My personal favorite moment in the new Seremonia video for “Tee Mitä Tahdot?” Thanks for asking. It’s when, amid all the Finnish band’s demon iconography, analog tape warble, cultish whathaveyou, ’70s bikerisms and odd punches to the face, a clip art hockey player shows up just after the solo, about two minutes in. I’m not a hockey fan, so I can’t necessarily tell you if that’s supposed to represent any particular player or someone perhaps out of Finnish hockey history, but as I made my way through the three-minute clip, it’s just random enough to truly represent the ethic of the song, the title of which translates to “Do What Thou Wilt.”

The track, which underlines its catchy chorus with visualization of the title, comes from Seremonia‘s earlier-2015 third album, Kristalliarkki (review here, track stream here), a joyous rite of weirdo heavy psych no less analog-naturalist than the video for “Tee Mitä Tahdot.” Whether or not you speak Finnish (sad to say I do not), it provided an immersive front-to-back experience, less geared toward sonic heft than an overarching atmosphere of ’70s cultistry — you know the names and you don’t need me to drop them for comparison. What singled out this record over its predecessors was a looming spirit of early prog, and while I wouldn’t speculate as to what moves the band might make stylistically their next time out — they’ve worked quick to-date, so “next time out” could be any minute now — it provided another edge to their increasingly individualized take.

If you feel like you’re ready to have your mind destroyed and your soul reaped, I submit the following hedonism.

Enjoy:

Seremonia, “Tee Mitä Tahdot” official video

Today, Finnish heavy psych rockers Seremonia premiere the new video “Tee mitä tahdot” exclusively HERE. Directed by David Aje Forsberg and with illustrations by guitarist Ville Pirinen, “Tee mitä tahdot” hails from Seremonia’s critically acclaimed third album, Kristalliarkki, released this past May by Svart Records. With lyrics (still all in their native tongue) revolving around the spiritual cult practices and teachings of a mysterious doomsday cult, Kristalliarkki (English: “The Crystal Ark”) also explores the cultist mindset musically.

The heavy riffing, the psychedelic solos, the out-of-control drum fills, the blood-chilling vocal delivery, and the collective free rock freak-outs all go way beyond just playing good ol’ heavy rock: Seremonia is a band on a sacred mission, possessed by the black flame of rock ‘n’ roll. Kristalliarkki bears their trademark garage doom sound and catchy riffage, and adds an abundance of acid rock experimentalism, proto-punk anger, sacred music bliss, and even some cosmic jazz flavors in the 15-minute title track of the album. It’s a hard-rocking hard rock record, but a wonderfully weird one – even by Seremonia’s weirdo standards. Eat more psychedelic fruit exclusively HERE, with the video for “Tee mitä tahdot.”

Seremonia on Thee Facebooks

Seremonia at Svart Records

Tags: Finland, Kristalliarkki, Seremonia, Seremonia Kristalliarkki, Svart Records

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2015 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.