Band:	Kita
Album:	Tyhjiö
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. Kivi Puhuu
02. Tyhjiö
03. Torajyvä
04. Kärpässilmät
05. Ataraksia

I generally try to review the debut album of each band I write about for Clandestine Cuts, but it’s hard to keep track of all the bands I’ve covered for those articles; it’s a good sign when a group releases a debut album compelling enough for me to want to review without me even realizing they’re a Clandestine Cuts graduate.

Finland’s Kita appeared in the April 2021 edition of Clandestine Cuts with their first record, the EP Ocean Of Acid, and while there were some rough edges to these initial compositions, there was clear promise in the band’s ambitious fusion of psychedelic, alternative, progressive, doomy and extreme sounds. Two years later, they have made a significant step up with full-length outing Tyhjiö, which pretty much retains all the promising ideas of Ocean Of Acid while refining the songwriting and production, and adding in a few new ideas too.

Tyhjiö is one of those fascinating records that doesn’t necessarily feel avant-garde, in that a lot of its constituent components are prone to comparison with familiar bands, but the way that they’re assembled together is one that’s hard to compare to any one particular style. Alternative metal, particularly in the vein of Tool, and groove metal were notably present on Ocean Of Acid, and such accessibility is still detectable on this new release. As far as Tool resemblances go, the opening tom pattern, and subsequently the bass grooves and guitar textures that pop up in “Torajyvä”, clearly owe some of their existence to the prog titans (jump 2 minutes in and tell me otherwise), but there’s an added extremity to account for, and the ominous chanting in the closing couple of minutes takes the song in an unexpected direction.

Other more accessible bands that pop up on my radar while listening to Tyhjiö include Gojira, Klone and Faith No More, the latter two particularly so with the bass opening to “Ataraksia”. Yet this is overall not a simple or accessible album. For starters, there’s 3 songs close to or above the 10-minute mark, and each is multifaceted in its own way. Opener “Kivi Puhuu” enters Ufomammut territory with the psychedelic layerings above the gnarly, fuzzy doom, but goes a bit more vicious than the Italian trio typically dare to during its middle minutes. Later on, “Kärpässilmät”, when it’s not toiling with middle-of-the-road alt-metal fare, loiters somewhere between (pre-Immoto) Nero Di Marte and recent Oranssi Pazuzu's manic psychedelia; the second half of this song would have fit seamlessly into Mestarin Kynsi.

Tyhjiö doesn’t necessarily nail all of its many ideas; there are still occasionally moments that flatter to deceive. As much as the dark atmospheric origins of “Kärpässilmät” and the Pazuzuish second half are thoroughly compelling, the more straightforward groovy/alt passages feel a bit flat in comparison. Additionally, my attention wavers slightly in certain moments of “Kivi Puhuu” and “Torajyvä”. Finally, while the production has definitely improved since Ocean Of Acid, there are still moments, such as in heavier parts of “Tyhjiö”, where the mix does sound slightly messy, and the clean sung chorus of this song, although excellent in concept, doesn’t quite fully live up to the promise due to some of the singing sounding slightly off.

Still, there’s a lot to admire about the ambition and eagerness to avoid a single formula from Kita here, and when they’re on form, they sound really impressive. The other two long songs have major strengths to them, but “Ataraksia” is perhaps the standout song here, particularly with the use of cleaner vocals, from the sad modern Gojira parts to the gentle-yet-eerie Dreadnoughtish segments featuring guest singer Niina Kontinen. Tyhjiö isn’t quite consistent enough to elevate Kita to the level of more established esoteric Finns (Oranssi Pazuzu, Atomikylä, etc.), but it definitely has enough about it to suggest that the group are capable of reaching that level.