Käärmekristus - Otavaisen olkapäille

Otavaisen olkapäille, radiating a sense of nature mysticism, is the debut album by the solo project Käärmekristus. Stylistically, it is melodic and raw black metal made with a lo-fi mindset. The questionable icing on the cake comes in the form of drumming performances riddled with mistakes, which further emphasize the album’s careless and indifferent approach.

If Käärmekristus is to be compared to a particular album or era, early Judas Iscariot comes to mind. Their debut, The Cold Earth Slept Below... (1996), also featured error-ridden drumming and collapsing tempos as the drummer simply struggled to keep up with the music.

There is something endearing about this kind of approach, but at the same time it becomes irritating in the long run. Judas Iscariot improved once they brought in a dedicated drummer, and the same would probably apply to Käärmekristus.

This solo project hasn’t exactly gone straight into making albums, either, having released several demos since 2010. At the time of writing, there are ten of them, plus a split released before the debut album. It is therefore genuinely baffling that the drumming remains such a chaotic affair.

Fortunately, things are better on guitar, where the album offers more than a few genuinely good riffs, and occasionally even better ones. There is plenty of filler, too, in the form of various run-of-the-mill riffs. Overall, the music is reasonably decent — once you get used to the hesitant playing.

The vocals sound a little too heavily processed for my taste. They are not bad, but a more natural sound would probably work better. The production, meanwhile, is extremely crude and evokes the production values of the ’90s.

There is nothing wrong with such a necro sound, as long as it is done properly. Otavaisen olkapäille doesn’t quite get a clean bill of health in this department, but neither is the result particularly irritating. The lo-fi scene has produced much, much worse.

If Otavaisen olkapäille had been put together with a little more care and commitment, it could have been considerably more exciting. As it stands, it feels more like a demo compilation assembled largely from bits and pieces picked up here and there. It’s still a perfectly okay effort as it is.

Tracklist:
1. Väkitaikojen valta
2. Näkyjä kalmistolta
3. Yhdeksän lukkoa
4. Uhrilahja metsälle
5. Verta kurimuksen kurkkuun
6. Hauden haamujen huuto
7. Kallohonka

Links:
https://krmkrsts.bandcamp.com/
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/K%C3%A4%C3%A4rmekristus/3540308702