Combining elements of black metal, psychedelic rock, space rock, and progressive metal, Finland's Oranssi Pazuzu describe their aesthetic mission this way: "To conjure sounds from the dark corners of space and mind." Since releasing their 2007 debut Muukalainen Puhuu, they have never made the same record twice. Oranssi Pazuzu (the Finnish name for an orange bodily emanation of the infamous Babylonian demon), have never followed a "formula" per se; each album their music stands apart as exploratory rather than simply declarative, evolutionary rather than anchored in the mire of genre. With 2016's globally acclaimed Värähtelijä, they added elements of Krautrock, the electric voodoo funk of Miles Davis, stoner doom metal, thrash, and post-metal to their sonic palette. Despite a wealth of 21st century psych overtones, Oranssi Pazuzu's music is always blacker than most any other on the planet, thanks in no small part to the otherworldly -- some would say Satanic -- vocals of founder and guitarist Jun-His. The 2019 release Live at Roadburn 2017 documented what is now regarded as one of the most immersive and inspired outings in festival history. The group formed in 2007 in two Finnish cities some 187 kilometers apart --Tampere and Seinäjoki -- around the talents of Juho Vanhanen (aka Jun-His on vocals and guitar), Ontto (bass), Korjak (drums), Evill (synthesizers), and Moit (guitar). During their first few months, the band's members began writing music that fused various influences as a way to capture and re-create different states of mental cosmos. The band cut their debut album in 2008 in Korjak's family cabin. The resulting Muukalainen Puhuu was released via Violent Journey Records in 2009, followed in 2010 by a split LP (called Split) with the band Candy Cane. The group's sophomore full-length, 2011's Kosmonument, was a conceptual affair about a drifter lost in the void, and the record that put them on the map with fans across the Atlantic. 2013's wildly ambitious, Svart-issued Valonielu saw the band working with London-based producer and engineer Jaime Gomez Arellano. Värähtelijä, the group's fourth studio long-player, was issued in February of 2016 to universal acclaim from the media as well as fans. Its median score across all publications was over 90-percent. Moit left the band shortly before their tour; he was replaced by Domovoyd guitarist Niko Lehdontie (aka Ikon) later that year. In 2017, Spinefarm reissued the group's 2011 sophomore LP, Kosmonument, as well as two studio EPs (Farmakologinen and Kevät/Värimyrsky) while they were touring the globe. They took part in numerous metal festivals on both sides of the Atlantic that year, with the most famous of all being Roadburn. Their wildly acclaimed set was widely disseminated on the internet and raved about by critics from as far away as Australia and Asia. In 2019, Oranssi Pazuzu and doom proggers Dark Buddha Rising were commissioned by Roadburn to combine their talents and differences live on-stage. They accepted and participated as the Waste of Space Orchestra. That gig resulted in a pitch black prog rock opus called Syntheosis by Svart. It was released that April. In the press, the endless early comparisons of both bands to Mayhem and Darkthrone were absent, replaced -- with universally favorable notice -- by descriptions as the heavier modern cousins to legendary Euro prog outfits such Magma, Focus, and Eloy. In October, Roadburn issued Oranssi Pazuzu's storied 2017 performance at the festival as a limited-edition recording. The following April, Oranssi Pazuzu released the extreme experimental visceral prog metal set Mestarin Kynsi (The Master's Claw) on Nuclear Blast. ~ James Christopher Monger