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BLACK MASS, THE  Black Candles / Lucifer, Rise!  7" VINYL   (Svart Records)   8.99


���� Ok, so maybe the band's name isn't the most original thing out there (Metal Archives.com alone lists at least seven bands with the same name), but this Finnish band's debut ended up being a real blast. If you were to go by the witchy scratchings on the record sleeve and the unfortunately mundane band name, you might think that Black Candles / Lucifer, Rise! is going to be yet another in the overcrowded field of 70's-worshipping occult rock throwbacks in thrall to the sounds of Coven, Salem Mass and Black Widow. In actuality, this 7" turned out to be quite ripping, delivering two songs of satanic garage punk with big doses of raw aggression and vintage analogue synth. It's the first recording from this solo project from Samu Salovaara, who some might know as the guitarist for Finnish death metallers Swallowed, belting out these dark tunes with a definite 70's-era proto-punk vibe going on. Kicking off with a rush of sinister Moog, "Black Candles" rips into some rocking reverb-heavy garage punk, tough and malevolent, with a faint whiff of early 80's American deathpunk. That a-side rocks, fast paced and flecked with some cool bass-work and screaming guitar solos, but "Lucifer, Rise!" is even more punk, with some killer primitive synth lines splashed over another rudely boisterous riff. There are moments where this devilish psych-punk sort of manages to remind me of both classic Motor City rock and roll and the tougher, more boisterous stuff that Christian Death did early on, but with rawer, meaner vocals. Pretty cool. Limited to five hundred copies.