Various Artists
Metal on Metal 2

January 2007
Released: 2006, Self-released
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Two Finnish fellows, Immu and Orkku, who are both known for their underground metal activities in Finland by bringing underground metal bands (Toxic Holocaust, Nifelheim, Devil Lee Rot, Zemial, etc.) for gigs to Finland under the Metal Warning!!! -organization, and also running their own distros with a great devotion and success - as well as owing both huge collections of fine and rare metal, have also been supporting some of the most promising and talented Finnish bands by choosing them for a series of compilation-CDs which they started last year, using the very fitting title METAL ON METAL as the name of these compilation-CDs.



If METAL ON METAL – PART 1. introduced some of the blackest and dirtiest Speed/Thrash Metal bands from Finland in 2005, this time more weight has been put on introducing mostly Finnish bands that have a strong connection to either NWOBHM or Doom Metal on this compilation´s 2nd part. Solitaire actually is the only band that makes an exception to this rule by their pleasingly frenzied and aggressive Speed Metal that has a strong ´80s flavor in it (I think it even should be mentioned that Solitaire recorded two new songs exclusively for this compilation-CD - and both of them sound absolutely killer!!).



As for other bands, Forever Winter sounds an interesting mix of NWOBHM and Sabbat / early Skyclad; dirty, raw, catchy and melodic in a good way. Spiritus Mortis, one of my favorite Doom Metal bands coming out from Finland these days, stays as loyal to their ´80s sound Doom Metal (one can take a note the band was formed as early as 1987 already) with their two songs as one can expect. I would call their music eerie Doom Metal with twists of EPICUS -era Candlemass here and there in their depressive sound. Simply excellent stuff! Bloody Hell´s track, “Midnight Man” is pure NWOBHM -worshipping from start to finish, bringing such bands as Raven and Motörhead to a listener´s mind. Witchtiger on the other hand, sounds occasionally a bit like a poor man´s version from early Mötley Crue, except the vocals that are, to put it simply, horrible. Sammohan performs occult Heavy Metal, keeping things simple in the two songs (“Metal Altar” and “Mercenary Tiger”) they have managed to feature for this compilation. Nothing special to say about them as they didn´t do that much for me after all. One thing is sure, however: They cannot ever be any match to occultist English Doom meisters Witchfinder General. But then, Minotauri surely did impress me by their song “Satan Is Man”; a song that was ripped off from the band´s 7” single, released originally by an obscure Swedish underground label I Hate Records, limited to 666 copies. Excellent, traditional and slow Doom Metal nearly at its most impressive form! The band has surely shown its sharp claws to the world of Doom Metal in a great way...



Morningstar is another long-running Finnish metal band that has made several albums during their career. “Fighters of Metal” was recoded in 2004 already, and was an unreleased track from them – until now, of course! Good traditional Heavy Metal what this song is all about, nothing that spectacular, but still good stuff all around. Heathen Hoof yet again proves that good Traditional Heavy Metal can also be created in these northern degrees of latitudes just like anywhere else. Straight, heavy and relatively simple... and yes, catchy as fuck!



Fall of the Idols trusts in the sounds of a stoned-tree heavy Doom Metal in “Empire”, and even if they don´t sound like anything new in the genre any longer, they are entertaining to listen to.



Garden of Worm has got a privilege to end M.O.M.´s 2nd chapter by two songs, “Verikivi (“Bloodstone”)” and “Keskikesän Hautasaatto (“Midsummer´s Funeral Procession”)”. They use their own native language get their own through message through amongst the Doom Metal diggers around the world, and I bet many have adopted their message pretty well. ´Psychedelic Doom Metal´ is how I would call them as they have got a fair handful of influences from the ´70s (Heavy) Rock world (ála early Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus) captured into these two slices of doomy sounds that have been featured on this somewhat splendid compilation-CD.



The lay-out (all B&W) has also been done with a careful yet. Each band has been introduced with individual promo shots, line-ups, contacts, etc. in the booklet, so one should yet useful information from each band easily. Also, I really like this “The-Finnish-Karhu-beer-meets-Motörhead-mascot” -bastard child figure myself a lot; thanks to Humberto Sánchez for being a creator behind this.



Hopefully there´s gonna be a continuation coming up from the guys next year for this series of compilation-CD. Immu and Orkku have done an excellent brainwork in order to find an ideal way to promote some of the gems from the Finnish underground metal scene to the whole metal world. It would be a real shame if they stopped this now to this 2nd part because there´s lots of promising and skilled new bands crawling out from the depths of Finnish underground scene all the time. So, support heavy music because it will eventually support you.