Stumm "Regressive and No Talent Whatsoever" CD-R
Stumm on tietääkseni yksi ensimmäisistä puhtaista
suomalaisista sludge-yhtyeistä, ainakaan en muista toista kohdanneeni.
Demo on äänitetty suoraan treeneissä, joten äänen
laatu on erittäin tumma ja hieman suttuinenkin, mutta silti siitä
saa hyvin selvää. Yllättävää onkin se, että
kaikki soittimet erottuvat toisistaan ja kappaleita kuuntelee ihan mielellään.
Koska kyseessä on siis sludge, pitää muistaa, että
tarkoituksellinen suttuisuus ja likaisuus on osa genreä, josta syystä
on kovin vaikea sanoa soundeista mitään. Jos kyseessä olisi
studioäänitys, olisin varma että kyseessä on tahallinen
suttuisuus, mutta koska äänitys on tehty treeneissä, en
tähän seikkaan pureudu oikeastaan lainkaan. Varsinkin ensimmäiseen
kappaleeseen, nimeltään Chokehold Narcosis, liittyy tunne,
että kyseessä ei ehkä olisikaan treenikämppänauhoitus.
Pitänee lisätä että demolle on jälkikäteen
lisätty ainoastaan sampleja ja se on masteroitu (kotikoneella ehkä?),
muuten sille ei ole tehty mitään.
Mielestäni demo kaipaa parempaa tuotantoa, pitäen kuitenkin
mielessä sen, miltä sludgen tulisi kuulostaa, joten ehkä
senkin saisi aikaan treenikämpällä ja hieman paremmilla
laitteilla. Yhtyeiden kuten Eyehategod, Grief, Corrupted
ja vaikka Cavity ystävien kannattaa demoon tutustua tarkemmin,
lisäksi suosittelen että funeral doomin ystävät ottavat
demon käsittelyyn. Uskon vahvasti, että yhtyeelle löytyy
rosoisuudesta huolimatta uusia ystäviä, kun ilmaisella neljän
kappaleen demolla on pituuttakin lähes 43 minuuttia.
Lisäplussa demon tyylikkäästä ulkomuodosta, yksinkertaiseenkin
kanteen kannattaa upottaa vaivaa.
Review by Jukka Kolehmainen/Imperiumi.net
Stumm "Regressive and No Talent Whatsoever" CD-R
When it comes to heavy, slow doom metal like this there's really only one criteria that needs to be applied - does it rock? Does it have that indefinable something that makes you bang your head with the beat or strum along as if you can actually play guitar? Stumm, thankfully, have this something.
The first official demo recording from these Finnish growlers shows a good knack for dirty, sludgy grooves through its four (long) tracks. For me, the highlight of this EP is the second track, Cross My Heart and Choke to Die, where the full force of these droning riffs comes into play after a darkly amusing, 50s-style B-Movie clip (similar clips, one warning of the dangers of drink, play between each track). The song takes its time to play out full and locks into a grinding riff before sparse and hypnotic vocals come in and lift the track into the realms of excellence.
Not all is well in this camp however... The demo nature of the recording means that some of the sounds lack a punch that they sadly need. The drums don't have the kick that they need for this kind of music and a slightly more rounded production could help massively. The vocals also seem to change quality fairly rapidly through the tracks. When they're good, they're great but they dip below par now and again. It feels like the vocalist might be holding back as the glimpses of sheer howling that we do get are something special. A number of tempo changes don't work too well, especially when Stumm's strengths seem to be creating a rhythmic groove.
Although never quite reaching the levels of derangement of, say, Moss or Bunkur this certainly shows good promise for the future. A better production, more kick to the sound and a more consistently "out there" vocal style would make this killer.
This release is available from various places on the web, or you can get a copy on CD with a sleeve by sending the relevant media to Stumm themselves. Contact stumm@kaos-kontrol.org for more details. You can't go wrong by sending off a CD-R and checking these guys out.
Stumm are definitely worth watching!
Review by Dan H/Foreshadow Magazine
Stumm "Regressive and No Talent Whatsoever" CD-R
Four tracks and over 40 minutes - heavy shit ahead! The new Finnish sludge band Stumm presents its first demo that features slow and oppressive Eyehategod worshipping with screaming vocals, and eyelikeit a lot. The riffs are good although not unforgettably catchy and the playing is skilled enough. The second track, "Cross My Heart and Choke to Die", is a bit different with more Boris and Corrupted influences, and why not Melvins too. It's also the weakest track here, I think, but still very listenable if you have the patience to sit through the whole 15 minutes of it. The third track, "New Christ for Every Morning", ends with a strange melody, and I haven't yet decided whether it's good or bad, but probably the latter one. This is a rehearsal recording with only samples added to the beginnings of the tracks afterwards, and I think they could well have been left out. Regressive? Yes, in the sense that this hardly offers anything unheard of, but by no means without talent! Although this is just a demo, the covers are better looking than on your average "official" cd-r release. Good work, I'll be looking forward to Stumm's more official recordings in the future.
Review by Pekka PT/Dilettante's Digest #2
Stumm "111204-050205" CD-R
This ridiculously limited (25 copies) was sold only on the recent Sludge 'em All minitour that featured Fleshpress and Loinen in addition to Stumm. I went to see the gig here in Turku and it was so great. But that's another story. The cd-r begins with three tracks of Stumm live material from December 2004. One of the tracks is new and two others are from the demo reviewed right above. The versions here are in every way much better - the band plays betters and seems to have a lot more confidence. The sounds are also better and the vocals are really filthy. The music sounds more and more like a mix of Eyehategod and Melvins, and that's a combination you can't go wrong with. After that there's a few minutes of silence followed by samples of a girl singing about the end of the world and some guy telling how much his life sucks, which kick off the studio (ok, rehearsal) recording of the new track also on the live part, "Biting the Hand that Feeds". The live version is better, but this one's ok too.
Review by Pekka PT/Dilettante's Digest #2
Stumm "I" CD
This has all the hallmarks of being doom ladened even before we start. Dark and haunting artwork, powerful titles. 4 tracks 36 minutes. Looking good for some horrible sludge sounds here. Now, I mean horrible in the kindest sense of the word, and to Stumm, I deliver it in a very kind way, as their sound is harrowing and life threatening, as all good sludge should be. Think Grief, Khanate and Cavity for sonic comparisons as the rhythms barely get into any kind of groove.
Recently, because of a massive backlog and influx of CDs to review and work to plow through, I've had to cut the length of reviews I do, which is a shame, as this one would have received a healthily long ramble, but, to keep things brief, if you want your music really slow, really disgusting and scuzzy, and thoroughly drenched in sludgeyness, then
3-piece Finnish band Stumm are a fantastic place to look.
This CD is top notch and fully grim!
Review by Paul Raw Nerve/Raw Nerve Promotions
Stumm "I" CD
Stumm are the epitome of slow, possessing that natural gift of dirge like their fellow Finnish countrymen Fleshpress along with the ability for monstrous, tarpit crawl with the occasional groove like American greats Toadliquor and Noothgrush. Stumm have enough misery and hatred to bring even the strongest doom veterans right down to their knees with this four song debut album. This is that ultra-slow, misery-ridden sludge/doom done to perfection with epic, droning riffs that almost groove over the battering drums and gruesome low-end with agonizing vocal laments tearing apart what's left of your ear drums. Everything about this band is dirty and ugly and the recording quality is excellent, capturing every towering riff and lung-scraped vocal superbly. Every now and then they break things up a bit; "Chokehold Narcosis" has one of the fastest (still read slow as hell) and most forceful riffs on the disc towards its mid-section making this track hit particularly hard. "Biting the Hand that Feeds" has an ominous clean passage that once again had me loosely reminded of Fleshpress, with their ability to go from the occasional clean moment into full-blown walls of distortion and sludge. This is an excellent album overall and by far one of the best slow, tortured doom debuts I've ever heard. If the slow, depressive assaults of Toadliquor, Fleshpress, Noothgrush, Grief, etc. are your cup of tea then Stumm should be right up your alley. This is a masterful slab of unholy sludge/doom that deserves a place next to the above mentioned greats in your collection. Fans of painful sludge and doom rejoice! Highly recommended and sure to be one of my top discs in the genre at year's end but absolutely not for the faint of heart!
Review by JS/Daredevil Magazine
Stumm "I" CD
We sure do love Finland. And boy do we love slow motion sludgy doom. So it makes perfect sense that this here disc would find its way into our grubby gloomy doom loving mitts. Stumm are a glacial power trio that traffic in that sort of harsh ugly crusty death doom dirge sludge we've come to dig so heavily. We just can't seem to get enough. It's metal sure, heavy and downtuned, but a lot of the appeal, very much like the blurry buzz of black metal, is it's proximity to pure drone! As the guitars get lower, and the songs get slower (or conversely faster and blurrier) riffs become stretches of slow shifting sound, hypnotic and dare we say soothing. Not entierely like a doom metal Steve Reich or a sludge Terry Riley. Most of us would just as likely fall asleep listening to the most recent Moss record as we would a Coleclough or Chalk record. And Stumm are carrying on that fine tradition. A harsh raw nihilistic doom metal that drones and buzzes and pulses, slithers and lurches more than it rocks.
There's got to be a way to designate sheer impossible dooominess. In the past we've just added more 'o's to the word doom, 20 'o's, 40 'o's, but where does it end. Eventually there will be a band so slow and sludgy, the whole review will be a single word, doom, but with 11,342 'o's. We're tempted to give Stumm a rating based on the multiple 'o' doom scale, but this this disc is not just a single sludgy smear of sound, it's definitely doooooooooom (let's stick with 10 'o's for now), with most of the record, stumbling and staggering, all druggy and dizzy, a 16rpm creep through a thick forest of buzzing E strings and drumming that sounds like it's being dumped out of the back of a cement mixer. But here and there, the clouds part, revealing a bit of sky through the dense canopy of oppressive heaviness, be it a bit of clean guitar or some warm warbly bass... hell, who are we kidding, those moments are so brief and fleeting they're only there to lure you in and set you up for a massive pumelling, frozen like a deer in the headlights, looking skyward, eyes reflecting that tiny glimmer of sunlight, before moments later Stumm take your head clean off with a spiked and sludgy iron bar, as a million 'o's begin to rain down from the sky, like metallic black hail, burying you beneath a crushing, suffocating mound of doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmm.............
4 songs. 35 minutes. Mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher / Atomsmasher, Flux, OLD, etc.)
Review from Aquarius Records
Stumm "I" CD
Heres a new release from UK label Aesthetic Death, who havent put anything new out since Esoteric's Pernicious Enigma (at least as far as we know). And this debut full length from Finnish extreme sludge/trio Stumm definitely fits in with the likes of Esoteric. Just looking through the grim black-and-red booklet for this CD clues us in that this is going to be an unfiltered stream of negative energy, from the creepy cover image of the little boy curled up, fetal-position style in a corner, to grisly images of substance abuse, suicide, and homelessness. Grim shit. It doesn't get lighter when this CD unfurls it's four songs across 35 minutes of RAW, primitive, massively heavy Finnish DOOM, with thick and filthy syrupy riffs churning over and over again, slow and snail-crawling, sometimes stripped down to a single powerchord banged out ad infinitum, a nihilistic sludge feast that references the points between Eyehategod, Grief, Melvins, and Khanate (James Plotkin from Khanate actually mastered I). Spattered with feedback and hoarse tortured howling over spare, planet-shaking drumming, these four tunes are super slow, saurian numbers that sometimes pause to hang in mid-air before crashing back to earth. Fans of monstrous ultradoom like Fleshpress, Corrupted, Moss, Bunkur, etc., can't go wrong with this one.
Review from Crucial Blast
Stumm "I" CD
When we take into account the turgid tidal wave of depressive music coming from Finland over the years, it comes to no surprise to this reviewer that Finland had the worst male suicide rate (26.5 per 100,000 in 2002) in the entire world. Suicide is the friggin’ Finnish national past time. Hey, I don’t blame ‘em. You won’t catch me moon-tanning in Lapland.
Suicide doom, admittedly, is an acquired taste best left to those with strong constitutions, particularly harsh cases of nihilism and scarred eardrums. Even if you happen to be Finnish and you play in a band called "Stumm". There is no doom-dancing to be had on Stumm’s I. It’s all slow n’ sick, all of the time with little to lighten the sonic drudgery. A 36 minute crawl through ultra-raw aural shit, piss and blood only made all the more fucked-up (or intolerable, depending on your disposition) by tortured vocals that bring to mind Alan Dubin after drinking bleach and inhaling pool cleaner.
The thing that I found about I is that it is possible to get it’s claws in you even if you don’t like this type of stuff. I put it in for the 15 minute ride down to El Pollo Loco to pick up dinner for the wifey and I. I couldn’t help but feel dragged in to some sort of odd state of hypnotic narcosis by the lethargic pace and sheer weight of the material. It sucked me in when I wasn’t looking and I’m not particularly fond of this kinda music. I won’t be playing this everyday on the way to work, but it does carry some power.
In closing, I should also add, for those keeping score, that Khanate/OLD/Flux/etc – man James Plotkin did the mastering for I, and for a man known to do a lot of crap on laptops, I sounds like Rat Sound did the honors. Very raw, which works in Stumm’s favor. They should sound ugly and as black as their native Finnish nights.
Review by Chris Barnes/Hellride Music
Stumm "I" CD
Stumm are a sludge doom band from Finland. Much like their contemporaries in Loinen and Frogskin, they draw very heavily from Grief, arguably the progenitors of the entire genre, and Fleshpress, the Finnish trailblazers.
They had released a cd-r demo last year that garnered them a tour with Fleshpress. That also lead to Marko Kokkonen of Fleshpress helping out with the recording of this record. Two songs from the demo are re-recorded here ("Chokehold Narcosis" and "New Christ For Every Morning"), sounding much the better for the reworking, along with two new songs, "Biting The Hand That Feeds" and "Not Waving But Drowning". If you've heard the references above, you know what to expect. Nothing new, but it's done well and is worthy of checking out.
Review by Nolan/Stonerrock.com
Stumm "I" CD
Turun sludge core -hidastelijat avaavat virallisen levytysuransa tällä lyhyesti ja ytimekkäästi nimetyllä ykkösellään. Ja mikäpä avatessa, jos jälki on tällaista. Neljä kappaletta ja kolmekymmentäviisi minuuttia ovat levyn numeraaliset mitat, joten siitä voi jokainen laskea, että mistään minuutin grind-biiseistä ei ole kysymys.
Levyn avaava Chokehold Narcosis näyttääkin suunnan koko julkaisulle, eli rokkaus on jätetty muille ja keskitytty hitauteen, ultimaaliseen hitauteen. Stummin musiikillinen lieju porautuu korvakäytäviin sellaisella voimalla ja raakuudella, että heikommilla kuulijoilla on varmasti housujen vaihto edessä. Vaikka henkilöstöä orkesterissa on vain kolme kappaletta, niin äänivalli on suorastaan murskaava. Kitaristikarjuja J. Mattila rääkyy ja murisee sen verran vihaisesti, että vaikkei levyn mukana lyriikoita tullutkaan, niin en usko, että tällä julkaisulla ”lauleskellaan” kesästä ja kukkasista. Tai jos näin on, niin viimeistään siinä vaiheessa kun neula nousee levyn päältä pois, syksy on saapunut ja ne kukkaset lakastuneet. Levyn viimeinen kappale (Not Waving But Drowning) lopetetaan tyylikkäästi parin minuutin droneilulla, mikä kruunaakin levyn kuin kirsikka kakun, tai tässä tapauksessa syanidilla marinoitu kirsikka.
Levyn on masteroinut eräs herra nimeltään James Plotkin (Old, Khanate…), joten ihan huonoissa käsissä Turun Puhekyvyttömät eivät ole. Jos siis Khanaten, Griefin tahi kotoisen Fleshpressin depressiivisyys ja viha hivelee kuulohermojasi, niin kannattaa ottaa tämä julkaisu haltuun. Ja vaikka J. Mattila taannoisessa haastattelussa sanoikin, että ei suosittele musiikkiaan kenellekään, niin tuo lause kannattaa ignoorata täysin ja kipittää kiltisti levykauppaan. On nimittäin vuoden parhaimpia tuotoksia.
Review by Teemu Lahtinen/Chambers Magazine
Stumm "I" CD
English label Aesthetic Death Records specializing in funeral doom metal, which exists since the very year 1997 is not a very productive one considering the releasing of their bands. This album by the Finnish trio STUMM was released in 2006 and generally is the fifth release of that underground outfit. The CD under the title “I” contains rather raw, primitive, regressive, nihilistic, depressive sludge/doom metal. The atmosphere is such gloomy and despairing, that you can hardly bear thinking that the lives of the musicians are damped, and they do nothing but swill vodka to give the relief to their grief, and rack their instruments on rehearsals. And when the vocalist starts his work it seems that the last words squeeze out of him and we won’t hear him again. The fans of such bands as EYEHATEGOD, KHANATE, GRIEF, will certainly appreciate this work by Finnish STUMM…
Review by Costas Silent/Terroraiser Magazine #2/2006
Stumm "I" CD
Turkulaisen Stummin esikoinen ilmestyi alkuvuodesta 2006, joka onkin jo oikeastaan bändin kolmas julkaisu. Aiemmat kaksi olivat CD-R-levyinä julkaistut treeni- ja liveplatat, jotka eivät, yllättävää kyllä, näyttäneet ollenkaan hullummilta ja kuulostivatkin siltä miltä sludgen odottaa kuulostavan. On mukava huomata että halpisjulkaisuihinkin viitsitään panostaa sen verran että tuote näyttää joltain, eikä äänitteen hankkinut tunne oloaan petetyksi.
Kyseessä on siis raskasta ja hidasta doom metaliin rinnastettavaa sludgea soittava yhtye, eikä meininki muutu lainkaan vaikka on siirrytty livelavoilta ja treenikämpiltä studioon. Bändi kuulostaa erittäin likaiselta, typerryttävän hitaalta ja soundit ovat ansiokkaasti muussattua pörinää. Rumpusoundeista pitää mainita sen verran että ovat mainion pehmeät, aivan kuin rumpalilla olisi kulahtaneita pahvilaatikoita oikeiden kannujen sijaan.
Laulajan vokalisointi aiheuttaa paikoitellen itsellekin lievää tykytystä kurkussa, sen verran pahalta huuto kuulostaa. Toisaalta, en minä mitään muuta odottanutkaan.
Stumm on suomalaisen sludgen aatelia, eipä bändejä täällä turhan montaa (vielä) olekaan, mutta niistäkin vähistä ollaan masentuneen laahauksen verran edellä. Täysin ansiotta ei bändin musiikkia olla Suicide Doomksi kutsuttu, ihan vaan että tietäisitte missä sfääreissä liikutaan. Levy on saatavilla myös rajoitetun painoksen vinyylinä, josta valkoisella vinyylillä oleva versio on vielä rajoitetumpi.
Stumm on ruma, likainen ja hidas yhtye, joka ei välitä mitään mistään ja haluaa kertoa sen kaikille.
Review by Jukka Kolehmainen/Imperiumi.net
Stumm "I" CD
However we connect to the feedback used on I, we see Stumm as a mediocre Finnish band that clambered onto the laps of different grandfathers, fathers and sons of doom (to name a few: Sabbath, Winter, Burning Witch). Instead of pulling their straggly beards, pinching their noses or kicking their shins, Stumm just retells the old stories without the drama. Too respectful!!
The catatonic crust and deadlocked psychedelics in this trident, make the music sound like a crossover between Electric Wizard, Eyehategod and Iron Monkey in which they forgot to put the spark to the finder – think f.e. the early work of Belgium's Thee Plague of Gentlemen. The quality of the slowly developing riffs and drum-patterns take their turns, varying from enthralling and stirring to drawling and insipid, and it is this fickleness and passivity that makes it a tough bite in the end. A record-deal was maybe a bit oversized at the moment.
Review by Peter/White Heat
Stumm "I" CD
After two demos, Finnish sludge/drone newcomers have dropped their first album full of that great raw Scandinavian crushing sloooooooow bleakness (though two tracks have appeared on the previous demos). The four tracks presented here are very similar to the point of being pretty much interchangeable, but that doesn’t take away from the effect the crawling low-end distortion and suicidal shrieks have on seriously depressing your mood. The tracks here aren’t quite up to the level of their more well-known countrymen, but this is a great first effort from a promising young band.
Review from Void Expression
Stumm "I" LP
This is true sludge! Down-tuned, slow, heavy and desperate. Like a giant slug struggling in a tar pit. The riffs are mostly so slow that they are on the edge of recognizable and vocals are totally sick screams from darkest depths and deepest gutters - many black metal bands would kill for those. There are only 4 songs on the whole album, two on each side of the vinyl. The "hit" song could be "Biting the Hand that Feeds" that ends side one, as it has perhaps most variation and even a calm psychedelic part. "New Christ for Every Morning" is surprisingly "up-tempo" and probably the most reminiscent of actual music here. This could be a real boring LP, and in a way it might even be intended so, but when you get the point that being one big black shitty flood of mud is just the idea here, it's just excellent. Recommended to sludge fiends into Grief, Toadliquour and such! Also remember to see the band live if you have the chance. Available on CD as well on Aesthetic Death.
Review by Pekka PT/Hard and Obscure #2
Stumm "I" CD
It is not for the faint hearted, the music produced by this Finnish trio; not that Finnish doom bands are renowned for their accessible approach to the genre anyway. However, Stumm’s bleakness makes even Thergothon sound like a melodic Euro metal band. No compromises are sought here; the production is raw and basic (on the verge of being unlistenable) but somehow fitting with the monolithic, nihilistic compositions that plod along at uncomfortably slow tempos. The fan of musical structures and melody in me tries in vain to discern any distinctive leads, subtleties in the music and surprising twists. However, all these are not in the menu tonight, as Stumm are not here to make any friends, but instead to mess with my poor brain. If you are a fan of the most extreme branches of today’s doom metal genre (Moss, Wormphlegm, Wreck of the Hesperus...) then you could do worse than checking out this album. If not, then you have a problem. Deal with it.
Review by Kostas Panagiotou/Doom-Metal.com
Stumm "I" CD
Ah, Finnish doom. Brilliant. I was feeling unnecessarily cheerful. This should sort me out nicely. The recording quality isn't the best, but it actually really suits the music. It's dirty and a bit messy, and sounds like 3 blokes have locked themselves in a poorly-lit basement with beer and really unpleasant porn. The result is a sound which is heavy and claustrophobic and bordering on sickening. There are 4 tracks, 35 minutes in total; you get gut-twisting bass heaviness combined with ear-wrenching feedback, enormous pounding drums, deranged vocals that make your stomach hurt in sympathy; you get loud and less loud, slow and slower; you get stops and starts; and you get creepiness all the way up the scale to where it reads BONE-CHILLING on the dial instead of 11. There are one or two scarier-sounding bands about, but no more than that. Stumm have taken the word "doom" and applied it literally to their sound. This is horrible, and it's exactly what we need more of.
Review by Linds/Load of Noise #4
Stumm "I" CD
O nome já prediz o conjunto: Stumm é um trocadilho com Stoom, que é o rótulo utilizado pelos aficionados para o subgênero Stoner/Doom. E o grupo em pauta abrange um universo ainda maior de influências. Formado em 2003 na Finlândia pelo guitarrista/vocalista Jukka, o Stumm produz uma ode à agonia com seu Stoner/Drone Doom Metal macambúzio e afetado. São riffs compridos, linhas de microfonia e ritmo a beirar o zero, conspirando contra o ouvinte em música fria e perturbada. A todo instante tem-se a certeza de que os vocais podres, vomitados e abomináveis de Jukka estão a predizer a morte que se aproxima. Não há estrutura melódica e muito menos procuram arquitetar qualquer composição empolgante ou elegante. Aliás, elegância é algo que nem o mais atencioso ouvinte encontrará em I, tamanho clima tétrico por ele instigado. Esse é o primeiro disco do grupo e compreende regravações das melhores faixas de suas duas demos anteriores; foi lançado apenas na Finlândia em limitadíssimas 2000 cópias. Por fim, ratifico que o Stumm é um grupo direcionado para os mais ardorosos fãs do estilo e que constitui uma das mais desgraçadas e doentias homenagens à agonia e à morte! Enfim, nada indicado para fãs de música bonitinha, mas um prato cheio para fãs de Cortisol (depois tome uma cortisona em seguida), Khanate, Burning Witch, HALO, Funeral Dirge (já citado aqui e criticado por mim, mas tem gente que gosta deste tipo de tosqueira), etc.
Review by PR/Rock Underground
Stumm "I" CD
Published a couple of years ago (I'm talking about it only because Aesthetic Death kindly sent me a copy along with their latest release and not because we changed our rules), the first proper album by Stumm is sounding like a post hard core band playing doom (genre called "sludge" as far as I read). The vocals remember me Ebullition stuff I was used to listen to fifteen years ago but the music is slower. Stumm succeed into creating a decadent and desperate atmosphere where titles like "A new Christ for every mourning" or "Breathing out smell of suicide" explain really well their mood. Nice release but its hardcore background didn't make me appreciate at full the tracks which sounded to me honest but not inspiring.
Review by Maurizio Pustianaz/Chain D.L.K.
Stumm "I" CD
As you see this is quite old release, but I’m glad that I’ve got it, because this band of Finland plays really killing music! I don’t know how old this band is and how many albums they have already, but I know they are awesome! Well, Stumm plays fucking slooooow, sick sludge/funeral doom, with such slooow (as I said before) guitar riffs, slow drums and sick vocals… Also those psychedelic slights which are while album playing also force your mind to be sick. The songs are pretty long – 7-9 minutes each (to the word album contains 4 tracks just, but it’s pretty enough to be killed and pressed by this music), slow and filled with truly obscure atmosphere! Fuck, this CD playing about 6 times there in my stereo, and I won’t to stop to listen for it??? Far not each band able to proud by ability to do such sick stuff, many bands trying to play in this style, and yes, they play slow and obscure, but with no any catching parts, and Stumm are totally can proud by “I”, because they played truly dark and sick music. If you are into such sickest slow and obscure funeral doom mixed with sludge – get out this CD now!
Review from Antichrist Magazine #7
Stumm/Taunt Split 7"
Taunt are a German two-piece, who've drafted in a session bass-player for this recording. It must have been a crowded session, because it sounds like they're playing in an old shed with newspaper over the windows. They have a dirty, lo-fi sound, and don't bother messing about with more than two chords - the object here is to produce something which sounds nasty, not to astound the world with virtuoso fiddliness. The drumming holds it all together - chords are held long enough to let the volume begin to fade, and the drums are spare but interesting; the old adage "It's not the notes, but the spaces between the notes" is particularly apt here. There are no vocals, and essentially no variation in speed or dynamic, but somehow this could go on for another 10 minutes, and it'd still be compulsive listening.
Stumm's contribution starts with the nicest bit of feedback I've heard in ages, played off a big meaty riff. There's no real change in pace from the Taunt track - in fact, apart from a definite thickening of the sound (not so much shed as stinking cellar - you can practically hear the building vibrating above this Finnish three-piece), there's nothing much different happening. This time, though, there are goblin-in-a-tunnel vocals, largely (thank God) free of the horrible reverb which ruins many bands' efforts. The track is slow, sludgy, heavy as hell, and totally compulsive. But with only a minute to go, there's an unexpected torrent of chords at what could almost be medium pace - and then it's over, and you'll do what I did and turn it over to start again.
A very cheeky little number, this 7". Just enough to get the juices flowing. Evil teasing bastards.
Review by Stonerwitch/NineHertz
Stumm/Taunt Split 7"
I must be going fucking blind, because I thought that this split 7" was with Stumm and Taint, the UK post-hardcore band that has an album out on Rise Above. But it's not Taint, it's Taunt, a German two-piece. What a difference a vowel makes. Anyways, this 7" is one of the heaviest 7"s I've gotten in in recent memory, this thing feels like it's 180 gram vinyl or something close, total Euro dinnerplate pressing. But it would have to be pretty thick to be able to contain the 14 minutes of evil-sounding, monstrous tarpit sludge that Calculon has captured on here. Taunt, normally a guitar/drums duo, brought in a session bassist to record their track, a filthy, primitive low-fi ultradirge, a simple two-chord riff grinding into infinity, spare drum hits thunder out every couple of seconds, the feedback and decaying riffs oozing into Taunt's dead spaces like disease. There are no vocals, and it plays like a bludgeoning troll mantra, dropping your consciousness into a bleak filth pit.
Stumm had previously flattened me with their "I" album on Aesthetic Death from 2006, so it's good to hear some new damage from the Finnish doomsters...their track "2x6" is another brutal dose of dank sludge, vicious feedback giving birth to huge, crusty riffage stinking with the DNA of early Celtic Frost, churning slowly over the tracks lenghty running time, and finally erupting into an unexpected midpaced thrashout at the end of the song. Relentlessly crushing sludge/doom, and crucial for fans of Thergothon, Khanate, Wreck Of The Hesperus, Coffins, Bunkur, Moss, Monarch, and similiar glacial plaguebringers.
The record comes in a burgundy sleeve printed with eerie images and text quotes that reference states of clinical depression and emotional despair - quite fitting for the intense downer vibes that these bands project.
Review from Crucial Blast
Stumm/Taunt Split 7"
This 7" was initially released in June 07, but due to problems with
the 1st pressing, Calculon decided to do a re-call and get the
record re-pressed and re-released in August 2007 which is how it should
have been first time around, so if anyone still has a copy of the 1st
pressing, please contact Calculon and they'll happily replace this
for you.
Right onto the music in question, I was really looking forward to this
slab of doom as although I'm familiar with the awesome Stumm, I'd
never heard Germany's Taunt previously who start the proceedings
off with their track 'I' which rumbles into life with its heavy, slow
& resonating chords which are backed up with a tempestuous drum pattern
that helps form the structure of the whole 7 ½ minute track. There
are no vocals present on this track, instead Taunt rely on the
journey the music takes you in, which essentially has little in the way
of change, just punishing despondent riffs which build then fade while
the drums form the backbone, holding the whole soundscape together.
Flip over and we're introduced to Finland's Stumm and like Taunt,
deliver us with just over 7 mins of punishing tortured doom, their track
'2x6' greets us with a wall of feedback which morphs into a monstrous
opening riff and you suddenly realise just how fucking heavy this band
are! Coupled with the agonising screams of vocalist Jukka which really
help suck you in, but then just as you totally don't expect it, they hit
you with a barrage of riffs, screams & cymbal heavy drums before fading
out with despondent feedback.
All in all, a cracking little release from Calculon Records and
comes highly recommended for fans of Grief, Corrupted, Ocean,
Winter etc.
Review by Lee/The Sleeping Shaman
Stumm/Loinen Split LP
It says right there on the sleeve: "100% Sludge". They had us at 100% sludge. Ummm, anyway, two of Finland's sludge rock heavyweights team up, each taking a side of this here 12", and each, surprisingly, doing something new and unique with their bit of sludge. Not that we wouldn't have loved another slab of slow motion dirgery, but we're even more psyched to see what weird shapes, some of this sludgedoomdrone can get twisted into.
Up first is Loinen, whose lp we totally flipped over a while back. They of the crushing doom with Scott Walker style vocals. Yep! You remember now? Well, here they try another something, also completely different, their side begins with a super distorted bass riff, spread way out, allowing for lots and lots of space, and in those spaces, there are strange chanted choral vocals, female, repeating the same pattern over and over, inexorably tangled up with the plodding riff. It's all very mysterious and hypnotic and continues on for nearly three quarters of the side, at which point the vocals finally come in, a strangled alien croon, alternately growling and sort of moaning, and it's not until nearly the end of the side when the drums finally kick in, and for the first time it begins to resemble the aforementioned 100% sludge. A lurching doom trudge with now croaking vocals all wrapped around that relentless distorted bass line. Finally, right at the very end, the track explodes in a frenzy of freaked out chaos, drums everywhere, feedback squealing and shrieking, the track dissolving in a blast of blown out brutality. Weird and quite cool.
So how do fellow countrymen, and masters of their own particular brand of sludginess, Stumm, respond? With yet another strange take on sludge, there's, at least for this lp side, is downright pretty. Thick swaths of washed out guitar rumble and soaring streaks of feedback all tangled and up like some gorgeous alien melody, not harsh at all really, more just strange sounding, and really quite beautiful, the first time we've heard feedback so skillfully sculpted, underneath, drums are simple and spare, it's more about atmosphere and mood it seems, a thick heavy dreamy drift. Right in the middle there's a brief burst where the guitars get more jagged and angular, and some howling shrieking vocals swoop in, but before you know it, they've swooped right back out, and the track is again drifting darkly, a strangely soft sludge shimmer. So great.
LIMITED TO 265 COPIES!!! These are the only copies we can get. Once they are gone, they are gone for good. Packaged like the Loinen 12", in a similar eye melting black and white high-school-binder tweeker pen and ink cover, with crazy art by Loinen member G.G., a tripped out world of strange figures and weird text and upside down crosses, and squiggles and creatures and who knows what else...
Review from Aquarius Records
Stumm/Loinen Split LP
At first you need some dope, lets take weed and some mushrooms. Then take your time and examine the cover art. You surely need a couple of minutes and finally find some phrases i.e. "100% sludge", "Slow by Nature" and "Pain". Another couple of minutes goes by and you recognize any logos. And IF you are into SLOW HEAVY Music you can associate them with the finnish bands STUMM and LOINEN. Fine. Now you put the record on the plate and switch on your player: FLAAAASSSSH. Its not only nihilistic its anger! Slow and pure in 40 Minutes. With descent use of effects. Minimalistic repetitive start, slowly boost to an evil sound, still slow and doomy but with full misanthropic character. Before you are getting ready for your armageddon you recognize another logo, its hidden but you know this record was done by Kult of Nihilow. Congratulation girl and guys involved!
Review by Marcel/Blind Date Records
Stumm/Loinen Split LP
Tämä loistava julkaisu saattaa mennä levylaareja selatessa helposti ohi, koska kansiin on sisällytetty melko niukasti informaatiota esiintyjistä, saati sitten biisien nimistä tai sanoituksista. Mutta sen verran vihjeitä löytyy tutun tyylisen kansitaiteen lisäksi, että ne riittävät varmasti alan harrastajilla levyn tunnistamiseen. Eikä sludge-mielisten kannatakaan ohittaa tätä julkaisua, sillä kun kaksi maamme tämän hetken kuuminta nimeä yhdistävät voimansa, ei kyseessä voi olla mikään turha paketti. Molemmat esittävät puolellaan yhden, oikein hitaan kappaleen.
Vaikka minua onkin jo välillä alkanut tympiä nykyinen, yhä vain suositumpi tapa tehdä LP-levylle vain yksi pitkä biisi per levynpuoli, sopii se kuitenkin tähän julkaisuun hyvin. Sekään ei haittaa, että sävelmät ovat hieman samantyylisiä, en mene lainkaan takuuseen että olisin osannut nimetä bändit oikein ensikuulemalla ilman etikettitietoja. Stumm esittää nimittäin hieman kokeellisemman biisin kuin omalla pitkäsoitollaan, jossa oli sentään neljä sävelmää. Alku on suhteellisen rauhallinen ja drone-vaikutteista raastamista riittää aikansa. Khanatea on lienee kuunneltu joskus. Hiljalleen meno tiivistyy yhä uhkaavammaksi jämerän basson luodessa ahdistavan ilmapiirin. Lopulta, noin kahdentoista minuutin kohdalla, laulaja päästää itsensä valloilleen, ja loppu onkin brutaalia sludge-juhlaa välillä sangen jylhissäkin tunnelmissa. Vokalisti tosin kalpenee vastakkaisen puolen karjulle, mutta hoitaa työsarkansa silti varsin kiitettävästi.
Loisen puolisko jytisee alusta alkaen kun paalujuntta, vauhtia ei ole nimeksikään mutta silti vajotaan koko ajan syvemmälle kohti lopussa odottavaa vääjäämätöntä sekoamista. Mielitautista tunnelmaa lisää alkuminuuttien aikana kuultava aavemainen, ulvontaa muistuttava toistuva ääni. Ensimmäisen kerran tätä kuunnellessani luulin ja lähes toivoinkin, että junnaus jatkuisi koko biisin ajan, mutta jo sangen pian laulajan vaikerrus täyttää ilman. Biisin lähestyessä loppuaan seuraa yllättävä energianpurkaus ja pieni musiikillinen kiihdytys, jonka johdosta yhtye saa urakkansa päätökseen viittä minuuttia virkaveljiään aikaisemmin, jo varttitunnin uurastuksen jälkeen. Toisin kuin Stumm, Loinen ei esitä kuitenkaan levyllä uransa parasta materiaalia, mutta palasi onneksi taas vakavasti otettavaan musiikkiin edellisen split-CD-R -levyn karvaan pettymyksen jälkeen. Onnistumisesta huolimatta molemmilla yhtyeillä on toki vielä kehittymisen varaa, ja toivottavasti myös haluja siihen.
Review by Tuukka Termonen/Miasma Magazine 4/2007