Review: “Kuura & Horros” 7″ by Kaamos Warriors

As they did with their debut album, 2018’s “Ikuisen Talven Sarastus” Finnish Dark Metallers Kaamos Warriors have released a new two track single just a month after their sophomore record “Shadows of Northern Chaos“. As with the album, it has been released via Inverse Records and sees Mikko Ojala on vocals & guitars (Dark The Suns) Jani Moilanen on guitars, acoustic guitars, solo guitars (R2JBros) alongside Jyri Moilanen on bass. Before we get into it, some translation from Finnish to English is required in places. So “Kaamos Warriors” roughly translates as “The Polar Night Warriors”…

…and “Kuura & Horros” translates as “Hoar Frost & Lethargy”, the frost being the slow creeping kind? That’s not this track. It’s a blistering blast beat laden blood and thunder piece of Black Metal! A riff in concentric circles and the guttural roar of a wounded beast in Mikko Ojala gets the blood spurting out over the cold snow before a choral melodic female backing vocal underneath the verse adds a touch of intrigue to the artillery shelling that is the unrelenting drum pattern. A single verse fades out with a folk inspired acoustic guitar rising from underneath it to close on a shoegazing moment. “Chaos & Mayhem II” is the sequel to the third track on the recently released album and adds in some new elements, including that same female sounding backing vocal buried in the mix. Still featuring a ripper of a Dark Metal riff that’s highly headbangable, it’s just over two minutes of a track that deserves another verse as Mikko Ojala talks of the fire before the flames as the World is about to burn. A slick addition, these could easily have been recorded in the sessions for “Shadows of Northern Chaos” and by the time lead flourish ends, you’re wondering why these weren’t included and where the band go from here because they’re both fantastic cuts [8/10]

Track listing

1. Kuura & Horros
2. Chaos & Mayhem II

“Kuura & Horros” by Kaamos Warriors is out now via Inverse Records