Unkind – Harhakuvat

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Finland’s Unkind have been churning out albums and 7â€� singles for years now, quietly living out in the underground since their formation. However, it seems like the time for ‘greater things’ has come, with the band signing up to the not-quite-so-underground Relapse Records for their latest album, Harhakuvat. Seems as if nothing otherwise has changed, though – Unkind are still a very dark and very foreboding crust-punk act, enriching their mostly d-beat rhythms with plenty of heavier, murkier interludes. The first discovery with Unkind is just how suited the Finnish language is to crust-punk – it’s easy to forget just how sinister and spiteful it can really sound. Combined with the odd anti-war sample clip (a particularly interesting speech about the war between Israel and the Palestinians), this makes for a very strong anti-establishment album, but without some of the cliché anarchic terminology that can get so heavily associated with the genre. To an extent some of this is predictable and done before – this is pretty much a given with any d-beat hardcore – but Harhakuvat does move away from its base genre at times, like the more doom-ladden Johtajat Ja Uhrit. Its also pretty rare for crust to utilize horn sections, which the band do use on Kaivannot. Most importantly though, the songs themselves are thoroughly sincere and emotional, with the album having all the right atmosphere and all the right production to really make the band’s fast and heavy hardcore sound great, whilst still retaining both melody and depth.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Hardcore/Metalcore, Quick.Play Reviews, Unkind