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

The Finnish title of opener “Vihkimys” on Seremonia‘s third album, Kristalliarkki (review here) — due out May 8 on Svart Records — translates to “initiation,” and for anyone who hasn’t yet gotten on board with the five-piece’s blend of classic garage, buzztone cult rock and psychedelic weirdness, no doubt its chanting incantations will be just that. The follow-up to 2013’s Ihminen and 2012’s Seremonia debut (track stream here) is more fluid and comfortable in its boogie than the band have ever been, and that seems only to allow them to be even stranger in their conjurings, the album making odd turns as it moves (mostly) at a shuffling clip toward its sprawling title-track through cuts like “Musta liekki,” “Alpha ja Omega” and the wah-drenched “Lusiferin lapset,” the Finnish cadence of the lyrics as delivered by vocalist Noora Federley — joined in the band by guitarists Teemu Markkula and Ville Pirinen, bassist Ilkka Vekka and drummer Erno Taipale — only adding to the late-’60s-made-heavy psychedelic otherworldliness of the overarching vibe.

As they have on their past two full-lengths, Seremonia craft a proto-metal all their own, not retro in the sense of simply copying methods of songwriting and production, but taking those methods and creating an individual identity from the focus on natural tones, weighted grooves and eerie melodicism. More “forest power” than “flower power,” the five-piece add flourish of strange shooting sounds, Echoplex and fuzzy organ tones to “Vapauden polku,” which is the longest track on Kristalliarkki save for the 14-minute first part of the two-part title-track finale (the second part of which, it’s worth noting, is 1:14), resulting in an almost animalian effect between the rolling verses. That scratching organ gets a solo in the second half where the guitars otherwise might stand on their own, and in the last minute, the track launches from a final verse into an airy final chorus that would seem to indicate their having found the “path to freedom” referenced in the title.

From there, Kristalliarkki launches some of its most insistent boogie in “Kuolema voitta” en route to the more lumbering, flute-laden groove of “Jokainen askel” and the aforementioned two-part closer, but we’ll pause at “Vapauden polku” for the time being since that’s the track I have pleasure today of hosting as a premiere ahead of the album’s arrival in a week’s time. The last couple years have made Seremonia something of a well-kept secret, and though there’s little doubt part of that is linguistic, I’ll say because I feel like it needs to be said that while I don’t speak Finnish — I wish I did, and not just so I’d be more likely to know what Seremonia were talking about — the atmosphere of Kristalliarkki, its warmth of tone and presence, its grooving push, its carefully executed flow, carry over despite any barrier language might present. There. It’s said.

I hope you take a listen to “Vapauden polku” on the player below, and I hope you enjoy:

Finnish heavy psych rockers Seremonia dive deeper than ever into the dark psychedelic abyss with their third album Kristalliarkki (The Crystal Ark). With lyrics (still all in their native tongue) revolving around the spiritual cult practices and teachings of a mysterious doomsday cult, the album 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 flawors in the 15-minute namepiece of the album. It’s a hard rocking hard rock record, but a wonderfully weird one. Even by Seremonia’s weirdo standards.

Noora Federley – vocals
Teemu Markkula – guitar
Ville Pirinen – guitar
Erno Taipale – drums, flute
Ilkka Vekka – bass

Seremonia on Thee Facebooks

Seremonia at Svart Records

Finnish psychedelic outliers Seremonia have set a May 8 release for their third LP, Kristalliarkki, through Svart Records. The weirdo-rock fivesome have been kicking around Northern Europe’s heavy underbelly since the release of their first record in 2012 (track stream here), out-proto-metalling just about everybody and reaping surprisingly little acclaim for doing so. Doubtless part of that is the lack of universal translator technology (fucking hell, we’re primitive; if I was the Vulcans, I wouldn’t make first contact either), but even so, Seremonia have killed it across two records already and have vibe to spare, so Kristalliarkki is worth looking forward to.

So, uh, get on it. Ha. Here’s what the PR wire has to say:

SEREMONIA set release date for new SVART album

Finnish heavy psych rockers Seremonia dive deeper than ever into the dark psychedelic abyss with their third album Kristalliarkki, set for international release on May 8th via 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. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Seremonia’s Kristalliarkki
1. Vihkimys
2. Alfa ja Omega
3. Tee mitä tahdot
4. Musta liekki
5. Lusiferin lapset
6. Vapauden polku
7. Kuolema voittaa
8. Jokainen askel
9. Kristalliarkki I
10. Kristalliarkki II

Seremonia is a five-piece band from Finland, playing heavy psychedelic rock and singing in their native language, Finnish. Their eponymous debut album was released by Svart Records in 2012 and received critical acclaim across the world. Since then, the band has played their creepy brand of psych rock in very different venues, be it small punk rock dives or bigger festivals like Finland’s Tuska, Denmark’s Heavy Days in Doomtown, Sweden’s Muskelrock, or Holland’s Roadburn. Both on acclaimed albums and ferocious live shows, Seremonia’s original take on the genre has earned them a good name amongst the global community of psych rock lovers.

Seremonia discography:
Rock’n’rollin maailma / Nämä kesäiset päivät 7″ (2012 Svart)
Seremonia LP/CD (2012 Svart)
Ovi / Vastaus rukouksiisi 7″ (2013 Svart)
Ihminen LP/CD (2013 Svart)
Hasiskultti / Hulluus 7” (2015 Svart)
Kristalliarkki LP/CD (2015 Svart)

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/seremonia666
http://svartrecords.com/

Seremonia, “Suuri Valkeus” official video