Review by Felix on November 9, 2023.

Uhritulet is another unit from (you guessed it) Finland and (of course, you guessed it again) another one man project. My romantic thoughts about a handful of friends making music in order to take the world by storm is old-fashioned as hell. Either way, the guy who runs this project calls himself VP. Without long hair or corpsepaint, he rather looks like a middle-class kid in a nice leather jacket on vacation, but this review is not about his promo picture. Doubtlessly, the self-titled debut does not win through quantity. The release clocks in at 31 minutes. Without the completely useless intro, where a soft guitar fails to set the stage and some birds caw in the distance, we would speak about an EP, right? 

Anyway, five fully equipped tracks remain. Uhritulet sound less cold and merciless than some of their more famous compatriots. The diabolic vehemence of bands such as Behexen, Malum or Azaghal is not the territory of VP. Nevertheless, his approach does not lack the necessary grimness, although he likes to integrate some melodic segments. 'Ytenä Heistä' surprises with a bewitching keyboard line that hovers over the guitars. It is catchy, expressive and atmospheric, what more can we demand? 'Katoan' is another song that gives room for harmonic lines. The melody at the beginning almost conveys a happy touch and therefore an ultimate disaster is imminent, but the song does not fall victim to its own vibrations. After the ambivalent beginning, it turns out to a fast-paced winterstorm. 

VP’s voice is responsible for the bitter note in the sound of Uhritulet. His throaty approach expresses pain and desolation. This is no extraordinary performance, but truly a good one. It looks as if the middle-class kid in his nice leather jacket isn't so harmless after all. By the way, the production also does not suffer from harmlessness. The guitars lend the album the necessary pressure, the drums sound okay and the voice has enough room to develop its full force. 

The closer 'Yön Soihduissa', a song with some parts that strongly remind me of Burzum’s “Dunkelheit”, celebrates mega-heavy slow motion riffing before it flows into an organ outro. This unexpected turn is no isolated case. Despite its short runtime, the album shows many faces and especially the closer has a lot of different facets. Just take, for example, the rocking structure of 'Tuomittu', a piece that could almost fill the dancefloor in a dark rock disco. In my humble opinion, this variety indicates a very robust potential and I hope that the artist behind Uhrilutet does not want to end as a one album wonder. This would be a shame, because Uhrilutet, ornamented with a stylish artwork, does not defy its roots and it is definitely a good start.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10