Finnish band Hellhounds are so very new that I know absolutely nothing about them, but recently released tracks ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Velour’ have intrigued me enough to try to fill in as many gaps as possible.
First place to look obviously would be social media, but their presence is so thin that that hasn’t helped established many facts, with profiles only created in recent weeks. However we’re now honoured to be their 1st follower on Twitter - everyone has to start somewhere after all.
Anyway what I do know about them is that they comprise Lauri, Mikko, Anssi and Samppa and that they’re from Oulu in Finland, a city we’ve featured a fair few times in NMR. Curiously the notes for their new EP ‘Velour’ credits vocalists Heikki Tuomi & Maria Försti as additional performers, which maybe suggests that Hellhounds might be an instrumental band at heart, especially given opening track Velour doesn’t have vocals anyway.
It is however an impressive track, with a lovely mix of strings, searing guitars and a striking melody at the heart of the song. I haven’t seen them described as a post rock band, but it very much has that feel to it. The quality of production is high too, so credit must go to Pentti Amore at Wolfbeat Studios for recording it, Magnus Lindberg for the mastering and interestingly Julius Mauranen for the mixing, and his name has cropped up with a few Soliti releases – and anyone who’s listed in a credit on a Delay Trees album gets our admiration certainly.
Second track ‘Wild Horses’ seems to have a blend of influences, from dream pop through to folk and rock influences, again the strings add a fluid and soft texture to the opening, and although the track is a little once paced, it’s interesting melodically and particularly in the lyrics:
“The blueprint of men, in a simple sweet sentence, Not unholy but frail, do their best, yet they fail”. Wow, I like it.
Dare I suggest that ‘Wild Horses’ sounds like Of Monsters and Men, only with tunes? No I dare not. That would be very unfair on Hellhounds, obviously.