Artist: Uhritulet
Country: Finland
Label: Self-released
Formats: Digital demo
Year: 2025
Blame it on old age, or perhaps I simply prophetised this in my review of the Uhritulet debut album. But the observation that ‘Uhritulet’ didn’t manage to stand out from the pack became all too true: I forgot I had reviewed the band in the past. Sure, the name rang familiar, but memories of the music of the Purity Through Fire released album were all but absent. Now it does strike some familiarity upon revisiting the album for the band’s newest release ‘Pedon Ruumis/Liekin Takaa’, so time to pass some judgement on how well the music of Uhritulet has stood the test of time.
The band never was too much like most of their Finnish counterparts, offering more midtempo Black Metal focused on groove and to some extent melody. With a clear Pagan and Folk undertone, the songs were rather upbeat, catchy to listen to but nothing too memorable or outstanding. I did laud the band for incorporating some synthesizers, and upon revisiting the album, indeed those two tracks remain a standout. This record is now followed up by a two-track demo or single if you will, featuring a demo version of ‘Pedon Ruumis’ and another song bearing the title ‘Liekin Takaa’.
‘Pedon Ruumis’ follows pretty much in the footsteps of the debut, with medium paced rocking and grooving Black Metal with a slightly raw guitar sound as the musical backbone. The song is catchy and epic with a distinct Folky undertone, that is not unlike bands like Moonsorrow and Finntroll stripped of all the keyboards. Compared to the debut, the melodic component is a little bit less overt than it was on the debut but otherwise, musically it’s rather comparable to what Uhritulet have offered before. ‘Liekin Takaa’ then follows with a similar pace and sense of groove and catchiness but is a much more melodic track. In the review of the debut, I mentioned the band Sielunvihollinen and that comparison holds here too. What is rather different though is that the vocals in this track are strictly cleanly sung, giving the song an even stronger Folky edge. With that rocking and grooving background, it certainly has a flair of later Sentenced as well, although the Black Metal riffage of Uhritulet pulls them away from direct comparisons.
With two songs that share a catchy rocking folk-tinged backbone but otherwise are quite different in style it’s hard to predict what ‘Pedon Ruumis/Liekin Takaa’ says about the future of Uhritulet. There is something intriguing about the second track, but whether it’s fit for an entire album is a different story. Besides, Uhritulet main man VP clearly is still exploring where to take the band sound. I guess only time will tell where that ends up, let’s hope by that time I will have managed to remember them.
