Unkind: Pelon Juuret (Relapse, 7/9/13)
Occupying that crusty space between punk and metal otherwise known as D-beat, Unkind’s Pelon Juuret builds on the frantic energy and thick crunch that the Finnish band has crafted for well over a decade by keeping some things the same and changing others entirely.
The low-growling hardcore riffs and pissed-off wolverine vocals — those stay. But even when a song sounds like it could strip paint off the walls, the band manages to blur the lines between atmosphere and attack. Feedback and samples propel tracks like “Valtakunta” and “Viallinen” towards dark post-metal (yet hardcore-laden) compositions, and that isn’t even mentioning the wordless, thrash-less closer “Saattokoti,” which features a finger-picked banjo and a mental image of the closing credits of a deeply disturbing horror film.