BAND OF THE WEEK: Stolen Kidneys

If the world is ending, why do you need internal organs anyway?

Even if you’re not Finnish, the title of Stolen Kidneys’ new album, ‘Maalima Loppuu‘, might seem familiar to you, which is natural - bands and artists as diverse as Indica or former Sentenced/Poisonblack man Ville Laihiala have had songs by that name, but hey, it’s not uncommon to think about the end of the world, especially within the realm of heavy music. And boy, are Stolen Kidneys heavy! Go to their Bandcamp and you’ll see their music described as “noisy, dissonant hardcore/noiserock” or “noise-rockish sludgy hardcore”, and to be honest that’s quite on the nose. There’s Helmet’s pounding dryness, there’s Breach’s density and heaviness, there’s a bit of Unwound-like dynamics, sometimes the shoutier moments of Defeater come to mind (like on the last song, ‘Maailmanloppu’), so, you know, all of them good references. These are lads with good taste.

They’re not a new band, mind you. Apparently they’ve been around since 2009 already, and there’s a self-released debut album from 2017 called ‘Ruin’ and a couple of splits, but I suspect this will be the first contact of many with them, especially outside Finland. This new record, which was will be released on October 1st, is going to be put out by a joint-venture of labels, namely Drown Within Records (Italy), Kohina Records (Finland) and minoRobscuR (Germany), while UK’s Trepanation Recordings will handle the CD and tape versions, so it’ll surely be their most widespread release. Hey, it reached me and got my attention, and my “promos to sort out” folder is currently holding 283 items after a month or so of letting them pile up there. I shit you not, look:

They are also from Oulu, a place with some history even without the rich Finnish scene, with bands like Impaled Nazarene, Sentenced, The Man-Eating Tree or Kalmah hailing from there, that’s some good metal pedigree to have, and Stolen Kidneys sure soaked up the good metal vibes of the region. So yeah, if you’re into riffy, wintery, grey, harsh, winter-ridden music, give these guys a shot. And don’t wait for October 1st, because Trepanation has kindly supplied a full album stream. Listen, enjoy, then buy the damn thing:

Find Stolen Kidneys on Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram.