🎶 Karu
🌎 Tampere, Finland
📀 Perdition
® Rockshots Records
📅 21/11/2025

How about some good old Finnish symphonic/melodic death metal characterized by the classic atmosphere that most Finnish metal bands manage to create, but also incorporating some touches of Japanese tradition? It sounds strange, but it’s not so strange after all…

We are talking about KARU’s second full-length album, “Perdition,” which, just one year after their debut, “Hydra,” shows that they have evolved greatly, perhaps as a result of changes in the band’s lineup. Death vocals along with clean passages, symphonic parts that give a cinematic aesthetic to the final result and Japan’s mysticism (as in the excellent “Alone in the Forest”) compose a very special setting. The album consists of four long songs (8-12 minutes), a two-minute instrumental, “Path of the Unforgiven,” and two introductory-transitional tracks. In general, the structure of the album is very reminiscent of the logic behind WINTERSUN’s own albums.  In such a way that they resemble the cinematic narration of a story. The story of an epic journey through the Japanese wilderness and forests, which according to tradition have their own spirit.

The brutal vocals are very good, the clean vocals are ok, the guitars are excellent with some truly virtuoso guitar solos, such as in “Perdition”, mainly thanks to the amazing Toni Tieaho (ex- MORS PRINCIPIUM EST) and, in general, KARU are about to deliver an album that manages to transport the listener to the magical world of the Far East. 

★ 8/10
✍🏻 Kostas Boudoukos