cannot create. A dehumanizing, humiliating atmosphere of mechanized brutality. A complete triumph of sonic narrow-mindedness. These are the pillars of "Ugra-Karma", one of the most bestial metal albums of all times.

Of course, I hear you say: Felix, old fool, a lot of bands were successful in generating an abhorrent aura. I agree. Yet Mika Luttinen overtops them all. He seems to unite all forms of misanthropic insanity and his inhumane screams lacerate the eardrum of every incautious listener. Despite the title of the album, Luttinen is absolutely not interested in offering any kind of Hindu spirituality and meditative or contemplative elements are only for esoteric wimps. His razor-sharp voice challenges the audience in the most horrible manner - but it is only one element which contributes to the atmosphere of mechanical destruction.

For example, almost the entire full-length works without riffs. The first one appears at the beginning of "Soul Rape", the eighth track of the album. By the way, it sounds brilliant. But, of course, the question is: who needs riffs at all? Impaled Nazarene have created merciless leads that send shivers down your spine without interruption. Often fueled by blast beats, the guitars are rather responsible for a terrorizing background noise. This way of proceeding lends the album a very individual appearance. It cannot be easily compared with other black metal outputs, because it has some punk vibes, offers a few number of mysterious keyboard lines and - even more important - it paints an almost futuristic picture due to the more or less robotic work of the instrumentalists. The mix of these components results in a very insistent listening experience. Its most intensive section consists of the triumvirate "Soul Rape", "Kali Yuga" and "Cyberchrist".

As mentioned earlier, "Soul Rape" is kicked off by a simple yet effective riff. The straight hammering of the drummer motivates his partners to achieve top performance. Rapid, animalistic and without any frills, that's how the song rushes by. The bass guitar is sidelined, but it plays a prominent role at the beginning of "Kali Yuga". Maltreated by Javeli Tarna who is also known as "The Fuck You-Men", it gives the start signal for a song which is faster and more intensive than its predecessor. Honestly, I do not want to know the specific drugs that the band took in order to create such a furious number. Its atmospheric ending contrasts with the previously dominant velocity and adds its special flavour; it seems to be taken from a soundtrack of an Italian Western movie. Play me the song of death, Fuck You-Men! But he and the other henchmen prefer to perform "Cyberchrist". Its flattening guitars at the beginning mark just the overture for an almost epic yet simultaneously relentless storm of devastation. The throaty "Burn, you burn" during the annihilating chorus sounds like Mika suffers from cancer in the terminal stage. However, I have absolutely no clue what a "Cyberchrist" does throughout the day, but this track indicates that he eats children for breakfast.

The remaining songs do not stand behind, it is, as always, just a matter of taste. "Sadhu Sathana", "Chaosgoat Law" and some parts of "The Horny and the Horned", served with an twinkle in the eye, share the sheer fury of the aforementioned unholy trinity. The hilarious name of the latter is not an isolated case. The fairly ironic approach of Impaled Nazarene becomes apparent as soon as one reads the song titles. "Gott ist tot" or "Sadistic 666 / Under a Golden Shower" tell us that the band is not afraid of any kind of provocation. Okay, this is no surprise in view of the band name. Some interviews in which they were blabbering about the usefulness of an atomic war completed the picture. Well, whenever Finnish humour begins a love affair with crude promotion gimmicks, we are confronted with very strange results. Anyway, Javeli lives up to his second name, the other guys are also out of control without creating pure chaos and the twelve songs leave an enormous impact. Even the slightly experimental yet simplistic "Gott ist tot" does not fail to have an impact.

In order to please the war hawks from Oulu, I may use a martial metaphor to describe the production. Equipped with the pressure wave of an atom bomb, it blows everything away. Apart from this outstanding feature, the full-length sounds cold, not very differentiated but vigorous. Hence follows that "Ugra-Karma" is an almost perfect album, if we ignore the fact that the band and the label used the stylish artwork without permission of the artist. Consequently, the rerelease is ornamented with another cover. But that's not my problem. I still enjoy this apocalyptic masterpiece, inter alia because Impaled Nazarene have never reached this mind-blowing form again.

Impaled Nazarene are a band that have somewhat stayed off my radar. I only own 2 albums, and other bits and pieces I've heard haven't inspired me to dig deeper. I bought this album purely because it is so highly regarded. Suffice to say I don't quite get the hype.

The actual black metal on this album is pretty good. 'Sadhu Satana', 'Chaosgoat Law' and 'Hate' in particular stand out at the beginning of the album, plenty of blasting drums and proper black metal riffs. Production is nicely underdone like black metal should be, although the tinny drums can be irritating t times. Vocals are typical black metal screaming/screeching with a slight hint of a more death metal type roar. So far so good. But 'Gott ist Tot' is an abomination, a repetitive riff over a horrible dance inspired programmed beat. I don't care what subtitled mix this track is, it's utter rubbish and followed by an even more pointless 17 second track. Totally ruins the flow of the album.

Unfortunately this double kick in the balls really spoils the album for me. Luckily, the next tracks are a rapid improvement. 'Soul Rape' is really fast and powerful black metal, and 'Kali-Yaga' is somehow even faster, more intense and has an insanely good dose of screaming in it. Good stuff. 'Cyberchrist' is more of the same, but this is where the album finds it's flaws. Apart from the experimental crap, this album all sounds exactly the same. Lightning fast riffing, pounding drums, relentlessly harsh vocals. At this speed it's hard to conjure up atmosphere which is the key to good black metal. Variety would be nice, but this album only has variety in the shape of a horrible genre clashing track or a stupidly short track that starts good then just stops (that track is fast in more than one way!).

'False Jehova' is the same again, as is 'Sadistic 666' although this track isn't quite as fast. Bonus tracks-'Satanic Masowhore' is fast, pounding black metal which comes as a real shock. 'Conned Thru Life' is another whirlwind track in the same vein as the others.

These guys can clearly play and know their black metal down to a tee, but that's all they do. They play fast black metal, and they play it quite well, but there's no real atmosphere or changes of pace besides tracks that can only be labeled as skippable. I really have to be in the mood to listen to 'Ugra-Karma', ideally a mood where I want to kill everyone! Worth a listen for those into the harsher, faster end of the black metal spectrum.

Recommended tracks: just listen to 'Hate' or 'Soul Rape' then play them another 11 times on repeat.

From Impaled Nazarene you can always and only expect a massive dosage of pure aggression and violence. The debut album will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme outputs of the first years of the 90s and the following album, this Ugra-Karma is simply a natural continuation of the path with more violent compositions that, however, show more complex and mature parts. By the way, the words “mature” and “complex” should always be seen related to a band like Impaled Nazarene, that never abandoned their way to violence in all these years.

As an example of what I said, let’s check the first song, “Goatzied”. Here the band is awesome. At the beginning there is a long series of blast beats that has two breaks where the keyboards parts give the right atmosphere. Mika’s vocals are always schizophrenic, sick and completely screamed. While we continue the march though these songs, the brutality grows and even if the debut was already so evil and twisted, this Ugra-Karma is even faster and nastier. The band has improved a lot and now the structures of the songs are complete. The melodic, almost epic breaks and the sudden blast beats parts on “The Horny and The Horned” are monstrous. To notice, by the way, the classical and always present ironic component.

The production is quite raw but truly bestial. Even if they want to mock the other black metal bands, this album can result heavier than most of the black metal outputs in those years. Mika’s screams are incredibly powerful and manage to be also quite versatile, passing easily from a form of growl to the characteristic scream. The songs are generally not so long and beside pure furious opuses like “Sadhu Satana” and “Chaosgoat Law”, we can also find a little more various tracks like “Hate” and “CyberChrist”. Often, there are keyboards parts in which the atmosphere is gloomier and more epic if we want. The rest is a continue march towards pure detonating parts.

Forget about technique or sense of a smart songwriting. Everything has planned to be primordial and that is. The guitars are in perennial open chords parts and they achieve the goal of creating a massive, black monolith of bestial carnage behind the restless drums that, so often, are on a sort of primordial blast beats pattern. “Soul Rape” is more punk on the approach of the guitars and the general tempo that this time is a bit less impulsive and more focused on the up tempo, like also on “Kali-Yuga”. The only thing I didn’t like a lot is the “Gott Ist Tot (Antichrist War Mix)” because has an electronic base. By the way, I must admit that these guys are completely crazy in everything they do.

All in all, this is one of the most violent albums by this band and surely one of the most vicious in this genre. It’s ironic but on the other hand it’s completely primordial, destructive and unmatchable. The band has made a quite big step respect the first album and you can really hear that. By the way, I easily recommend it to any fan of really extreme sounds.

Impaled Nazarene are one of Black Metal's stalwarts, as they have quite a long and extensive catalog of grisly, headbangable, blasting ugliness that I have yet to fully delve into. I do happen to have this album though, and although it isn't instantly gratifying, it is a monster of an album.

Impaled Nazarene took the standard Black Metal template and tinkered with it in subtle ways, adding some folkish, majestic melodies here and there, and dashes of electronic influences ("Gott Ist Tott" is the main offender in this respect) that make this album instantly recognizable. All of the key Black Metal elements are firmly in place, from the thin, hollow production job, the fuzzy, raw guitar sound, the blackened rasping and shrieking from behind the mic and the bucketfulls of blastbeats and tremolo-picked riffs, but Impaled Nazarene are good songwriters, and Ugra Karma is far from a generic Black Metal release. Every song here is instantly recognizable, and the band utilizes catchy riffs and foreboding, horror-movie esque melodies to accentuate this, clashing with the simplistic bashing of the music's surface aesthetics to create quite an interesting album, with much more depth than meets the ear on first listen. Give this one time to grow on you.

There aren't any real bad songs here, and standouts include the vicious, ripping opener "The Horny and The Horned," the monolithic, towering "Hate," the eccentric, high-octane blasting of the furious "Kali Yuga," the desolate, bleak stomp of "Cyberchrist," with its crushing riffs and dense, foggy atmosphere, and the doomy closer "Sadistic 666 / Under a Golden Shower." Ugra Karma is not an album that will convert non-Black Metal fans to the genre, but it is a very competent album of evil, abrasive Black Metal played at its best, with enough creative nuance to keep you interested for a long time. Recommended.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Impaled Nazarene has always been, and no doubt will always remain as my favorite band, period. Every new LP is a always solid, powerful, hatefilled, Satanic, goatworshipping masterpiece of epic proportions, taking the typical black metal formula and adding elements of thrash, power metal, and yes, even crust punk. The past few albums (which are, at this time, Pro Patria Finlandia, Absence of War, All That You Fear), are much quite thrash-like in sound, incorporating a lot of power metal tremolo picking and screaming, rather than growling, if that makes any sense, so that is what a lot of people have come to expect from the band. Recently, however, Osmose rereleased the 1993 black metal classic (again), and so this album is once again widely available. For anyone who thinks of Impaled Nazarene as a blackened thrash band, I highly recommend that you pick this CD up. Quite raw and surprisingly melodic at times, Ugra-Karma is pure black fucking metal through and through.

Right from the beginning, with the typical short intro track ("Goatzied"), it becomes apparent to the listener that they're in for a treat. Mika's vocals are not as harshly incoherent as with Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, but they're shrieked to perfection with none of the current near-falsetto style that he's adopted. After Goatzied is chanted out, the album quickly speeds up with possibly the best track on it, "The Horny and the Horned", a complex song that changes rapidly from a tune with dirging guitars to some of the harshest screams and quickest blastbeats I've ever heard.

"Saddhu Satana" and "Chaosgoat Law" are also spectacular tracks, that, despite using the same main tremolo picking riffage, manage to sound like the completely different tracks they are. Mika Luttinen is easily one of the most amazing vocalists in the world, and anyone who doubts that simply needs to listen to Chaosgoat Law to have their mind changed quite quickly.

Track 6, "Gott Ist Tott (Antichrist War Mix)", is, as the title implies, a very blackened industrial-sounding song, with a rather simplistic song structure, and only 8 different words comprising the lyrics of this three-minute masterpiece, but it's one of the catchiest tracks on the album. And it's abundantly clear where the current ImpNaz sound comes from.

Despite the lack of solos, the guitarists do indeed do their jobs very well, and complement each other perfectly. The CD progresses beautifully from track to track, never sounding even the slightest bit repetitive, as each song is a unique masterpiece in its own right. The lyrics, as always, are very tongue-in-cheek and typically Satanic in nature, never failing to amuse while simultaneously sounding somehow badass, despite their occasionally horrendous English ("burn you burn cyberchrist domination!", anyone?). The band refers to Ugra-Karma as being "raw cyberpunk black metal", which is pretty fitting, although labeling Ugra-Karma very well is next to impossible. Without a doubt, though, beyond the various different musical influences of this LP, it is black metal in every sense of the word, and a must have for anyone who enjoys extreme music.

Damn, this album surprised me the first time I heard it. Before I heard this and Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, I always thought Impaled Nazarene played Motörhead-esque, melodic black metal, as they make it on All that you fear. When I got hold of the first two albums, my ears were shocked as hell. My ears were bleeding from this explosive mixture of black metal and grindcore. And I listened and listened to both of them albums, and both have really grewn onto me, but this little piece lacked a review so I thought I should do it.

First we'll label the music, which is kinda hard. The band themselves called it Cyber Punk or whatever, and it is an interesting mixture of different influences...The record sounds like Shane Embury joining Burzum, taking the Driller Killer drummer with him, and trying to record De Mysteriis dom Sathanas. To be a bit more serious, this album has got practically everything.

Majestic, epic-sounding riffs? Just check out "The horny and the horned" and Chaosgoat law. Crusty riffs and d-beat? Soul Rape for you. Frantic, crazed grindy madness? Goatized, Coraxo. More standard black metal? Cyberchrist. A drum machine (!) ? Check out the Antichrist War mix, Gott ist Tot.

The vocalist is great, Mr Luttinen alternates between the styles, sometimes being a black metal snarl, sometimes a more growly, death metally/crusty voice, and throwing in some really high pitched shrieks for variation. The guitarists do their job, no soloing is here but that's no problem what so ever. If you want solos, go jack off to some old Dream Theater stuff. This is CyberPunk goddammit. The bass seems to follow the guitars almost all the time, but that doesn't really matter either. Over to the drummer. When he blasts, he's a fucking slaughter machine. When he plays d-beats, he adds some nice double bass rolls and fill-ins and shit, letting some skills shine through. A synthesizer is here as well, but never in the way for rawness. Somehow, Impaled Nazarene manages to "taint" their black metal with a lot of stuff that most people can't stand, yet they do it with tonnes of attitude and with musical perfection, so it's never a problem. Production is great, very clear and trebly. All in all, a fucking great album!