From the well-established Finnish death doom tradition comes another new band capable of proposing the subgenre in a credible and compelling manner. In fact, with Crucial to none, Saasta offer a good debut, far from melodic temptations and much more focused on the impact and roughness typical of death doom. On the other hand, the very moniker chosen by the musicians from Kotka gives those of Finnish mother tongue a heavy clue as to what the band’s sound could be, as the meaning of ‘saasta’ is ‘dirty’. One should not think, however, that things are heading in an overly extreme direction or in the direction of old school death doom, as the eight tracks (plus intro) appear to be very balanced even though they are evidently more geared towards creating a menacing atmosphere thanks to a notable overall impact and the use of a growl that leaves no room for clean parts. If the centrepiece of the work can be considered the longest song, Outre, mainly due to its more varied and somewhat captivating progression compared to the rest of the context, it should be noted that the understandable uniformity of the offerings is appreciably contained thanks to rhythmic variations that, especially in the final part of the work, break away from the predominantly death matrix of the sound to embrace the doom one. Although not overawing, Saasta offer with Crucial to none a solid and convincing debut album, capable of providing listeners with the right vibrations from the first to the last minute.

2022 – Independent