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Väistä! is without a doubt the best hardcore punk band that has emerged from my town of Turku in many years. Originally masterminded by Alley Gods & Ill Omen -drummer Teemu (aka Roippe) solo project, Väistä! started few years back and has put out two 7″ records, but also grew into a full fledged band during the process. After Alley Gods went into hiatus and Ill Omen was going on/off, around 3/4 years back, Teemu had his project already ready to go on in full blast, at least on idea level. Soon after recruiting guitarist and long time friend Lauri (from Alley Gods) to help tracking what would become Väistä! S/T 7″, he probably never guessed how well this little project would storm over whole hardcore/punk scene. Drawing influences from all kinds of groovy hardcore punk, early 2000’s Boston “bust” hardcore (Guns Up, Mental, Righteous Jams and such) and classic driving rock ‘n roll, combined into “every day man’s problems” -lyrics screamed fiercely in Finnish, Väistä! have developed a proper recipe for how to jam hard and deliver. First 7″ record was an early success and was well received, as second 7″, Sivuraiteilla (Sidetracked), followed soon in an year and it was as successful as the first one. In this point the band had already regular solid line-up (Teemu -vocals, Lauri -bass, Lari -drums and “the mysterious frenchie” -guitar) and they went on playing shows all the time, with all kinds of bands all over Finland. Last summer Väistä! concentrated in writing and recording the record everyone has been anxiously waiting as next chapter in Väistä! discography, the first full-length: Mukaudu (Conform) LP.
Funny fact, we offered to release Mukaudu LP on Killing The Legacy Records together with the band, but as Väistä! got better deal from two local labels, Burst Of Silence & Räkälevyt, they decided to go with them. I’m just glad that the guys have the record released and are happy with the deal they did with the label, but as how good record it really turned out to be, i would have been happy to be the one who put it out, haha.
Mukaudu LP is offering us ten new Väistä! tracks, few of these might be familiar to those who’ve seen them live recently, such as; Humalistonkatu and Unelma Auringosta -that was also first single off the record as a video (see below). Record will be on a gatefold sleeve and will be out on couple different colors for the collectors. As an intro to the album starts with Pysäkki 955 (Bus Stop 955), that is an instrumental prelude with violins and acoustic guitar, ending into a buss opening it’s doors and then, it’s time to bust it! Humalistonkatu (that is of course a street name in Turku) kicks in trademark rocking Väistä! groove, it’s a song about drinking out and living the dream in weekends. Unelma Auringosta (A Dream Of Sun) continues and starts to build on the sort of lyrical theme of the album, a worker, work itself and how it affects everything. Tässä Ja Nyt (Here & Now) brings in another old bandmate, as Oskari from Alley Gods steps in to drop lines in this track, giving it a bit of Alley Gods feel of a song too. There has to be a fix for the old school fury too and here it’s position is filling Työläinen (Worker) where the pace is stepped up into old school hardcore bursts, combined with heavier breaks, while in lyrics the common workman is judged by the bosses for being stupid for accepting his own job contract. Mitä Jos? (What If?) starts up with bit melodies in riffing, it’s riding nicely with sick guitar solo and ends up with certified mosh starter breakdown. Ahneel On Paskane Loppu (Greedy Has A Shitty End) features Niko from Upright (who also put an stellar 12″ out a while ago, yeah review is coming too), dropping some raspy growls and it’s weird to hear him singing in Finnish, even it sounds great. Kultasormi (Goldfinger) is not an James Bond song, but an essay about how fat rich people need to make the most money out of anything they are into, oh yeah it’s also an sick punk rock jam too. Totuuden Henki (Spirit Of Truth) throws in hard ‘n heavy riffs that drive even in nice mid-tempo heaviness towards the end of song. Rankkaa (It’s Hard) ends the album with a song about people complaining about meaningless things and it features again some nice leads from Mr. Clezio (the guitarist).
Väistä! have the perfect balance between rock ‘n roll drive and hardcore fury, the mosh artists have not been forgotten and still there is speed and roughness that punk and rock -folks can appreciate. That all put into really great lyrical content (that’s unfortunately only in Finnish), Mukaudu is definitely an record that i recommend every fucking one to pick up! Most of Väistä!’s songs are over in barely few minutes, so even just i picked the records yesterday (mint green and black available), i’ve listened it through already so many times and getting really psyched about these songs, it’s such well put together album. It feels like the record is already over when you put it on and flip in the middle, some would say it’s too short or something, but i find it to be excellent length and just advice you to put the needle back on on continue to jam on this, as this is quite probably the best Finnish hardcore punk LP this year.
Why believe me, go see them live, listen and judge them yourself, here’s few tracks off the album (and their both previous 7″ are found on their bandcamp):
Väistä! – Unelma Auringosta -video
