Haavat – Myrsky Nousee

It’s no secret that Scandinavia has boasted some of the best raw punk bands over the years. A fair few UK based bands have tried to emulate this magic, even adopting Scandinavian style names for the band or their members. Haavat from Norwich have something they don’t. Singer Katri (former member of Rakkaus) shouts the words in Finnish.

Myrsky Nousee means ‘the storm is rising’. The whole effect of the band is immediate, fierce and confrontational, sweeping over you much like the storm of the title. The shouted vocals, the downtuned guitar and the woody sounding bass (played by Alex, singer of d-beat warriors Agnosy) pull tight to the whirlwind of drums. Despite having some of the ingredients, they lean more into straight up fast hardcore punk than d-beat—full of energy, but still maintaining some of the gnarliness you would expect of a d-beat band. They take a collective deep breath and sprint through each track, occasionally dropping in some nice touches that suggest a love for Japanese thrash. Yes, they occasionally slow a little on a few songs but that just seems to trigger another acceleration for the next song. On some of those mid paced tunes I can hear a similar vibe to bands like Detestation.

In some ways Haavat have a timeless sound with elements that could have come from the ’80s, ’90s or any time this century but with the obvious difference in quality that up to date recording techniques allow. If you dig the sort of bands that Flat Earth were releasing in the ’90s you will not be disappointed. Not quite as ferocious as Health Hazard but they share some similarities in their intensity. Perhaps due to the way the words flow, I have to mention Finnish greats like Terveet Kädet, Kaaos and Mellakka with whom Haavat share speed and brevity only with a bit more depth and a more modern sound.

Despite churning out breakneck songs they still have tunes, and some immediately grabbed me as catchy—”Valheita” and “Vie Mut Pois” were instant favourites.

Among the dark, forest and horror inspired cover artwork by guitarist Mid (yes, that Deviated Instinct fella can play more than one style) the Finnish lyrics are accompanied by a translation into English for the ignorant monoglots like myself. From that I can tell you these songs are a mixed bag of reflections on the human condition and how we treat each other from an individual level to the population scale of war and capitalism (the two being co-dependent).

The lyrical style is descriptive and loaded, not entirely dissimilar to the “haiku” approach that Discharge took all those years ago. The poetry of the words seems ancient, tapping into the darkness of the forest and the well of humanity. The name Haavat means ‘wounds’ in Finnish, a suitably gruesome band name for a hardcore punk band that I can tell will be overwhelming in a live situation. This album covers a lot of ground quickly. The CD version, bumped up from 14 to 17 songs, is still only 33 minutes or thereabouts.

What more can I say? If you like fast punchy gnarly hardcore punk you’ll love this. If you don’t you are dead inside.