After three 3-track EPs Finnish Groove-Death brigade CALMSITE has finally landed a deal, with American newcomers Oak Knoll Productions. And the quintet from Riihimäki does not sound Finnish at all, so do not fear, we neither get the new SENTENCED and CHARON nor the next copy of CHILDREN OF BODOM or KALMAH.

Instead the gentlemen Lehtonen, Seitsonen, Virtanen, Mäkinen and Penttinen fimly stand in the mud of the thawing Finnish permafrost with both legs, with 10 songs in compact 37 minutes, mostly between three and four minutes, some might call the style of CALMSITE Death’n’Roll, groovy Death Metal with crunchy Rock list is the a bit more extensive description of what comes from the speakers.

Three new songs are added to the already mentioned MCDs „Deadweight“ (1 song), “Bite The Powerline“ (all three tracks) and the complete EP “Steelpit“ and if you take into consideration that all three had been released in a bit more than a year, then you can imagine that they are pretty close to each other style wise. And this style is not following anyone, but rather has the potential to maybe pave the way for other bands even.

Petri Seitsonen alternates between a powerful Death Metal roar and a rough, quite aggressive “clear voice” (which won’t get really clear until the last song), while the guitar duo Juha Lehtonen and Ville Virtanen utilises traditional, dirty Metal, just to spice it up with groovy riffing and a certain doomy touch, everything played very tightly, which should result in a very interesting live performance indeed.

As already mentioned, the first nine tracks are pretty close together, mostly mid-paced (but with several speed ups), with a lot of groove, at times surprisingly melodic leads (as on “Asskin“ or “Mudwhip“) and the crunchy vocals, but with the energy the guys convey, it never gets boring at all. The last song, “Ashtrayman” then is the exception, with acoustic beginning, before they give way to the heaviness again. Vocally Petri again roars like a wet moose, but he also adds some clear vocals (which sound a lot like METALLICA on “Ride The Lightning“ and “Master Of Puppets“), very interesting closer, also the longest track of the album with more than six minutes playing time.

The production also absolutely befits the dirty style, so no complaints here either, if you like your Death Metal groovy and dirty, then you should definitely check out CALMSITE, they are pretty original on top of that! (Online January 31, 2005)