(SPHC-143)
(Finland)
Oulu, Finland's flagship hardcore band Kuroishi return with their 4th LP. By now, we're all familiar with their signature style of Tragedy-influenced hardcore. Big epic guitar solos atop heavy, brooding riffs and high-charge drums. It is the same darkness and ice that bore Wolfbrigade and Unkind after all.
But while many bands rewrite the same records over and over (bless them lol), Kuroishi continue to push and pull themselves in slightly different directions, keep their signature style but lean into different ideas. Check the frantic anxiety of riffing in "Turhautumisen Liekki", or the black metal blast flourishment of "Egocide of the Warmad". Feel the goosebumps in the creepy guitar arpeggios and spoken words of "Aivojen Kasijarru", let your spirits soar with the epic melodic backing vocals of "Kun Tiedostat Virheesi". Simultaneously familiar but distinctly different from their other records, Kuroishi continue to be one of the hardest working bands in the game, dedicated to thoughtfully crafting each album as a separate experience and not rehashing the same tired ideas into frayed pieces.
Again, mastered at Enormous Door.
Again, masterpiece artwork by the legendary Sugi, printed on a thick tip-on jacket.
Again, good enough that it's getting the global push:
European pressing on Fight Records
American pressing on SPHC Records
Japan CD version on Break the Records
