Another Finnish death metal band and another tank (now with traces of blood red color) on the cover. Yet unlike Front reviewed heretofore by me before (where some members of Sacrilegious Impalement decided to play war metal), Demo II by Panssarituho, a much younger band, is not that brutal. Despite the cover and the band pic with some muscular dudes wielding some war paraphernalia. Maybe it is the demo production quality and the Finns wanted to be more forceful. Sure enough Totalitääristä Sotaa hammers home a Bolt Thrower riff and I hear the word Kuolema (death in Finnish) a lot. Saasta also has something tight and militaristic in it with an interesting rhythmic accent. The chorus is blasting with a bass rumbling underneath. The parts in Saasta tend to repeat, but why not, if the riffs are quality good.

But then perhaps Panssarituho doesn’t intend to be only in war mode because they know how to wield their instruments and want to let a bit of guitar technique and melody to seep into their music. Totalitääristä Sotaa solo is cascading madness, but a more melodic piece closes Saasta, yet the most interesting and promising part is the instrumental opening of Karkuri which reminded me of Death’s Voice of the Soul. Sure enough grinding and devil-may-care attitude follows, but it isn’t over the top. Panssarituho vocals are also not scraping bottom of the barrel. Gruff and somewhat suffocated they are closer to what you hear from a thrash band than those people driving tanks.

A pretty good effort, and second in a row in 2020 for Panssarituho.