Since forming in 2014, Sludge band, Radien have released a range of different releases displaying their power and skill in creating their own devastating blackened influenced sounds. Their latest album Unissa Palaneet, despite only being five tracks long, lasts a tremendous forty-six minutes, almost half of which is taken up by the final track, clocking in at twenty-one minutes. As you can tell from the get-go, this isn’t a band with dreams of hitting the charts. It is clear from the offset of their music, these artists have a creative vision of the brutal and animalistic sounds they can present to the world.
The band dive head first into the blackened side of their sludge sound, creating eerie atmospheric soundscapes that feel like they should be in an arthouse horror film. These background noises swirl around, accompanied by a light acoustic-sounding guitar, gently strumming out full chords. The band work hard to set the scene and the overall tone of the album to come, before launching into the second full song ‘Seinaman Takana’. It’s an incredible feat of musical prowess to have an opening track over seven minutes in length, with minimal instrumentation and structure but still manage to hold the attention of the listener so well. It feels almost as if the band are constructing a film, and the opening track is the opening scene, grabbing full hold of your curiosity as means to pull you into the descent of Radien’s world.
‘Seinaman Takana’ takes up a notch, launching straight into the action of the sound, slow sludgy riffs begin, reminiscent of the likes of Conjurer, and the vocals are soon to join in with the frenzy, a bloodcurdling, feral sound from vocalist & bassist, Tommi Mutka. Regardless of the vocals, the whole sound of the album acts as a purely instrumental release. (Hear Me Out). Mutka’s vocals aren’t used in the traditional sense. There are no choruses, there are no hooks, and there aren’t really any discernible lyrics to be found. The noises emanating from Mutka are used as part of the instrumentation, adding layers and layers of black metal-influenced distortion and frenzy.
It’s within the aforementioned final song, that the band truly gets to shine. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, clocking in at over twenty-one minutes is ‘Unisa Palaneet pt. I, II, II’. The song takes the listener through a passage of different sounds and styles. Beginning at lo-fi, more blackened, to the previously displayed sludgy hard-hitting riffs and drums. The final song almost becomes ambient at several moments, the lo fi crackle and slow rhythm of the guitars and drums combine to create this feeling of being in the centre of a hurricane, while the torment and chaos circles around, in this moment, serenity falls upon the listener. It’s within these moments that the band is able to truly show off their knack for creating moods and incredible atmospheres within their music.
While there are some bands in these subgenres who have allowed it to become formulaic, Radien are choosing to take these conventions and use them to create whole new feelings and sounds within their own world. There’s no doubt that the band are still, to their core, Sludge Metal, but it’s using these building bricks of the scene that the band is able to combine terror and mayhem with serenity and calm. Different vibes that most would consider polar opposites, Radien have been able to do with ease. This is the hallmark of a band that anyone remotely interested in the scene should be watching out for.
Buy the album here:
https://radien.bandcamp.com/album/unissa-palaneet
7 / 10
CHARLIE HILL