Veitsi – Fenno-Ugrilainen Yliherruus [Demo]

Artist: Veitsi
Country: Finland
Label: River Valley Cult
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025

After the ‘Perikato’-full length album that was released on the second day of this year, one-man band Veitsi is back with a new recording in the form of a demo tape. Like lots of releases with Finnish titles, this too has a title that is hard to pronounce for anybody whose mother tongue isn’t Finnish. Even Google Translate couldn’t make much of it this time around. Yet, while my Finnish doesn’t go much further than “perkele”, I am always up for some Finnish Black Metal. Veitsi, in the past, has already enamoured me with a rather rough and rowdy mix of back-to-basics Black Metal and the raw energy and rhythms of old Scandinavian Punk. People who share that same fondness for this band will not be disappointed with ‘Fenno-Ugrilainen Yliheruus’.

As a whole, on a musical level, not too much has changed since the release of Veitsi’s sole full-length album. It is a matter of a slight change of balance that marks this latest demo offering. Veitsi’s approach to Black Metal has always been rather primitive and garage-like, and that idea has clearly been amplified with these five new tracks.

Not necessarily by wiping out or even reducing the Black Metal part in the Veitsi max, but just focussing even more on the Punk aesthetics and overall basics, stripping the music even further from any unnecessary frills. The riffs are simple, so are the drum rhythms and the low-end rumblings, adding so much to the primal energy of old English and Scandinavian punk. The throaty vocals are actually the strongest reminder of this being an actual Black Metal demo, but there’s also a couple of frenzied attempts to add some melody and “leads”.

But regardless of what you think or hear, ‘Fenno-Ugrilainen Yliherruus’ is a nice and interesting addition to the growing Veitsi discography. The whole mix of influences and inspirations give it an overall feeling of a late 80’s proto-Black Metal demo, and that is something that is hard to resist.