heiva: Juorni (full album, 2023)

Keeping things on a postpunk tip today, with the first fulllength album by :heiva: a new project from Tervaaja, of Ruohtta which dispenses with almost all black metal styled instrumentation in favour of lean wiry 70s sounds, leaving a caustic, gnarled, and garbled vocal performance as the sole discernible trace of raw darkness. Melodic leads that weave somewhere between David Byrne and Mark Knopfler along with rhythm sections of percussive experimentation similar to some Jimmy Maelen and Brian Eno pieces, that would offer uplifting freewheeling hits, were they not turned towards the dour and morose with echoes of the Cure, the Young Gods, the Smiths, Swans, among many other musical influences that mingle together in spite of the minimalism of these tracks. In his own words, Juorni is about sheer negativity, rotten vibes, worthless shitty human behavior and reflections on the fact that there is no hope for mankind nor this world. Available in digital format from Bandcamp: ru