Inverse 2017
Crank
Finnish band gear up for some serious fun and get away with it.
Almost seven years into their existence, this quartet wouldn’t seem to be in for much velocity, following up on the band’s 2013 debut EP with another mini-album whose seven tracks hint at a certain itch turned on its head. Yet while the cuts’ titles suggest a gloomy outlook, rock ‘n’ roll that beams out of the group’s two-guitars squeal is bringing a hell of a heavy party to the fore.
More so, the high-octane “Free To Believe” and deceptively reflective “No Reason” create a conceptual axis for the record to spin on, and though there’s existential anger in “Without You” driving the listener and singer Samu Peltonen to cathartic frenzy, “Struck Down” has enough of punk attitude to it, thanks to Hazel’s infectious groove, to snap everyone out of big ideas. Yet it’ll take the finale of “You Can’t Save Me” to ram the ensemble’s point home: they can be anthemic and at the same time serious when cranked up for a bright future.
Let the damage begin. then.
****1/2
